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A review by spenkevich
Matilda by Roald Dahl
4.0
‘There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.’
-[a:Marcel Proust|233619|Marcel Proust|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1649882562p2/233619.jpg]
I loved this book so much as a child that I quite literally named a child after it. Matilda by Roald Dahl is a beloved children’s classic for a reason and one that still warms the hearts of kids and adults today. Who doesn’t love a book that celebrates the empowerment of reading, that tells a story of overcoming tyrants and surviving abuse while retaining a love for the world? Wrap that all up in a story of a girl with magical powers and a will to freedom and love aided by librarians and a caring teacher and you’ve got yourself a winning story. While I noticed some problematic aspects returning to this again as an adult, I was reminded how much this story meant to me as a kid and how much it grew inside me through my whole life.
‘The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives.’
For the uninitiated, Matilda is the story of a young girl who ‘longed for a friend, someone like the kind, courageous people in her books.’ Her parents neglect her and are involved in shady dealings, her principal is a nightmare who hates children and loves punishment, but she has discovered her magic powers and will right the wrongs in order to thrive. There is a fantastic film adaptation I used to watch constantly as a kid and this, coupled with movies like The Pagemaster, was an early start to my love of libraries and books. We see how books can comfort the lonely, can inspire and empower, and there’s nothing I love more than the idea that money is not an obstacle to reading when you have a library card. Flash forward to today, I work in a library and in a bookstore and, likely thanks to Matilda, have devoted a large part of my life to getting good books to the people who need them.
The idea that books remind you ‘you are not alone’ is something that has always struck me hardest. I used to leave favorite poems all over trees for that very reason, to say ‘I was here’ but also ‘you are not alone’ and picked passages that might comfort or inspire. Palestinian poet [a:Mahmoud Darwish|75055|Mahmoud Darwish|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1414535868p2/75055.jpg] once wrote ‘A poem in a difficult time / is beautiful flowers in a cemetery,’ and I believe this applies to books too. A good book can help in times of need, can comfort, uplift, can be a friend when you need one. And in good times too, a book can elevate your day and be a companion in your mind, something you can’t wait to return and read more. ‘There is no frigate like a book / to take us lands away,’ wrote [a:Emily Dickinson|7440|Emily Dickinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1626025785p2/7440.jpg], and [a:Franz Kafka|5223|Franz Kafka|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1615573688p2/5223.jpg] reminds us that a ‘book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us,’ so I have always believed in the power of books. Reading helps build empathy and opens us to new ideas, so read widely and often and definitely read to children if you have any available.
Dahl is a complicated figure, however, and there were some aspects that raised my eyebrow while reading. You can always find discourse on Dahl all over the internet, such as the extremely frustrating fact of his vocal antisemitism, or his use of racist tropes, and claims of fatphobia and misogyny abound. A big debate is often about the way he writes about women, as [b:The Witches|6327|The Witches|Roald Dahl|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1351707720l/6327._SY75_.jpg|105046] is hotly argued, though many consider Matilda to be a feminist work. Sure, we have Ms Honey, a single woman who is able to rise about on her own, and Matilda, a young, determined girl who can overthrow tyrants. But the depiction of Agatha Trunchbull are a bit unpleasant as it seems an anti-lesbian structuring. Called simply by her last name, Trunchbull is vaguely based on Soviet Olympian Faina Melnik and is described as big and bulky and, well, rather masculine. It would seem, as a contrast to Ms Honey, that Dahl finds women acceptable only if they perform femininity in the “right” way. Trunchbull is pretty blatantly queer and he depicts her in a way that is very similar to accusations thrown against queer women at the time, such as wanting to destroy the nuclear family (after the children spell ‘difficulty’: ‘Mrs D, Mrs I, Mrs FFI, Mrs C, Mrs U, Mrs LTY,’ Trunchbull is outraged and snaps ‘why are all these women married?’) and for not being sexually desirable the way society thinks they should be. It all seemed a bit off, and a quick internet search showed I wasn’t alone in thinking this, so, as a queer person myself, that's a bit of a bummer. The book does focus on breaking the cycle of child abuse and a lot of it is very good, but this was rather awkward as an adult. Also the reading list in the book is very much white, male cannon. So take that as you will, I still find the book worth reading and enjoyable, and I have to give a hand to Pam Ferris for a knockout performance as Agatha Trunchbull in the film. Separating art from an artist is something that people will do at their own comfort level and we should give space for everyone for that.
This book looks at the mentality of ‘I'm right and you're wrong, I'm big and you're small, and there's nothing you can do about it,’ and tells it to sit down and shut up. This is an underdog story (well, an underdog with magic) and one that celebrates reading. I loved Matilda as a child and now look at me, I’m writing about books constantly of this website hoping people might see them and be inspired, and spending my working hours getting books into people’s hands. Books, they are the coolest.
