Criticisms

Leigh Kimmel criticized the ending to Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter," saying that it was a surprisingly genius ending, especially because one can side with the woman because she has an unborn child that would have been abandoned by his or her father, she is being abandoned in a vulnerable stage of pregnancy, and he was unfaithful to her.  But one is surprised because it is a murder mystery and normally, the murderer is revealed to the characters and the case is close, but in "Lamb to the Slaughter," she gets away with it.


Linda Pavonetti criticized Dahl's James and the Giant Peach stating that he is able to entertain both adults and children alike with his witty sense of humor.  She thought that James and the Giant Peach was a classic child's story in the sense that a lonely, sad child was rewarded with love and happiness at the end of the story.  She also noted that he had many elements from other fairy tales and Hollywood woven into the story to appeal to the children listening to the story and the adults reading to their children.  And instead of vulgarity and witchcraft, he included revenge on his evil aunts.  Pavonetti noted that this is the perfect read-aloud-book because the chapters are short and always end on a question, causing readers to read on.


Katharine Herzog criticized Dahl's The Magic Finger, about a hunting trip gone wrong.  She believed it raises some moral and legal questions about hunting, age regulations, and guns.  Herzog believed there to be much dark humor and animal wickedness written into this tale.  She did not seem to enjoy reading The Magic Finger.

According to Donald Sturrock in the November / December 2010 The Horn Book Magazine, Dahl draws a fine line where reality and fiction are concerned.  He knows how to evoke any emotion from his readers, and he does it in a superb fashion.  Yet, Sturrock also managed to find autobiographical similarities between Dahl and his characters Willy Wonka, Charlie Bucket, and his stories, such as Fantastic Mr. Fox.  I can understand where some of these findings may have some truth to them, but most of it may be due to willful imagination.

In the February 2007 issue of The New Criterion, David Propson states that most all of Dahl's works (adult stories, that is) have something to do with gambling lives or body parts for some sort of twisted game he had invented.  He also noted that Roald created characters that were highly clever, only to use his power as the storyteller to "dole out their deserving fates."Although Propson gives high praise to Dahl he notes that it is just as ease for Dahl to write a great story as it was to write a flop.  Propson also notes that after 1960, Dahl's career as an adult short story author ended abruptly and sloppily.  He had lost the capability of creating a good plot, and after writing James and the Giant Peach, reluctantly fell into the career of children's stories.