RE: Matilda By: Roald Dahl
A Book that I Really Love
From: Travis
June 26, 2020
#KidsBooks4Adults
I love this book so much. I had seen the movie growing up, but never read the book. I have now read it to both of my sons.
This is a great book for kids - It's clever and funny and immediately accessible to them, all while being sneakily profound and not so sneakily extolling the joys of reading, commiserating with the youth forced to obey arbitrary authority figures, and suggesting that struggling to find your place as a universal effort.
The best part for me; this is a great book to read aloud. The narrative is voluminous and full of meaty, wordy paragraphs that somehow manage to flow and feel lightweight when spoken. Above all, the diatribes that the hated and hateful Trunchbull launches into are just plain fun to deliver. The creative depths she goes to in order insult her students are fantastic and tempt the reader to take on her constantly escalating levels of exasperation and vitriol as if they were reading from center stage.
A personal note: while it's not really fair to compare the book and the movie, what I prefer about the story in the book versus the movie is how Mr Dahl handles Matilda's powers. In the movie, the young prodigy is flying household objects around like Jean Grey after a triple latte. In the book, these events are targeted, specific, and appropriately described as "miracles". Furthermore, in the movie, Matilda's powers seem to derive from her anger and frustration with her oppressors, while in the book - well it isn't explained, more like theorized - it is due to the under-utilized brain power of a genius having to apply itself to something in a world that had not yet fully challenged her.
I would recommend this book to anyone with children, anyone who loves books, or really to anyone.