Lamb to the Slaughter - Roald Dahl

by - Friday, February 03, 2012


Lamb to the Slaughter - Roald Dahl

               

***Spoilers Alert***


If you wish to read the text please click on the link before reading my review! : Lamb to the Slaughter 

I was assigned to read Lamb to the Slaughter as a literature text and it was something different from my usual reads. First of all, I rarely read short stories, and this might be one of the best short stories I've ever read. Furthermore, I was surprised by the choice of book that was included in the University syllabus, this was far derived from my high school literature texts.

Mary Maloney was six months old pregnant when her husband came home one day and told her of his plans to leave her. She was in shock and as an impulsive reaction, she killed her husband, yes, with a lamb leg.

It was a subject of humour yet absolutely logical, realizing what she had done, she was determined to cover up her tracks to protect her unborn baby, so she provided an alibi and destroyed her murder weapon in the most unexpected-obvious way - by baking it.

The story had a twisted ending, Roald Dahl left me debating on the wife's sanity. On one hand, I was amazed by how well and calm an ordinary house wife came up with such a brilliant cover up story, yet on the other hand I was beginning to question whether Mary was sane at all, she was too calm for my liking, and no adoring wife would kill her husband, let alone feeding the murder weapon to his fellow colleagues.

This short story was a great read, it expressed the adult side of Roald Dahl, the author of children' fiction such as the famous Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Versatility!

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1 comments

  1. I read a lot of Dahl's children books when I was younger and I loved them! This sounds very different, but interesting too. I might check this one out :) Thanks for the fab review!

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