The Saturday Morning Post (No. 47)

 

This week, yet another early P G Wodehouse Story - without a TBR list, I have to read what I have on hand. And right now, its old Wodehouse books on my ebook reader, and the Brother Cadfael mysteries on my book shelf.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

Damsel in Distress by P G Wodehouse  B

A fairly typical Wodehouse story this time around. It has the show business angle that many of his early novels had, this time the main character is the composer of music for musical comedies - a show playing in London. The female romantic lead in the story is the daughter of an aristocrat dominated by his widowed sister-in-law. The widow does not approve of the romantic lead's boyfriend and has confined her to the country home. One day, with the sister-in-law away for a day, she escapes to London to look up her lover who's been abroad for a year. She fails at that, but is spied by her pompous brother and to avoid detection, hops into the taxi of the composer. He, of course, falls in love with her, defeats her inquisitive brother by knocking off  his top hat and saves her from detection. He ends up taking a house near her father's estate in order to meet her again. Assorted misunderstandings and entanglements typical of a Wodehouse novel ensue. 

I should've written this review shortly after I read it, not now - a month later, but oh well. The fact that I wasn't motivated to write it up until I had to, speaks a lot to what I thought of this story. It was fine, typical Wodehouse with a cast of his usual characters - butlers, snobs, hard-boiled kids, domineering women, a carefree Bertie Wooster type character, along with a bit of London and the English countryside tossed in. In short, it was a nice way to pass a few hours, but I think it's safe to say that you can die without regrets, if you don't get around to reading it.