The Saturday Morning Post (No. 50)

As I said in my last post, the only books I have on hand that I've not read are the Cadfael mysteries and old P G Wodehouse books. I am writing at this time, so I don't have as much time to read, nor as much of a desire to do so, when I have my own story in my head. A P G Wodehouse story is the perfect type of reading for me at times like this - light, breezy, and funny. So without further ado.

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.

Divots by P G Wodehouse   B+

This is a short story collection featuring golf as the central theme. All of the stories are told by "The Oldest Member" of the golf club. The format is that one of the young members sits down next to him in his favorite chair and mentions some problem of his - usually involving romance - and that brings to the Oldest Member's mind a similar event, which proceeds to tell, despite the fruitless efforts of the young person to escape hearing the Oldest Member's long winded tale.

The running gag through all these stories is that golf is the most important thing in the characters' lives. All the most important lessons in life that one needs can be learned by playing golf, including humility and fortitude as well as providing a reason for living - getting to be a scratch player. The stories involve a variety of characters - we have millionaires who earned their graduated degree in doing widows and orphans out of their money at Sing Sing (A famous New York prison) who have problems with their wives and butlers, as well as young people - who don't seem to have to work and so can play a round or two of golf everyday - in love, but too shy to tell the woman of their dreams so. In short, the full range of Wodehouse characters.

While I'm not a golfer, I really enjoyed these stories. Lots of laughs based on that running gag that for every problem in life, the solution can be found in playing golf. Wodehouse was at his best brisk level of quips and toss away lines in these stories. And while I am not the greatest fan of short stories, the fact that the situations and stories are the slight typical Wodehouse fare, make the short story format work well.

I've been watching some YouTube videos on literary appreciation, and I have to admit that I don't seem to apply too many lessons so far to these stories. I suppose that I could mention that the narrator, the Oldest Member, in all these stories is the common element in these stories, drawing from his vast experiences. The plot - the way the author tells the story - is, as I mentioned, the Oldest Member relating in first person, a reminiscence of his concerning a golfer he know in a similar situation to the one at hand. As for the theme, well I guess that would be that the lessons learned by golfing - and indeed, golf itself, reveals the true meaning of life. Though from the golfers I knew, it also revealed the futility of it as well.