Jeeves in the Offing

Jeeves in the Offing by P.G. Wodehouse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I last read this in 2005, I think. I bought it used and it looked like it came over on the Mayflower so it shouldn't have been a surprise when my son picked it up by the cover last night and it fell apart. Luckily, I found a much snazzier hardcover edition at Half Price Books earlier today so I was able to finish it without taping it back together.

Anyway, after waking up to find out he's engaged to Bobbie Wickham by reading it in the newspaper, Bertie is called to Brinkley Court to keep Willie Cream from proposing to Phillis Mills. Meanwhile, a silver cow creamer has gone missing and Bobbie Wickham's ex and Bertie's school chum, Kipper Herring, has come to win her back...

So yeah, this is another version of Wodehouse's tale of shit hitting the fan and Jeeves showing up to provide an umbrella just in time and, as always, he tells it very well. I didn't even mention noted loony-doctor Roderick Glossop and Mrs. Cream. As always, the reversals of fortune and revelations are impeccably times and the wordplay is top notch. Wodehouse makes it all look frightfully easy so it's a guarantee that it was a real dachshund to write.

"I'd always thought her half baked but now I think they didn't ever put her in the oven" was one of my favorite lines from the last quarter of the book but it's peppered with hilarious lines. I don't think this is a top tier Wodehouse but it was a very enjoyable read. Four out of five stars.



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Bertie Wooster Sees it Throguh

Bertie Wooster Sees It Through by P.G. Wodehouse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So Stilton Cheesewright wants to kick Wooster's arse, Florence Craye thinks Bertie wants to marry her, Aunt Dahlia pawned her pearl necklace and the Trotters are infesting Brinkley Court. Too bad Bertie won't shave off that mustache Jeeves hates...

I last read this in that quasi-mythical time before Goodreads and didn't remember much about it. I planned on rereading all the Jeeves books in 2012 but I've been busy, I guess.

Anyway, this was quite corking. It's been a while since I read a Jeeves and Wooster book and this one was great. PG Wodehouse's stories are pretty much all the same but he retells that story very well. The sense of timing on this one is easily on par with Code of the Woosters with the reversals of fortune happening at the perfect time.

It takes awhile to get all the pieces on the board since this one features a largish cast for a Jeeves book - Aunt Dahlia, Uncle Tom Travers, Florence Craye, Lord Sidcup, the Trotters and stepson Percy, Daphne Dolores Morehead. Am I forgetting anyone?

This is an easy four star read and amusing as hell. Maybe I'll knock out another Jeeves book before the end of the year.

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