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?

  • CosmicRamen@alien.topOPB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I guess, but I have hard time believing that his millions of legions of fans are all intimately familiar with the tropes of inter-war Great Britain. And I think Waugh is funny too, so that couldn’t be the reason anyway.