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Read Kiss Kiss (1987)

Kiss Kiss (1987)

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4.11 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0140018328 (ISBN13: 9780140018325)
Language
English
Publisher
penguin books

Kiss Kiss (1987) - Plot & Excerpts

This is collection of some of Roald Dahl's short stories I bought several years ago while visiting a friend in Switzerland but never managed to complete. The back states:"ELEVEN DEVIOUS, SHOCKING STORIES FROM THE MASTER OF THE UNPREDICTABLEWhat could go wrong when a wife pawns the mink coat that her lover gave her as a parting gift? What happens when a priceless piece of furniture is the subject of a deceitful bargain? Can a wronged woman take revenge on her dead husband?In these dark, dangerous stories Roald Dahl explores the sinister side of human nature: the cunning, sly, selfish part of each side of us that leads us into the territory of the unexpected and unsettling. Styling, macabre and haunting, these tales will leave you with a delicious feeing of unease."I rather like this collection of stories. There are, of course, those that are favorites and those that were rather neutral or made me go "meh." While it may not be shocking in this day and age, I'm sure when Dahl first wrote these it was considered original and brilliant. (The anthology was copyrighted in 1959 though some stories had appeared in magazines before.) "The Landlady" is about a man's tale of finding a place to stay in a new town where he's due for a new job interview. He finds a very cheap boarding house to stay in. Somewhat predictable in this day and age"William and Mary" is about a wife's reaction to her husband's death and the decision he made of how his body (more rather, his brain was to be treated. Rather liked this story!"The Way Up to Heaven": A wife with a fear/phobia of being late and missing planes, concerts, trains, buses, etc comes to terms with her husband's morbid playing on her fear. DEFINITE favorite"Parson's Pleasure": An antique salesman disguises as a parson in order to buy furniture cheap from "gullible" farm people and sell them at high prices. His luck finally turns on him. So-so story. Lots of build up that didn't feel required"Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat": An adulterous wife gets her due in a coincidental sequence of events. So so"Royal Jelly": A man has an idea of how to help his underweight baby daughter gain weight, much to his wife's chagrin. So-so"Georgy Porgy": A clergyman has a serious aversion to any sort of touch from females and it results in quite a catastrophe. Entertaining read. You have to feel sorry for the man."Genesis and Catastrophe": A European mother gives birth to her fourth child, after the first three have died. She prayed so hard for this one to live. At the end we learn the baby's name and indeed, he did live and become an infamous person in history. DEFINITE favorite!"Edward the Conqueror": Louisa discovers something magnificent about the newfound stray cat while playing the piano. Too bad her husband didn't believe her Some interesting bits"Pig": A newly orphaned boy is taken and raised by his vegetarian aunt on an isolated hill. After her sudden death, he travels to the city to meet his lawyer and the will. The city holds new revelations and shocks for him. Rather liked this story"The Champion of the World": I believe the precursor of Danny the Champion of the world, but with adult characters instead of a son and his father. Weird to see it from this perspective, but alright

Full review at The Pluviophile Reader: http://wp.me/p3VFNP-233/5 stars.ebook, 240 pages.Read from December 09 to 16, 2013.Even as an adult this man's writing continues to captivate me. However, with this adult collaboration Dahl has emphasised the disturbing in a less than friendly fashion by having the central theme of these stories be completely about how awful adults are to each other. So take the quirkiness of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the despicable characters in The Twits and then mash them together with some realism and adults and you have Kiss Kiss. Out of all the stories I would have to say that "Royal Jelly" truly caught me off guard. I don't know if I'm slow or if Dahl is that good at writing but I truly did not see the ending of this story coming and I recall my jaw dropping when I read the last paragraph. The story is a depiction of a couple that has had a baby who is struggling to get enough to eat. The babe just refuses to eat and as a newborn it is wasting away. This is the first child the couple has had after failing to conceive before. The mother is severely distressed and exhausted so it makes what the husband does even harder to bear. The husband works with bees and in an act of desperation, despite knowing in a way what the effects would be, feeds his withering baby royal jelly, which is the food used to produce and create the Queen bee. Firstly, what I found so disturbing about this story was that a father would use his own child as a type of science project, though sadly, I don't think is completely unheard of. Secondly, when trying to explain to his frantic wife that what he has done is a good thing, the wife calms a bit but as a reader I felt far from consoled! I could just see that this story was going to turn into a horror, and it did, the ending was truly ghastly.After reading so many pieces of Dahl's work I absolutely adore the way he is able to leave the reader hanging at the end but always in the best way possible. He leaves the reader inquisitive and allows them to draw their own conclusions without absolutely gutting the reader. Even while writing about how awful adults are, he still manages to provoke his adult readers to use their imaginations which is what I still truly treasure with Dahl's writing. Whether you are a child or an adult Dahl still finds away to stir your imagination and provoke curiosity. I believe it was this gift that made him such a phenomenal writer.Recommended read for Dahl lovers and those who appreciate quirky and creepy reads!

