Switch Bitch [Paperback]

Roald Dahl (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 3, 1989

This title covers storties including: "The Visor", "The Great Switcheroo", "The Last Act", and "Bitch".

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The four outrageous stories in Switch Bitch certainly do . . . In each case Roald Dahl sets up a realistic situation, then loads it with amazing and fantastic sexual possibilities. Then, somewhere this or the other side of pornography, he produces a denouement of the banana-skin kind--black banana-skin at that."

(New Statesman )

"One of the most widely read and influential writers of our generation"

"The absolute master of the twist in the tale"

"Dahl is too good a storyteller to become predictable"

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

From the publication of James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the 1960s to his death in 1990, Roald Dahl became the most successful children's author in the world. Nearly twenty years later, a fresh generation of children seek out his work with instinctive fanaticism. His creations endure - through Hollywood movies, theatre adaptations and musical works, but still most potently of all through the pure magic of his writing upon the page.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (October 3, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140041796
• ISBN-13: 978-0140041798
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.3 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #616,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Roald Dahl (1916-1990) was born in Llandaff, South Wales, and went to Repton School in England. His parents were Norwegian, so holidays were spent in Norway. As he explains in Boy, he turned down the idea of university in favor of a job that would take him to"a wonderful faraway place. In 1933 he joined the Shell Company, which sent him to Mombasa in East Africa. When World War II began in 1939 he became a fighter pilot and in 1942 was made assistant air attaché in Washington, where he started to write short stories. His first major success as a writer for children was in 1964. Thereafter his children's books brought him increasing popularity, and when he died children mourned the world over, particularly in Britain where he had lived for many years.The BFG is dedicated to the memory of Roald Dahls eldest daughter, Olivia, who died from measles when she was seven - the same age at which his sister had died (fron appendicitis) over forty years before. Quentin Blake, the first Children's Laureate of the United Kingdom, has illustrated most of Roald Dahl's children's books.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Brisk and bold January 15, 2000

By "jzk"

Format:Paperback

An easy read, well-plotted, and often surprising, these four stories should please most readers with a taste for the ironic. The philandering, eccentric character of "Uncle Oswald" is a hedonistic delight, and the two stories involving him are certainly the better half of this small collection. It takes a masterful writer to make such an amoral protagonist work, in any context. The other two tales, involving a wife-swapping and a widow ready to try intimacy again, are less gripping, and a bit anticlimactic with their payoffs.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great short stories from a master February 8, 1998

By The Chalcenteric Kid

Format:Paperback

Roald Dahl could easily be the best ever writer of 'twist in the tale' short stories. A few years ago in the UK ( and I'm sure on PBS in the USA ) there was a television show called "Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected" in which some of his stories were dramatized. It was not too successful and I suspect that the reason was that Mr.Dahl's stories are stories to be read. That is, read on a dark night, with a strong drink close at hand, by the light of a single reading lamp.... Then you get the full effect. Yes, these stories are chilling and bizarre and simply wonderful. Though it is not in this book, everyone should read Mr.Dahl's story entitled 'Pig'. In this reviewer's opinion that was the best story that he ever wrote. The word 'shocking' does not even come close.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful collection of my favorite Dahl stories May 22, 2006

By Peter D. Tillman VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

..

This is easily Dahl's most sfnal work, and is mostly erotic humor, a micro-genre that is in woefully short supply.

Here's a sample from "Bitch", my favorite. The protag has been dosed with the world's most potent aphrodosiac:

[quote] ...the two of us were millions of miles up in outer space, flying through the universe in a shower of meteorites all red and gold. I was riding her bareback... "Faster!" I shouted, jabbing long spurs into her flanks. "Go faster!" Faster and still faster she flew, spurting and spinning around the rim of the sky, her mane streaming with sun, and snow waving out of her tail. The sense of power I had was overwhelming. I was unassailable, supreme. I was the Lord of the Universe, scattering the planets and catching the stars in the palm of my hand...

Oh, ecstasy and ravishment! Oh, Jericho and Tyre and Sidon! The walls came tumbling down and the firmament disintegrated, and out of the smoke and fire of the of the explosion, the sitting-room in the Waldorf Towers came swimming slowly back into my consciousness like a rainy day..."

What a pity that Roald Dahl didn't write more adult fiction. Anyway, if you haven't read Switch Bitch, some wonderfully sly, bawdy and remarkably well-written entertainment awaits you. Bon appetit!

Happy reading--

Peter D. Tillman