You’d expect that an author’s life is separate from the adventures of their fiction, but that’s not the case with Roald Dahl. In the first of his two autobiographies, Boy, Dahl traces out the adventures of his childhood.

Even though his family was well off, there was a lot of tragedy from the start. When Dahl was three years old, his sister died from an appendix infection and his father died of pneumonia. Dahl’s mother was left alone to care for the children. The family moves to England to get an English education for the children (what Dahl’s father wanted). From there, the adventure really gets going.

*spoilers*

Dahl endlessly details his fascination of candy and chocolate. Eventually, Dahl’s obsession becomes intriguing. As a young child with a deep fascination in candy, Dahl writes crazy (and completely false) stories about how certain candies are made. I even started to become jealous when I found out that a local chocolate company would send free sample boxes to the school children for evaluation. My curiosity piqued when Dahl pranked a cranky candy shop owner with a dead rat, but that plan quickly backfires when the truth reveals that he’s behind the mischief.

Even though this book is an autobiography, it reads like a work of exciting fiction. The especially intriguing point emerges when you see the inspiration for one of his novels. Real life figures actually turn out to be the origin for good and sometimes evil characters. Dahl even points out his inspirations once in a while. You almost feel Roald Dahl telling you another one of his stories- completely true yet somehow as bizarre as his fiction.

If you’re someone who doesn’t feel like autobiographies are your thing, I say give Boy a chance. It breaks the subconscious stereotype that autobiographies are all boring nonfiction. I was able to finish the book within a week. With only 176 pages, Boy fits in so much of Dahl’s interesting journey.