Day 2--Book 2/501Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Welcome to the second day of the Thin Skin of Culture! I got up early to publish this and I feel a bit foolish right now because I'm the only person at work--apparently people like their holidays.
Okay just to summarize the goal is to plow through my newly acquired arbitrary reading list--501 Must Read Books-- in 501 days. Buckle up Poindexter this is going to be a wild ride (by popular demand here is a link to an online list of the 501 book titles).
Today's novel (Children's Fiction): Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
As a preface I should mention that this is one of the first novels I read as a child and my son has already sat through four readings by me. If you don't want to read the whole book at least read the chapter on Prince Pondicherry and his chocolate palace.
Charlie Bucket is poor. His dad has been laid off from the toothpaste factory where he screwed on toothpaste caps, single servings of cabbage soup are de rigueur, and the only bed in the Bucket household is chock full of nattering grandparents. Everyone in the family is hungry and to add insult to injury poor starving Charlie lives smack dab beside the biggest and best candy plant in the world--Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Did I mention that Charlie adores chocolate?
The Bucket's reclusive neighbor Willy Wonka is an eccentric confectioner genius who announces a lottery for five lucky children to tour his fantastic factory. After four precocious children win tickets Charlie still holds the impossible hope of being the fifth. I don't think it would be a spoiler to say that Charlie does indeed get to tour Wonka's factory. However, Mr. Wonka has a macabre sense of humour and despite the wonders of his factory it is downright dangerous--after four rooms there are four children missing!
Like Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians people start dropping fast until there is a single survivor and also like the Christie novel the tale is incorrigibly politically incorrect. Published originally in 1961 Dahl's Oompa-Loompas were originally African Pygmies working for cacao beans--in 1973 after enormous pressure from the NAACP and numerous writer peers Dahl changed the origin of Wonka's indentured workers to Oompa-Loompa Land.
The book spawned two film treatments. The first adaptation was Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) starring Gene Wilder. It was a box-office flop but a cool (and creepy) version with a slightly less saintly Charlie (I like the re-edit on the trailer).
The second version was Tim Burton's 2005 eponymously named blockbuster with Johnny Depp playing Wonka a la Michael Jackson. If you haven't seen both films you have some homework once you are done the book.
Grade: A
Other Dahl reading: I recommend Danny Champion of the World a wonderful story of a single father and his son and their penchant for poaching. James and the Giant Peach is another lovable oddity of Children's Fiction that deserves a look. Also, BFG, Matilda, and The Witches are all solid fare. The sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and although it is wild and fun it is not a deserving sequel and worse yet has the unforgivable error of citing Charlie's grandmother's age as 81 when she was declared to be over 90 in the original (okay that's a bit picky). Check out Wes Anderson's sublime film adaption of Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Tomorrow's book (Modern Fiction): Louis Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin (3/501)
Grade: A
Other Dahl reading: I recommend Danny Champion of the World a wonderful story of a single father and his son and their penchant for poaching. James and the Giant Peach is another lovable oddity of Children's Fiction that deserves a look. Also, BFG, Matilda, and The Witches are all solid fare. The sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and although it is wild and fun it is not a deserving sequel and worse yet has the unforgivable error of citing Charlie's grandmother's age as 81 when she was declared to be over 90 in the original (okay that's a bit picky). Check out Wes Anderson's sublime film adaption of Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Tomorrow's book (Modern Fiction): Louis Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin (3/501)
