Do Butlers Burgle Banks?: PG Wodehouse - 1968 ***

 

 

"Mr. Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in". I think Evelyn Waugh's quote best sums up PG Wodehouse's work in all senses. His stories do delight us still, and there is nothing that cannot be solved after reading a few pages of one of his books. In this relatively overlooked little treasure, butlers and burglers are getting mixed up, robbing banks without intending to, taking jobs they aren't entitled to, proposing to girls they really shouldn't, and generally making a pig's ear out of every possible step they make. The strength of Wodehouse in my opinion isn't just the laughs you get from reading him, but also it's the marvel of how he manages to weave so many characters into his work, and then remembers to mix them all up in a controlled way, only to mix them all up again (and the names he comes up with for his characters are sheer bliss). I think his books are pure magic and always will be.

The Enchanted April: Elizabeth von Arnim - 1922 *****

 

  'The Enchanted April' is one of those rare and lovely treats, a book you delight in picking up whenever possible, where each words is like music to your ears, and you forget that you are reading a book and 'beome' the story instead. The vivid descriptions of Italy just leave you floating on a cloud. A real hidden gem, this charming book centres around 4 very different women, all lacking excitement in their lives, and their shared goal of spending a month in April in Italy renting out a castle after spotting an advertisment in a newspaper. The story is warm, innocent and at times highly amusing, and the 4 main characters are shaped exquisitely. Watching the interaction between each woman, the highs and lows, and the inevitable sparks that fly was sublime. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and Elizabeth von Arnim is now on my TBR list.

Departure Lounge: Chad Taylor - 2006 ** 1/2

 

Departure Lounge is one of those very odd books that tries far too hard to be something it's not. I am all for Hard Boiled Crime, or Pulp Fiction, but this was just trying to be arty and as a result it made virtually no impact on me whatsoever. Added to which, the characters were jumping all over the place, the chapters were scattered backwards and forwards, and none of the people in the book were ironed out sufficiently. I read it until the end, begrudgingly picking it up because I felt I had to, and almost immediately I had blanked out the experience of reading it. None of the dirty, gritty and sweaty emotional rollarcoaster of a Hard boiled Lawrence Block novel was present, and that was exactly what the book was lacking.