What do You think about Kiss Kiss (1987)?

Roald Dahl (1916-1990) darf man getrost als den Meister der makaberen Kurzgeschichten bezeichnen. Sein sehr feiner schwarzer Humor, der die Ironie des Schicksals immer wunderbar hervorzaubert ist faszinierend. Sprachlich sind Dahls Geschichten ein Leckerbissen der besonderen Art, keine komplexe und dennoch eine sehr schöne Sprache. Auch stilistisch sind die Geschichten unterschiedlich gebaut und aus unterschiedlichen Erzählperspektiven wiedergegeben. Eine klare Empfehlung."Küsschen, Küsschen" beinhaltet folgende Geschichten:Die Wirtin: Ein junger Mann sucht eine Bleibe und findet ein kleines Bed & Breakfast, dessen Besitzerin eine besondere Vorliebe für ausgestopfte Tiere hat.William und Mary: Ein todkranker Mann nimmt an einem Experiment teil, das seiner Frau die Möglichkeit zur späten Rache geben wird.Der Weg zum Himmel: Mrs. Foster fliegt nach Europa, ihr schikanöser Mann bleibt während dessen zu Hause.Des Pfarrers Freude: Ein Antiquitätenhändler versucht als Pfarrer verkleidet so billig wie möglich Ware zu ergattern.Mrs. Bixby und der Mantel des Obersten: Als Abschiedsgeschenk erhält Mrs. Bixby einen Nerzmantel von ihrem Geliebten. Wie soll sie das ihrem Mann erklären?Gelee Royal: Weil sein Töchterchen nicht wachsen will, kommt ein Bienenzüchter auf eine Idee.Georgy Porgy: Auf Frauen reagiert Herr Pfarrer etwas psychotisch.Genesis und Katastrophe: Alle drei Kinder hat die junge Frau in den letzten 18 Monaten verloren, jetzt liegt sie wieder in den Wehen.Edward der Eroberer: Ist die graue Katze die Reinkarnation von Liszt?Schwein: Woher kommt das so gut schmeckende Schnitzel, fragt sich der junge Mann der Zeit seines Lebens nur vegetarisch lebte.Der Weltmeister: Mit einem neuen Trick möchten zwei Freunde das Wildern auf Fasane verbessern.
—Reinhold

