Dahl

Looking at the surface of Still Life, we do not immediately see what link might exist between the writings of Roald Dahl and Tom Robbins (1); but take into account the presence of such pairs as the mother of Matilda and Nina Jablonski, both totally unaware of what their young, starry-eyed charges truly needed or wanted in life. We find both deposed from their roles, and perfectly fine with it, neither woman is offended or heartbroken because her heart was never truly in the mix. Both Dahl and Robbins have taken great measures to create worlds in which non-heroic heros are the saviors of some wonderful ideal world (2), and in fact, are often the creators of said world as opposed to having read of it somewhere and imagining it into existence by way of delusion. In much the same way Dahl's characters wade through tribulations and ignore the paths of least resistance (3), we find Leigh-Cheri and Wrangle ignoring the simpler ways to live that life might offer them, and instead move on to live in a world where life is certainly not perfect, but meets every want and desire they might have with a strange, yet deeply satisfying answer. Where Charlie Bucket meets his future as the owner of a chocolate factory, which certainly is a job that asks much of its applicant, Leigh-Cheri and Wrangle meet a world where Gulietta the housemaid is queen and they are mostly deaf, but can still “hear the chipmunk at the center of the earth” (Robbins, Still Life, 270) running smoothly on its wheel; in both of these worlds, the inhabitants are happy and satisfied, yet no one lives a life typically perfect.

1 and despite my very next words, I still mostly don't
2 I guess my point here was to explain how great the world would be if smothered in blackberry brambles? Albeit in an awfully clipped way...
3 Be wise, listen to the little orange men