Switch Bitch (Paperback)

by Roald Dahl (Author) "Not long ago, a large wooden case was deposited at the door of my house by the railway delivery service..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Sinai Desert, B'ir Rawd Salim (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
These four stories are, by turns, funny, bawdy, touching, and outrageous. They are for lovers of tales that combine the macabre and the erotic with intriguing twists of plot.

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.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (October 3, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140041796
• ISBN-13: 978-0140041798
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #168,161 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	"jzk" (Lindenhurst, NY) - See all my reviews

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.

9 of 10 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 (Boca Raton) - See all my reviews

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.

7 of 8 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 (Taos, NM USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

..
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