Margaret H. (ExPeruanista) - , reviewed on 4/5/2013 + 68 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

A lumpishly written book on a potentially fascinating bit of history. The author (or her copyeditor, if any) apparently can't distinguish between 'flaunting authority' and 'flouting authority'; refers to "All Quiet on the Western Front" as a piece of reportage, although it's a novel; and uses 'Battle of Britain' as if it referred to any British aviator at any time during World War II, instead of having a specific meaning. All this in the first 50 pages. My favorite is when the author says Roald Dahl's mother and four sisters in England, who haven't been mentioned for the previous 110 pages, 'had him on a very short leash.' This is at the end of a chapter where a lot of his Washington, D.C. amours are described, and someone who knew him at the time says, 'I think he slept with everybody on the East and West Coasts that had more than fifty thousand dollars a year.' Some leash. If you thought Roald Dahl might have been a nice guy, this is not the book for you. He comes across as an immature, womanizing, unscrupulous jerk - but the author seems to think that's okay because it was for the war effort.

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