Dr Crippen Was Never Like This! (George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl
Date:	30/12/05 (2827 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wonderfully written, super illustrations, just a fabulous story.

Disadvantages: Surely none?

*Introduction*

When you get to my age there aren’t too many things left to excite you. Maybe that’s a cynical aberration based on a gentle descent into middle-age but if there are moments that can transport one back to earlier, halcyon days of childhood and lift the veil of advancing age then I tend to grab it by the horns and love it for all its worth. Roald Dahl is an author that manages just that. Born in 1916 to Norwegian parents, Dahl was to become one of the most iconic writers of children’s stories of our time. Dahl died in 1990 after a long list of literary achievements. Renowned for books such as “James and the Giant Peach”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator” to name but a few, whenever I come across stories of his that I haven’t read then I tend to get all giddy and just a bit childish (even if it is only for a short time).

*The story*

“I’m going shopping in the village,” George’s mother said to George on a Saturday morning. “So be a good boy and don’t get up to any mischief” And so young George was left with Grandma to take care of her and remember to bring her medicine. The trouble is that Grandma is a wicked old lady who treats George abysmally. George hates Grandma. “Grandma is a grizzly, grumpy old woman with pale brown teeth and a small puckered up mouth like a dog's bottom”

After all, she does like to scare him. She even pretends to be a witch and have the ability to make him wake in the middle of the night sporting a new tail. Running into the kitchen and slamming the door behind him, George sits down at the table in the middle of the kitchen and decides to get his revenge on his evil Grandma. He’ll give her some medicine alright; some very special medicine made from “Golden Gloss Hair Shampoo”, toothpaste, “Superfoam Shaving Soap”, “Vitamin Enriched Face Cream” and many other household ingredients and animal pills all mixed together with brown paint. When Grandma gulps her potion, extraordinary things happen leading to a chain of events that makes George’s family believe that they may even become millionaires at last! You’ll just have to read the rest of the book to find out what does happen and whether the family do find untold riches.

*My thoughts*

Reading Dahl's work is always a pleasure. Subversive, dark, mischievous and oh so politically incorrect, the author paints a delicious picture of naughty children getting their own back on even naughtier adults. It’s that air of realism that we can all relate to that makes a Dahl story transcend most other childrens' authors. I can almost see him concocting the plot, hunched over his writing desk in that famous shed of his when he was still alive. Dahl’s words seem to dance on the page and as one ridiculous sequence leads to an even more bizarrely entertaining sequence, Dahl will thrown in a poem to throw the reader ever so gently off balance. An example is from the following extract as George considers his forthcoming concoction:

“So give me a bug and a jumping flea,
Give me two snails and lizards three,
And a slimy squiggler from the sea,
And the poisonous sting of a bumblebee,
And the juice from the fruit of the ju-jube tree,
And the powdered bone of a wombat’s knee,
And one hundred other things as well,
Each with a rather nasty smell,
I’ll stir them up, I’ll boil them long,
A mixture tough, a mixture strong,
And then heigh-ho, and down it goes,
A nice big spoonful (hold your nose),
Just gulp it down and have no fear.
“How do you like it, Granny dear?”

Madness is often made funny by those observing the madness unfold in front of them. In our case, Mr and Mrs Kranky provide an apt foil for George during the scene that greets them after Grandma has felt the effects of George's medicine. Their reactions contrast as one relates to Grandma as her mother whilst Mr Kranky sees her as his erstwhile mother-in-law. Both see things very differently with most men understanding how Mr Kranky feels whilst most women will sympathise with George’s mother. Dahl carries this rye observational humour through much of his work and the high degree of empathy that he engenders renders his work so appealing to readers of all ages.

Dahl uses very simple language. Rarely does he resort to using words that make the reader reach for a dictionary, which makes his books perfect for children. That's not to say there isn't a certain individualism to the way the author forms his sentences with a lilting, tumbling colloquialism all of his own. As ever, this book is illustrated throughout by the wonderful Quentin Blake; his images making the story come alive in the mind’s eye.

*Summary*

I’d say that this only took an hour to read. if that. It’s probably best read with your child at the same time if your bairn will entertain the idea. Personally, I’ve always loved reading out loud to my kids although my teenage daughter is way beyond that now and my 10-year-old boy has moved on to more advanced books these days *sigh*

I still get excited by anything written by Dahl that I haven’t read or seen yet. I do, I really do. I was enchanted by the recent movie re-make of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and I’m sure there are literary works that I’ve yet to discover by, possibly, the best ever children’s author. I can’t do anything else that thoroughly recommend this and any of Dahl’s other books. The man was a genius and lives on in his stories. However, in the case of this book do heed the warning at the start: “Do not try to make George’s Marvellous Medicine yourselves at home. It could be dangerous”

Thanks for reading

Marandina

Notes
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Pages - 112
ISBN 0141805951
Published by Puffin books
Available for £3.74 from Amazon for the paperback although you can get it from 1p at either Amazon Marketplace or Ebay for used copies.

Summary: Write up of a famous Dahl children's story