We know that God has a sense of humor, said de Maupassant, from the manner he has chosen for us to reproduce ourselves. This view of copulation as undignified and absurd is the theme of [My Uncle Oswald], a short, snappy burlesque of sex novels and sex. (p. 37) [The] joke is not in the intrinsic brilliance of Dahl's dialogue, but in our matching his premise with our knowledge of his famous victims. When—sometimes in mid-sentence—intellect is overtaken by embarrassing necessity, we have ...

If only Uncle Oswald had had a twist—or, better still, a knot—in his member, we might have been spared many of Roald Dahl's descriptions of its size, colour, pulse and agility. As matters are, it is for ever standing up to be counted. It is brave of Mr Dahl to have written a novel with a totally dislikeable hero, but I suspect that this was not his intention; Uncle Oswald's only admirer may be his creator, as if God had started off with Father Rolfe. I don't believe that m...

Hardly straining itself in the originality line, [My Uncle Oswald] shows Oswald involved with the discovery of a pill so potent that any man who takes it is unable to prevent himself from ravishing a woman on the spot. The one new idea is to incorporate the aphrodisiac into a scheme to steal the sperm of the famous, this celebrity-seed then being sold, at a high price, to women keen to bear the child of an outstanding man…. As may be imagined, this is not a situation that allows for much variety. Eve...

"My Uncle Oswald" provides four or five hours of effortless reading and some amusing scenes, mostly of the kind film makers have taught us to call soft porn—so soft, indeed, that at times they turn out almost fluffy. The tone is that of a gentleman telling ribald anecdotes to his male guests after dinner. The leer is civilized; the biographical confections make clever use of lèse-majesté; the dialogue gets mean and raunchy, but the physical detail is kept decorous, except ...

[My Uncle Oswald] looks like a recipe for pornography, and to some extent the novel is exactly that, but mere pornography is repetitious. Mr. Dahl's scheme permits him to have disrespectful fun with Proust and Shaw and such great names. Repetition is minimal. An uneven book and hardly for the delicate, but it has its high points. Phoebe-Lou Adams, "PLA: 'My Uncle Oswald'," in The Atlantic Monthly (copyright © 1980, by The Atlantic Monthly Company, Bosto...

If, as the blurb informs us, [My Uncle Oswald] is the funniest romp in years, what have all the others been like? This fine story-teller used to write riveting tales with a twist. What a pity he has revived Uncle Oswald to perpetrate this repetitious schoolboy joke at novel length. Mollie Hardwick, "'My Uncle Oswald'" (© copyright Mollie Hardwick 1979; reprinted with permission), in Books and Bookmen, Vol. 25, No. 3, December, 1979, p. 17.