Saturday 3 October 2015

Piccadilly Jim by P.G. Wodehouse

"No sense of anything strange or untoward about the situation came to mar the perfect joy of Mr. Pett, the overmastering joy of the baseball fan who in a strange land unexpectedly encounters a brother. "


I have been in a bit of a literary funk of late, due no doubt to lack of sleep and work stress -  deadlines are not my friend! Luckily, I recalled the perfect tonic for any reading dilemma is to gorge on a little Wodehouse. Note to self - Wodehouse cures all woes. Naturally I am completely enamoured with Wooster and Jeeves, however it is a delight to delve into some of his other characters - enter Piccadilly Jim.

It seems fitting that I began reading this in the hairdresser's chair, white wine in one hand, book in other; and covered in enough foils to make contact with outer space. Now that I've set the scene, let us return to the novel. I say it seems fitting, as if that setting seems a little busy, just wait to you get to the convoluted plot of this delightful little read.

Bingley, an upwardly mobile American financier, well that is if his wife has anything to do with it, is living in London and missing baseball with a passion. The comparison between baseball and cricket in the book had me in stitches and I'm not a particular fan of either sport. I've been to one game of each - does that count?
His playboy son, the eponymous Piccadilly Jim, has a tendency to over-indulge and cause scandal, and then there's the world's worst kid, Ogden, his nephew who some people would like to kidnap and send to dog training school to rid him of his insolence.

What follows is a delightful concoction of bad poetry, mistaken identities, would be criminal activities and just plain good fun

 5 out of 5 fake aristocrats have multiple names.

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