My Uncle Oswald

Your favorite childhood author is a dirty man.

On a recommendation from Kurosh, the Erotica Book Club read Roald Dahl's My Uncle Oswald. I wasn't aware that Dahl, best known for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda, also wrote novels for adults, let alone adult novels, but Oswald is an enjoyably bawdy tale. I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that an author with that kind of fantastical imagination could harness his powers for filth.

It's the first book the group has read that is funny because it's supposed to be funny. Dahl's prose is easy, fun, and dripping with wit. Some in the club complained that the book isn't erotica, which is true, because it makes sex the object of satire more than something hot. Nonetheless, everyone agreed that they really liked it.

At first we thought the book would be a tale about the cad Oswald and his conquests, described amusingly like so:

"There is nothing particularly illuminating to report about the barney that followed, except perhaps to mention that her Ladyship astounded me with her sofa-work. Up until then, I had always regarded the sofa as a rotten romping-ground, though heaven knows I had been forced to use it often enough with the London debutantes while the parents were snoring away upstairs. The sofa to me was a beastly uncomfortable thing surrounded on three sides by padded walls and with a horizontal area that was so narrow one was continually rolling off it onto the floor. But Lady Makepiece was a sofa-wizard. For her, the sofa was a kind of gymnastic horse upon which one vaulted and bounced and flipped and rolled and achieved the most remarkable contortions." (36)

Except that partway through, the book really becomes a story about his economic pursuits. Oswald lives by the motto "It is better to incur a mild rebuke than to perform an onerous task" (158), but finds success anyway, mainly because he lives by two important money-making principles: 1) find work that amuses you and 2) make sure your customers are enjoying what they pay for. I can get behind that.

Fortunately for fans of smut, although Oswald's wild days subside, he hires a young, beautiful, headstrong woman named Yasmine who he essentially pimps out. Without spoiling the plot, the business is way more brilliant than your average prostitution ring. The book also serves as a piece of historical fiction, so if you've ever wondered what Pablo Picasso, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, or dozens of other famous visionaries were like as lovers - here is a (fictionalized) account.

There was a lot to discuss at the meeting, including what constitutes rape. (In an odd twist, I'd argue that the rapists are actually the victims, though you'll have to read the book to understand why.) Also: would a gay man penetrating a woman masquerading as a man not realize he was inside a vagina rather than an asshole? (One club member responded to this query: "Honestly, I probably wouldn't even care.")

If you liked Dahl as a kid, give him a try as an adult, too. You'll be surprised how similar his style remains despite the shift in audience, and what a dirty mind this guy has.