3.5/5
-[a:Marcel Proust|233619|Marcel Proust|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1649882562p2/233619.jpg]
I loved this book so much as a child that I quite literally named a child after it. Matilda by Roald Dahl is a beloved children’s classic for a reason and one that still warms the hearts of kids and adults today. Who doesn’t love a book that celebrates the empowerment of reading, that tells a story of overcoming tyrants and surviving abuse while retaining a love for the world? Wrap that all up in a story of a girl with magical powers and a will to freedom and love aided by librarians and a caring teacher and you’ve got yourself a winning story. While I noticed some problematic aspects returning to this again as an adult, I was reminded how much this story meant to me as a kid and how much it grew inside me through my whole life.
‘The books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives.’
For the uninitiated, Matilda is the story of a young girl who ‘longed for a friend, someone like the kind, courageous people in her books.’ Her parents neglect her and are involved in shady dealings, her principal is a nightmare who hates children and loves punishment, but she has discovered her magic powers and will right the wrongs in order to thrive. There is a fantastic film adaptation I used to watch constantly as a kid and this, coupled with movies like The Pagemaster, was an early start to my love of libraries and books. We see how books can comfort the lonely, can inspire and empower, and there’s nothing I love more than the idea that money is not an obstacle to reading when you have a library card. Flash forward to today, I work in a library and in a bookstore and, likely thanks to Matilda, have devoted a large part of my life to getting good books to the people who need them.
‘So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.’
The idea that books remind you ‘you are not alone’ is something that has always struck me hardest. I used to leave favorite poems all over trees for that very reason, to say ‘I was here’ but also ‘you are not alone’ and picked passages that might comfort or inspire. Palestinian poet [a:Mahmoud Darwish|75055|Mahmoud Darwish|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1414535868p2/75055.jpg] once wrote ‘A poem in a difficult time / is beautiful flowers in a cemetery,’ and I believe this applies to books too. A good book can help in times of need, can comfort, uplift, can be a friend when you need one. And in good times too, a book can elevate your day and be a companion in your mind, something you can’t wait to return and read more. ‘There is no frigate like a book / to take us lands away,’ wrote [a:Emily Dickinson|7440|Emily Dickinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1626025785p2/7440.jpg], and [a:Franz Kafka|5223|Franz Kafka|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1615573688p2/5223.jpg] reminds us that a ‘book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us,’ so I have always believed in the power of books. Reading helps build empathy and opens us to new ideas, so read widely and often and definitely read to children if you have any available.
Dahl is a complicated figure, however, and there were some aspects that raised my eyebrow while reading. You can always find discourse on Dahl all over the internet, such as the extremely frustrating fact of his vocal antisemitism, or his use of racist tropes, and claims of fatphobia and misogyny abound. A big debate is often about the way he writes about women, as [b:The Witches|6327|The Witches|Roald Dahl|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1351707720l/6327._SY75_.jpg|105046] is hotly argued, though many consider Matilda to be a feminist work. Sure, we have Ms Honey, a single woman who is able to rise about on her own, and Matilda, a young, determined girl who can overthrow tyrants. But the depiction of Agatha Trunchbull are a bit unpleasant as it seems an anti-lesbian structuring. Called simply by her last name, Trunchbull is vaguely based on Soviet Olympian Faina Melnik and is described as big and bulky and, well, rather masculine. It would seem, as a contrast to Ms Honey, that Dahl finds women acceptable only if they perform femininity in the “right” way. Trunchbull is pretty blatantly queer and he depicts her in a way that is very similar to accusations thrown against queer women at the time, such as wanting to destroy the nuclear family (after the children spell ‘difficulty’: ‘Mrs D, Mrs I, Mrs FFI, Mrs C, Mrs U, Mrs LTY,’ Trunchbull is outraged and snaps ‘why are all these women married?’) and for not being sexually desirable the way society thinks they should be. It all seemed a bit off, and a quick internet search showed I wasn’t alone in thinking this, so, as a queer person myself, that's a bit of a bummer. The book does focus on breaking the cycle of child abuse and a lot of it is very good, but this was rather awkward as an adult. Also the reading list in the book is very much white, male cannon. So take that as you will, I still find the book worth reading and enjoyable, and I have to give a hand to Pam Ferris for a knockout performance as Agatha Trunchbull in the film. Separating art from an artist is something that people will do at their own comfort level and we should give space for everyone for that.
This book looks at the mentality of ‘I'm right and you're wrong, I'm big and you're small, and there's nothing you can do about it,’ and tells it to sit down and shut up. This is an underdog story (well, an underdog with magic) and one that celebrates reading. I loved Matilda as a child and now look at me, I’m writing about books constantly of this website hoping people might see them and be inspired, and spending my working hours getting books into people’s hands. Books, they are the coolest.
3.5/5