Wodehouse

Having had a go at a few books now, I've decided to devote this post to the works of P.G. Wodehouse. I'm not going to review a single novel, for several reasons. Firstly, I couldn't possibly choose one. Secondly, if you like one, you're likely to like all of them (and, indeed, vice-versa) and finally, the plots are all pretty similar, so going through them one by one seems rather redundant.

I can sketch you a standard Wodehouse plot, for those of you who are interested. His most frequently recurring plot is boy meets girl, boy loves girl, boy and girl get engaged. Then someone, usually an aunt or stern uncle, chucks a spanner in the works and all is doom and gloom until it resolves itself, almost magically. He has a few variations on the genre, most notably the Jeeves and Wooster novels, in which the boy and girl are never our protagonists, but unfortunate friends of Bertie's, and the tangle in which they find themselves is resolved by Jeeves.

The reason to read Wodehouse is the language. He is genuinely hilarious (for which reason, it seems, people find it hard to give him the credit he deserves - if it's funny, it can't be art is the logic. Or so I'm told) and somehow manages never to repeat a simile or metaphor. I read once that he used to stick every page he was working on to his wall. If it was going well, he stuck it high up, if it was going badly, it went somewhere around knee-level. His aim was to have every page near the picture-rail before he was done. The testament to this method of writing is that his novels all look almost effortless and, as we all know, that's one of the marks of truly brilliant writing (unfortunately, it's also one of the marks of terrible writing, so, as a system, it isn't foolproof).

The only problem I have with Wodehouse is that I find myself wandering around, wanting to read bits to people, which, inevitably, irritates them (I should really control that urge...). His other bad habit is making me laugh out loud in public places, which results in people giving me odd looks, and my face colouring to match a ripe tomato. However, the enjoyment I get from his work is such that I'll forgive him.

The characters he creates are absurdly privileged, and live in a world most of us can't even imagine, and yet, despite all this, they are almost uniformly charming - I suppose because they are all evidently so well-disposed towards their fellow man (apart from the villains, obviously. If his villains were that likeable, the whole thing would become ridiculous).

There isn't really much of a conclusion to make to this post, though I will sum up by telling you that, although he is a pleasure to read, if you're into plot-driven, fast-moving novels, with tough-talking characters and other hyphenated attributes, he's probably not the man for you. Otherwise, go for it. You'll know by page three whether you like it or not anyway, so you've nothing to lose and if you do like him, I can say that I have found a good Wodehouse, on a sunny day with a cold drink, to be one of life's greatest pleasures. Or, indeed, a good Wodehouse on a rainy day with a warm drink (let's face it, far more likely in England). In fact, just get hold of a good Wodehouse, and you're sorted (no need to worry about that part of it, they're pretty much all good!).

And, just to convince you, I think we can all agree that a man who can use a phrase like "ice formed on the butler's upper slopes" as a throwaway line is worthy of our respect.