The Book-a-Week Project, Week 17

Thank You, Jeeves
P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Alexander Spencer

Yeah, it's an audiobook. I made a weekend trip to California (don’t go) with my girlfriend, and Wodehouse is excellent for car listening due to the simple plots and wordplay. I’ve heard other Wodehouse books in audio form that were narrated better, mostly because the narrator used a different voice for each character and nailed the nasal whine that Bertie certainly has. They may have been narrated by someone else, or maybe Spencer had just honed his craft in later novels.

Thank You, Jeeves is the first Jeeves story, but you wouldn’t know it. Wooster makes offhand reference to close to a dozen incidents that occur in other Jeeves novels, and every recurring character is already fully developed in this story. The book begins with Jeeves quitting Wooster’s employ due to Wooster’s constant, unrepentant practicing of the banjolele. There are romantic entanglements, misunderstandings, and somehow Jeeves sets everything right by the end and opens the door to dozens of the funniest books in history (not including the Holy Bible, of course). As brilliant as ever. The Jeeves series is hilarious from the very start.

Next, more George Saunders: CivilWarLand in Bad Decline.