I love the titles that Slightly Foxed publish and these are no exceptions. Ghosting is a behind-the-scenes look at ghostwriting and working in a publishing house with a showy, eccentric, selfish man ‘Tiger’. It was the description of Tiger in an essay in the SF quarterly that drew me to this memoir. I was intrigued by the man and the ghost writer who worked on many of his projects. The other book, Boy, is well known to us. Roald Dahl’s childhood makes us miss the characters he created. Also, the pocket sized Dahl with that gorgeous binding makes a beautiful gift for a book lover.
GHOSTING: A DOUBLE LIFE BY JENNIE ERDAL
It all begins in 1981, when Erdal travels from Scotland to Mayfair and gets a job to manage the Russian lists in Tiger’s publishing house. I was enthralled by Tiger, who in Erdhal’s words “could be a rare tropical bird…the jungle bird in human form—flamboyant, exaggerated, ornate”. He often wears two gold watches, “a spangle of silks and cashmeres”, a collection of jewels for rings, collapsible spectacles framed with Inca Gold, and loves the semi colon. Tiger was a “cultural tycoon” according to the Times. He owned a conglomerate of companies connected with publishing, fashion, films and theatre, had a soft spot for women, took pleasure in conjuring jealousies among ‘his girls’ at the office and had a thing for the bling—luxury, sparkly, and flashy.
Soon Erdal is ghostwriting everything for Tiger—letters, newspaper columns, novels, and book reviews (but we can’t say anything bad, according to Tiger). He wanted everything to be ‘poetic and beautiful’, with lots of sex but distinguished. Erdal writes the way Tiger wants—spilling sex wherever (Tiger was thrilled to be nominated for bad sex writing) and throwing in his favourite words like ‘wisdom, beguiling, mystique’, his most beloved word ‘vicissitudes’ and semi colons.
Erdal’s own childhood and adulthood seems to lack lustre in comparison to Tiger’s world, not because of the different financial rungs they occupy but because Tiger’s glamourous world is beautifully adorned and fleshed out for the reader to admire but Erdal’s own is sometimes a halfhearted look at missed phone calls, children and a severe lack of time in her personal life. Her divorce was heart breaking and sudden. It touched me. But many other aspects drowned in the exhibition of Tiger’s lifestyle. When Erdal first arrives in Tiger’s publishing house, she feels as if “turning up in someone else’s dream.” I experienced a similar disconnect when we moved onto bits of Erdal’s own life and swiftly back to Tiger again. I longed to know more about the ghost writer, who like in real life, was overshadowed by the man.
As much of a flamboyant, eccentric, interesting character Tiger was, his actions make you cringe. He would smack the bottom of his secretary (but she didn’t seem to mind), urge everyone to touch his silk lining of jacket or his silver penis keychain—“Touch it, touch it” he would coax— and take deep offense if the women don’t. Google led me to the fact that Tiger might be Naim Attallah. I was intoxicated by Erdal’s descriptions of the man that the Google image search severely disappointed me. I expected more colour, more dazzle, more of the tropical bird I associated him with.
Ghosting is a wonderful novel, no doubt. I enjoyed reading about the hilarious turn of events and frustrations while working for a man who lives in a world of his own. There are bits and bobs about the behind the scenes of working as a translator and ghost writer that made me appreciate the immense effort they put out. I laughed out loud at the bad sex excerpts mentally writing #Menwritewomen in my head. The book becomes more about the employer than about the ghost writer, contrary to the title, but it promises to be a good read.
Rating: 3/5
How does life look like when you are ghostwriting for a cultural tycoon who is always in a spangle of silks, cashmere and jewels and wants to write poetic books with ample sex?—Erdal's memoir GHOSTING is fascinating Click To Tweet
BOY : TALES OF CHILDHOOD BY ROALD DAHL
My childhood was defined by the many Roald Dahl novels I read and loved. It was my ambition to read all the Dahl novels one day. It was a big feat back in those days when libraries are the only source of books, an impossible dream. I don’t know if I’ve read all Dahl novels but I’ve certainly read a lot of books, so I am living the dream life of the eight-year-old that I was.
My relationship with Dahl changed over the years. While I still hold all his books very close to heart (there is no greater pleasure than re-reading them), I was shocked to find a racist, antisemitic man instead of a beloved children’s writer that I had envisioned him to be.
I don’t think Boy needs a review. It is a classic for Roald Dahl’s fans—funny, warm and heart warming. The curious thing was that when I started reading the beautiful hardback this year, I could not remember whether I’ve read this autobiography previously or not. I was familiar with Mrs. Pratchett, warming up toilet seats of seniors, canes and boarding school tales. But a lot of chapters felt new to me which made me realise that revisiting old books is never a bad thing. Maybe I had forgotten. Maybe I had read only parts of Boy. Who knows! It was terrifying to read about adenoids being removed without anesthesia (how did the children survive the pain), and soap flakes in mouth to cure snoring (won’t they die?). But most of all, I loved Boy for its honest, funny froth of childhood joys. There are ideas that sprout to later shape up as Charlie and the Chocolate factory, fake stomach aches to cure homesickness and the on-start of an adventure. (more in Going Solo, also republished by Slightly Foxed). Most of all, it made me miss my child hood and crave for a children’s book—maybe Matilda or Esio Trot or The Twits or…
Rating : 4/5
Roald Dahl's childhood in BOY made me miss his characters. I chuckled, giggled and chuckled again Click To Tweet
Much thanks to Slightly Foxed for the books. All opinions are my own.
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