"Uncle Dynamite" - PG Wodehouse - Book Review

(Reposted from my old blog - originally posted 30th August 2012)

Uncle Dynamite - PG Wodehouse

1948 Herbert jenkins

(my copy - penguin 1966)

"You can't beat inevitability" writes Wodehouse in this charming little book, and on this occasion, correctly so. Uncle Dynamite contains everything one comes to rely upon in a Wodehouse novel - firstly, it is very funny, secondly it transports the reader to long forgotten idylls of English country summers, thirdly, the plot twists cleverly and unpredictably, with nothing lost and everything neatly resolved, finally it is stacked full of the inevitably reassuring cast of typical Wodehouse characters from bellowing old imperials with grand moustaches to fey inept young nephews to horse-faced women to adorable nubile golden haired girls.

There is nothing new here, but at the same time it never feels old or hackneyed and the key to that is the unfaltering brilliance of the prose, the divine wordplay and the timeless comedy of man's idiocy, magnificently rendered.

For what it's worth, this is a tale of engagements and sculptures, bonny babies and Brazilian explorers, set amongst the realms of country estates and sleepy parishes. Naturally everything works out, as one hopes it will, for the best - it's hardly a spoiler but the right guys get the right girls and the grumpy uncle gets exactly what is coming to him.

Possibly the master of the light summer read, Wodehouse is hard to put down and easily digestible, just like the strawberries and muffins.

FC

30th August 2012