I’ve only read one of his books, but it was one widely regarded to be his “funniest” (The Code of the Woosters.) I wouldn’t call it a slog, but it didn’t exactly fly by. Most of my favorite books are comic novels, and it’s not like I can’t laugh at more benign comedy (I love Charles Portis), but Wodehouse’s brand of kooky similes left me almost completely stone-faced. I see people quote “convulsed like a Pekingese taking a pill” and other lines like it as if they were the most hilarious creations to ever be conjured by the human mind, and maybe they are. But I never laughed, I barely even smirked if I’m being honest.
With a lot of authors, I would just assume one particular book didn’t click with me. But Wodehouse, from what I understand, wrote almost 100 books that are more or less functionally the same. Maybe it was a mistake starting with a novel instead of his short stories, although the Psmith books seem the most interesting to me.
Is it worth bothering with any more of his books, though?
Maybe it’s not Wodehouse. It could just be that you don’t like British humor from the first half of the 20th century.
Sort of doubt it. Waugh makes me laugh, and I find Saki and Max Beerbohm pretty amusing, just to name two writers even older than Wodehouse. Dahl has his moments too, though I guess he might be considered mid-century.
Sort of doubt it. Waugh makes me laugh, and I find Saki and Max Beerbohm pretty amusing, just to name two writers even older than Wodehouse. Dahl has his moments too, though I guess he might be considered mid-century.