Another brilliantly funny offering from P G Wodehouse, this one a full length novel.

Jeeves leaves Bertie's service, and the upper-class twit has to make do with his new man, Brinkley. As usual there is romantic interest, numerous misunderstandings, and Jeeves eventually saves the day. ( )

For the past couple of years, the name P. G. Wodehouse kept popping up in interviews and articles about some of my favorite people (most notably Hugh Laurie and Neil Gaiman, among others). They praised him as THE master of British comedy. Since I admittedly like my comedy British, I decided it was time to give Wodehouse a try. The thing with Wodehouse is that he creeps up on you. During the first few chapters, I thought, "What's all the fuss about?" There is some admittedly clever language and the strange turn of phrase, but nothing laugh out loud hilarious. In true Wooster fashion, I thought, "Everyone who loves this man must have gone potty. They're seriously off their onion. What a rummy bit of business this is." And then it happened--a smile here, a titter there, a giggle, and then laugh out loud hilarity. Particularly hilarious were Wooster's attempts to go to sleep while being constantly awakened by the far too diligent local lawmen, Jeeves' plan to smuggle Wooster off the yacht where he's being held captive (which results in Wooster spending a good portion of the book in black face), the quest for slabs of butter, and the maniacal replacement for Jeeves (who quit Wooster's employ because of his disdain for the banjolele). Many of the jokes aren't subtle in that you know exactly how one event leads to the creation of a particularly vexing problem for our man Wooster. However, that doesn't rob the book of its fun as the anticipation of the event lends itself to a certain joyful giddiness when the events do indeed come to pass. ( )

The first Jeeves novel is funny, but such a product of its time. The depiction of the British aristocracy, with butlers abounding, and Bertie blackening his face with boot polish to escape the clutches of a soon-to-be-father-in-law are just not on anymore. Interestingly, the era in which this was written shows how unconsciously prejudicial so many people (and not just authors!) really were. I make no judgement as to whether this meant they were 'bad' people, just pointing it out... ( )

This was my first Jeeves and Wooster story. I enjoyed it, it was very "British" in humour and in tone. Things like words like "Marmaduke" kept popping in and class conflict. Bertie's observations about how his new manservant (the story in this book is that Jeeves quits working for Wooster) and how secretly proletariat he is, had me in stitches. However, I will warn people about this one... a big part of the plot revolves around blackface humour. They're not using it making fun of black people, but as a way for Wooster to escape captivity by walking off a ship with a musical troupe made of black men. It's not very PC today, so I thought I'd mention it. My main gripe is that the book cost me $21.95 CDN, and I didn't think it was worth that much for a trade paperback and a couple hours read. It will be a library borrow from now on. But it was amusing to read the book and fantasizing that Hugh Laurie was reading it to me. However, I do think that people who haven't been exposed to British comedy and humour won't like or enjoy these books very much. ( )

Two things struck me about this book, the first of his I've read that I can remember. The first was that Wodehouse's narrative voice is so strong that, despite only having heard one of them, I immediately had most of this book mentally narrated by whoever does the voice of the adaptations that the BBC had on the radio recently. Quite an unexpected effect, and definitely a sign of a very well-defined style.

The second... well. I am much happier than many to dismiss uncomfortable bits of a book as "well, they're a product of their times"; I can take the more staggeringly archaic bits of, say, Kipling at a running jump. But even so, I was quite thrown to find this mellifluous & charming narrator leading me into a story where the entire plot seemed to revolve around the judicious use of blackface. (Come to think of it, the plot also relies on this *working*, which seems a little implausible)

Which... yeah. The style was quite delightful, still, but it's a bit of a stumbling block for immersion.