A review by patrickwadden
Going Solo by Roald Dahl

4.0

It's inconceivable and impossible for me to convey how much this book meant to 13-14 year old me. After reading Boy and faking head over heels in love with it (prob my first every autobiography as well) I didn't think I would ever have to read another book again. I'm done, I've found my favourite, so why keep reading others? One of my favourite childhood authors that opened my mind to so much wonder and intrigue had written down his childhood that captured the youthful nostalgic melancholy if childhood and heightened to a point that I envied him immensely. Not only the amazing adventures and opportunities, the lows of it too, getting in trouble for goat's tobacco, getting whacked by a ruley headmaster, for God's sake; being a taster for Cadbury. Stories! What wonderful stories! That's what makes a person. Memories.

So when I learned about Going Solo and eagerly started reading it, I was introduced to young adulthood and all the wonders and adventures that arised, the stories! They didn't have to be confined to childhood, and in that moment like 14 year old me learned that even if I didn't crash a plan in the African desert and fight Germans in the skies, I too would forge my own memories and stories and maybe just one day I'd be able to sit down and recall them all in a book such as this. I had a whole life stretched before me that I could fill and shape any which way I want. And for that, Roald Dahl, I'm entirely in-debted. Forever and always