Submitted by Virginia Bair 
(Oct 30, 2007)This is a brief review since it has been a while since I read this excellent book. Roald Dahl writes of his own experiences working for Shell Oil and then Flying for the RAF in Africa at the beginning of World War II. It is still vivid in my mind even though I read it at least 15 years ago when my boys were in their Roald Dahl phase.
Some of the thing I recall are: How a Snake Remover would be called to get rid of a Black Mamba; How the only real way to survive the war in the RAF was to get injured so you couldn't fly anymore before you got killed. I liked it much better than his book about his earlier life, Boy, where there is all sorts of nasty and detailed accounts of physical abuse by headmasters and older students.
I have not read any other reviews, although I have heard that Mr. Dahl may have exaggerated in Boy, for instance. But if even half of Going Solo was true, it was truly a real adventure.
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(7 ratings)