Saturday 21 July 2007

30. Leave It to Psmith

I honestly don't know how it is that I've never read any Wodehouse before this - according to the bio on the back of the book, he wrote 90+ books before he died in 1975.

I recall several years ago now asking around for recommendations of humorous authors and Angie from TVA recommended Wodehouse and chuckled a little to herself thinking of his stuff. I should have listened harder, but I forgot about Wodehouse until I saw some Wodehouse on Vee's shelf while I was teaching in Kingston this year. Not that I read any of her Wodehouse either...I'm really very thick it seems.

Anyway, somehow I was recently inspired to pick up Leave It to Psmith and I began reading it this morning instead of copy editing as I should be doing. I'm about 90 pages in and it's a light, satisfying, and increasingly hilarious read. I don't often laugh out loud when reading but it's occurred several times already - and the hi jinx are only just about to begin.

FYI: the p in Psmith is silent, "as in phthsis, psychic, and ptarmigan" - Psmith added the silent p to distinguish himself from other run-of-the-mill Smiths.

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