Cafes, Cake and Crime: ‘The Way Up to Heaven’ (1954) by Roald Dahl

In January I shared my intention to read more of the short story collections residing on my TBR pile. The plan is to read one a month, the list for which can be found here. Yesterday I put up my review for February’s read: Crimes of Cymru: Classic Mysteries from Wales (2023). Like with January’s anthology read, I left out my comments on one story and that is because this year my mother and I are going to be doing a mini book group. Each month we will head out to a different café in our local area (Northumberland/ Tyneside/ Durham – as Northerners local can cover a lot of ground!), and we will discuss one short story. Then on my blog I will be reporting back about our café experience, plus share our thoughts on the story in question.

February’s café of choice was Bywell Coffee Barn, which is in a rural Northumbrian location, not far from Bywell (hence the name!) and Stocksfield. They had options for those needing gluten or dairy free comestibles and it was a roomy café, with different rooms to choose from to sit in.

The story we chose to read was Roald Dahl’s ‘The Way Up to Heaven’ (1954), which was originally published in The New Yorker. It concerns a married couple living in America. Mrs Foster is someone who feels much calmer when she is able to arrive early or on time for appointments and events. Mr Foster, less so – or rather it soon becomes apparent that he takes a peculiar enjoyment in making his wife miss things or be late for them. So, when Mrs Foster is due to go to the airport so she can visit her married daughter in France, I think we know what Mr Foster intends on doing… However, this being a Dahl story, we know that vices such as greed, selfishness and inconsiderateness tend to boomerang back upon the person indulging in them.

First up, here are my mum’s thoughts on our reading experience:

I really enjoyed Kate’s choice of short story for this month. Having only been familiar with the author’s stories for children, Roald Dahl’s ‘The Way Up to Heaven’ gave a sense of suspense and tension pretty much from word go. The pace did not drag, and the dialogue carried it well. I enjoyed the character building and felt they were fleshed out, well-drawn and consistent. Looking back at some of Dahl’s children’s work, Matilda, The Twits, Fantastic Mr Fox, James & The Giant Peach etc, the authority figures can often have grim fates. Neither did the authority figure in this little tale. A quick google would seem to indicate that the writer had a distrust and dislike of authority personally and arguably this might have influenced some of the dynamics in his works of fiction.

My sympathy very quickly went to the beleaguered wife Mrs Foster, and it was not hard, at all, to dislike her husband. The subtle implications of his mental and emotional cruelty ensured this. It left me longing for her to break loose from his sphere of influence and experience some freedom and genuine happiness.

As the story progresses, it transpires that she is planning to fly to visit their daughter. After a tension filled departure in which the couple go to the airport together; a scene infused with Mr Foster’s sabotaging and delaying tactics, his final delaying act becomes his downfall. Even when it appears there is a situation Mrs Foster could reasonably be expected to investigate and she fails to act upon it, with tragic consequences, it is very difficult to prize your sympathy away from her. We enter a shifting moral universe with this passive crime of desperation, an abdication of moral responsibility. There was no premeditation, but an opportunity grabbed, a conscience more easily squared. He wanted her in a metaphorical box, but he ended up in a literal one.

I recommend this short story to others, as it never drags, and you are pulled along to its conclusion which is never completely clear until the ‘last knockings’ as they say.

Hooray! It’s always a relief when a story recommendation turns out well.

In 1980, Road Dahl, on BBC Radio 4, when discussing his story, The Twits, remarked that: “I love writing and reading about horrible people. They are much more fun than nice people.” I feel this sentiment is demonstrated in ‘The Way Up to Heaven’ as Dahl really brings this married couple to life and depicts well, how Mr Foster torments his wife through a veneer of politeness and reasonableness (meaning his actions are hard to argue against). In an interview with the BBC World Service in November 1988, Dahl said that: “I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I’ll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else.” And I think when this principle is broken by a character, in one of his stories, then unorthodox retribution is regarded as an appropriate response. In some of Dahl’s tales, characters can be quite involved in devising this punishment, such as in The Twits, where the threatened birds (who the Twits want to shoot) and monkeys (who the Twits force to stand on their heads for hours), actively glue the Twits’ furniture to the ceiling and cause the Twits themselves to be glued standing on their heads, so they can’t move. Eventually, the couple shrink down within themselves so much that they disappear completely. I mentioned this example in detail, as ‘The Way Up to Heaven’ contrasts significantly from this. Mr Foster certainly breaks the kindness principle, (his ascent to heaven – literally and metaphorically halted by the end of the tale) but Mrs Foster does not actively produce his downfall. She makes an active decision arguably, but her role in Mr Foster’s demise is definitely a passive one, it is a crime of negation. I enjoyed how Dahl keeps us guessing to the end as to what exactly has or hasn’t gone on and it is to his credit that despite the macabre end of Mr Foster, we do not lose our sympathy towards Mrs Foster. So, all in all a very good story. I read a couple of other stories by Dahl a few years ago, which you can read about here. ‘The Way Up to Heaven’ was adapted for TV in 1979, becoming episode 9 of the first season of Tales of the Unexpected.

Coming up in March, we will be looking at a radio play from the anthology: Bodies from the Library 5.

Links to other posts in the series:

Cafes, Cakes and Crime -January 2024