The Fallibility of Dahl

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Roald Dahl counts among one of my favorite authors.  I loved him as a child, and now, after reading The Best of Roald Dahl, a collection of twenty-five of his short stories for adults, I have fallen in love with him again.  However, I have also recently collided with an account of his anti-Semitism that included this quote:

"There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it's a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean there is always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason." 

-Roald Dahl, as quoted  by  Abraham H. Foxman 

What an indefensible statement.  

This is not the first time a figure I admire has horrified me through a display of ignorance, hatred, or bigotry.  Nevertheless, experience has not yet taught me how to navigate such an issue; it has not taught me how to marry what I love about a person's work with what I object to about a person's life.

Right now, I find solace in the fact that none of us are perfect.  I try to remember if I go searching for the infallible hero, I will only find disappointment.  Perhaps it is better not to have heros at all: there are few things as dangerously black and white as heroes and villains.  And I think perhaps I am not supposed to marry these two contrary aspects of Dahl's legacy.  It will serve me much better to learn to recognize simultaneously the merit of Dahl's work and the downfalls of the man.