Author: Roald Dahl
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Rating: WARTY!
Expertly read by Kate Winslet.
I listened to the audio book version of this and was very impressed by Kate Winslet's rendering of it. She nailed the voices completely. The problem was that the story was rubbish. I know a lot of people consider this a classic, but let's face facts here: if this had been written by an unknown author, it would never have been published unless the author published it themselves.
Even for a fantasy story it was unrealistic, with every major character other than Matilda herself nothing more than a cardboard caricature. I think was sad that situations which actually can occur in real life were turned into a joke here, such as Matilda's having abusive or neglectful parents, and a head teacher who was nothing short of psychotic.
Matilda is an unappreciated prodigy - almost an adult in a five-year-old body. She's completely self-motivated, she reads and evidently comprehends at adult level, and she's a math wizard. She also, evidently, is wizardly in the magical sense, too, although it takes a while for this aspect of her personality to manifest.
Matilda takes petty revenge upon her father for his disrespectful and domineering attitude by putting super-glue inside his hat and mixing some of her mother's peroxide hair bleach into her father's hair "tonic" rendering his magnificent black mane a wicked shade of gray. She herself is abusive as demonstrated when she stuffs a parrot (in its cage) up the household chimney so that it's voice imitations scare her parents. It stays there overnight. I would have liked her a lot better were she not such a unrepentant brat.
The characters have completely farcical names. Matilda's family name is Wormwood. The awful head teacher is Agatha Trunchbull, whereas the nice teacher is Jennifer Honey. Seriously? Judged by the testimony given by a student named Hortensia, Trunchbull is almost justified in her attitude towards children. The ending is completely predictable. I cannot recommend this novel, but Kate Winslet's performance (and this was actually a performance, not merely a reading pretentiously described as a performance) was truly a joy to hear.