There's a quiet zaniness that runs through the lot of these stories. Most of them are crisp, surprising and smoothly written at every turn. Dahl-licious one might say. The Landlady >> "There is nothing more tantalizing than a thing which lingers just outside the borders of one's memory." A teenage boy finds himself assigned to Bath and decided to check into a Bed & Breakfast where he was welcomed by a nice (even if slightly dotty) old woman. He starts to wonder why no one else has come and stayed at this charming place.William and Mary >> "There is no knowing what people will do when they are about to die." A woman is finally set free from her sham of a marriage by the death of her husband, but is he really at peace as she thought he was? What if he found a way to come back, albeit not necessarily in the same state he left? The Way Up To Heaven >> A perfectly loyal wife of so many years finds herself at the end of her rapidly fraying rope at the sadistic pleasure her husband derives from torturing her on her one small fault. Parson's Plasure >> A trickster of a salesman finally finds his match in the countryside while donning the disguise of a clergyman. Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat >> Citing the lucrative process that is of divorce emerges this short piece of how one can never really cheat somebody (especially one's spouse) and not be expected to pay for it in the end.Royal Jelly >> Shows Albert Taylor turning his baby daughter into a big human bee like himself. The secret ingredient? Royal Jelly, lots of it.Georgy Porgy >> Imagine a man who is truly repulsed by the merest physical skin contact of a woman but who, at the same time, feels attracted to them and is content from observing them. He tries to find a solution to his problem of conquering his "fear" of women and ends up going mad in the process. Genesis and Catastrophe >> The birth of Adolf Hitler and his mother wanting him to live after the deaths of her three previous children--supposedly based on a true story.Edward the Conqueror >> Shows Edward obstinately refusing to believe that the cat Louisa discovers is a reincarnation of Franz Liszt.Pig >> Vegetarian gourmet cook Lexington becomes a tragic hero by eating a piece of pork and then meeting a death in the packing-house as horribly cruel as it is for pigs.The Champion of the World >> Shows the easiest and most ingenious way of catching pheasants. I believe this is a direct inspiration for Dahl's children's book"Danny The Champion of the World". Each story will be reread, remembered, and retold, for each is a riddle, as tantalizing as a lingering, lethal kiss.Book Details: Title Kiss KissAuthor Roald DahlReviewed By Purplycookie
—PurplyCookie

Kas te teadsite, et Alfred Hitchcocki poolt kuulsaks filmitud ja hiljem Quentin Tarantino poolt filmis “Neli tuba” lausa kultuslikuks põlistatud lugu mehest, kes välgumihkli süttimise ja sõrmede maharaiumise peale kihla veab, on kirjutanud tuntud lastekirjanik Roald Dahl?Jah. Kuigi Eesti lugejale on Roald Dahl senini olnud kindlasti rohkem tuntud kui suurepärane lastekirjanik, on tõeliselt tänuväärne, et nüüd on lugejani jõudnud ka esimene valimik Dahli täiskasvanutele kirjutatud jubejutte – need on kirjandusgurmaanidele tõeliseks maiuspalaks. Kogumiku “Kiisu-kiisu” iseloomustavaks sõnapaariks oleks ehk “vaikne hullus” – kõik raamatusse koondatud 11 lugu uurivad veidi eemalseisval, kiretul ja pealtnäha lausa igapäevaslet asjalikul toonil inimloomuse süngeimaid ja sügavamaid hoovusi, mis viivad ootamatute ja judinaidtekitavate finaalideni, pakkudes korraga nii kirjanduslikku kui psühholoogilist naudingut. Kõiki kogumiku jutte ei saa kindlasti klassifitseerida macabre stiili kuuluvaks – “Proua Bixby ja koloneli kasukas”, “Pastori rõõm” ja “Maailmameister” on vaimukad inimloomuse ahnust ja edevust pilavad jutud, mis toovad muige suule ilma igasugu judinateta –, aga enamus teisi lugusid on vähemal või suuremal määral seotud surmaga. Või siis sünniga, nagu näiteks “Mesilasema piim” ja “Genees ja katastroof”, aga ka need kaks pole lood, mida sa muidu imikutest lugeda võiks oodata.Eriti õõvastavaks ja ometi kummaliselt köitvaks muudabki lood Dahli napp asjalik stiil, ootamatud pöörded, tajutav (kuid mitte ilmselgelt lõbustatud) toon ja igapäevaselt kodune õhustik, mis viitab eelmise sajandi keskpaigale – ajastule, kus naised olid veel naised, mehed olid mehed ja kodud olid kindlused. Selle glasuuri alt laseb Dahl aga aimata – ja mitte kordagi otse näha – tapamajade veriseid konkse, hullusärkidesse mähitud kogusid ja vihkamist, mis söövitab hullemini kui ükski hape.
—Sash Uusjärv

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