P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975)

This is the first time I’ve ever disliked a Wodehouse story. This might have been amusing in the 1930’s, but to a modern reader, the main character’s pursuit of his love interest is just distasteful. It’s not witty and amusing. It’s just grating.

In their first conversation, the ‘hero’ blames Dr. Sally for not being interested in him (he says she’s cold and soulless and has an empty loveless life). He kicks a sofa and pouts when she turns him down. (And this is with his fiancée in the next room.) He lies to Dr. Sally and lures her to his home at night under the guise of needing her professional medical assistance. When she arrives, he goes on about ‘We’re finally alone together,’ in a way that I would have pepper sprayed him for. Worse, he arranges things so she has to stay the night at his house (she’s 80 miles from home and has no ride). Then he knocks on her bedroom door in the middle of the night and insists that she comes back downstairs with him to ‘have it out once and for all,’ because he won’t accept her refusal. At this point, the ‘hero’ sounds like a nightmare Tinder date that you read about on Buzzfeed. THEN he grabs her and refuses to let her go, even while she struggles. She finally insults him enough that he lets her go and he goes all cold like ‘Fine. Goodbye.’ …And then the next morning he’s back to insisting they’re going to get together. Her repeated refusals mean absolutely nothing.

Maybe it played better on stage. Maybe Bill came across like a hapless puppy instead of a creepy predator. But as a novel? When these steps are just narrated? Not amusing at all.… (more)

"A depressing musty scent pervaded the place, as if a cheese had recently died there in painful circumstances."

It's passages like this that made this book a fun palette cleanser. Nowadays this book feels like typical sitcom fare but at the same time it reminded me why I gravitate toward the literature of the 1920s. The silliness of mistaken identities (which today feels far-fetched), the reliance on letters and telegrams to communicate, the need to travel to visit with friends, and the generally slower pace of life. All of that combined made reading this book feel like sitting up late at night to watch the late movie.… (more)