Wednesday, July 20, 2011

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl

So I haven’t been reading that much lately and so when I came across this book on the bookshelf I thought that I would go ahead and give it a good read to get me back on track. This children’s classic would have taken any normal person a single day to read, but alas reading only two pages at a time it has taken me a few weeks. The horrible part about reading a book like that is quickly I begin to forget events that have happened in the previous pages, and each time I set the book down I am less likely to pick the book back up later. Not true in this case.

I loved this book. There was nothing about it that was forgettable, and there was nothing that would make me not want to pick the book back up the next day. It was a fantastic read that reminded me of how good of an author Roald Dahl is.

Although I was primary reading this book for sheer entertainment, the one thing that I was looking for when I was reading was Willy Wonka’s character. When Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came to theaters a couple of years ago there was a big uproar of how strange Johnny Depp had portrayed the character. Much of the responses that I heard were that if you compare Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the movie) with Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the movie) then Johnny Depp’s portrayal is going to seem strange; but in actuality if you compare Johnny Depp’s portrayal will Willy Wonka in the book then in fact he is not strange enough.

I disagree. I think that Willy Wonka was an eccentric character but not strange, not creepy, just different. He was happy, excited, had a touch of carefree, and number one had his own, different, reasoning and way of doing thing. This made the character interesting and intriguing, not mysterious and creepy and the movie would seem to indicate.

Anyway, loved the book. If you get a chance read it! It will lighten your afternoon!

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