Summer Reading Challenge – create a movie soundtrack to your favorite book

One of the fun squares on my Summer Reading Challenge BINGO card is to create a soundtrack to my favorite book if it became a movie. For those of you who don’t know, my #1 all-time favorite book is Youngblood Hawke by Herman Wouk.  Wouk has been writing books for decades, most notably The Caine Mutiny, which was published in 1951 and won the Pulitzer Prize, Marjorie Morningstar, The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, and of course, Youngblood Hawke.

Read all about Herman Wouk in “Who’s That Author?” here. And by the way, Wouk is 102 years old and at age 100 published Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year Old Author.

So you can make sense of my soundtrack, here’s a quick summary of Youngblood Hawke:

Youngblood Hawke is the story of a young author from the coal mines of Kentucky who arrives in New York and becomes a hugely successful and prolific novelist. Publishers, agents, Broadway producers, filmmakers, real estate developers and, of course, women, all want a piece of this larger-than-life, good-natured and ambitious personality. Hawke’s goal all along is to make enough money so that he can really get down to business and write his most serious work, something he calls his American Comedy.

He has a work ethic like no other, writes all through the night, sleeps very little and spends the rest of his time trying to manage his new successful life, with many detours. Pushed to his limits, Hawke ignores recurring symptoms of a head injury from years ago. We watch and hope for the best as he works maniacally and under incredible financial pressure to complete his latest book. His dream is just ahead and we hope for the best.

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Here’s my soundtrack!

• Everyday I Write the Book – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
• Talk of the Town – The Pretenders
• The Book I Read – Talking Heads
• It’s Hard To Be a Saint In The City – Bruce Springsteen
• Unwritten – Natasha Bedingfield
• I’m So Anxious – Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes
• Reelin’ in the Years – Steely Dan
• Gone Hollywood – Supertramp
• Life’ll Kill Ya – Warren Zevon

Note:  Youngblood Hawke was actually made into a movie in 1964 and starred James Franciscus, Suzanne Pleshette and Geneviève Page. My song choices are my own. You can check out the details of the film here.

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I created this movie soundtrack as part of my Build a Better World Summer Reading Challenge.

What’s your favorite book? Can you make a soundtrack for it?

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Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary
by
Gustave Flaubert

Rating:

You may have already read this classic French novel from 1857, which caused a big stir when it was first published. Labeled as obscene and immoral, many readers were scandalized by Emma Bovary’s adulterous behavior in the book. When the storm cleared, however, readers and critics agreed that Flaubert had written a fantastic story about a young, unhappy middle class woman who does everything she can to ruin her life and the lives of those who love her. With this book, Flaubert also branded a new writing style called literary realism.

I first read Madame Bovary in college. When I picked it up again, I realized that most of what I had remembered was about Emma and her unhappiness and, of course, her secret affairs. Reading it a second time, years later, I saw more and I saw Emma in a different light.

If you haven’t read the book, here’s a quick summary:

Emma Roualt is a young woman living with her father in a French provincial town. She was raised in a convent, thinking she would become a nun, but her heart wasn’t in it, and when her mother died, she returned to live with her father, with a head full of romance novels and unformed ideas about love and happiness. In comes Dr. Charles Bovary, who tends to her father’s broken leg. They’re taken with each other, but Bovary is married, so nothing happens until his wife suddenly dies. It hadn’t been a happy marriage, so before long, Emma Roualt becomes Emma Bovary.

It isn’t until Emma settles into her new married life that she regrets marrying the first man who came along. And that’s where the trouble begins, first with Leon Dupuis, a young clerk in town. They resist temptation for now, but just wait until later. Emma gives in to unbridled passion when she meets Rodolphe Boulanger, however, a womanizing landowner. During their affair, she alternates between depression and mania and when it’s over, Emma crashes. Poor Charles, who adores Emma, is left clueless.

Second reads always teach you something new. This time, I became frustrated with Emma. I was struck with how poorly she regarded Charles. Even though I knew she wouldn’t open her eyes, I wanted her to appreciate him. I also became more aware of important secondary characters and their motives. Homais the chemist and Lheureux the draper are part of a terrific side story that drives the plot in the second half of the book and I admit I enjoyed seeing Emma lose control of her folly.

For those who have not read this classic, I’ll leave out the spoilers. And I will leave the scholarly reviews to the experts. I’ll simply say that the characters, descriptions and plot in Madame Bovary place the book at the top of my list. Take a look at a great review by Kathryn Harrison of the New York Times here. Or if you prefer your drama to be onscreen, check out the 2014 film here.

And for more information about Gustave Flaubert, visit Who’s That Author? Gustave Flaubert.

I read Madame Bovary as part of my Build a Better World Summer Reading Challenge to read a book I had read before.

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Food for thought – books with food references in their titles

Image: Pixabay

Whether it’s a direct reference or a more subtle metaphor, there is no shortage of book titles that have something to do with food.  It’s always fun to organize collections this way.  These classics, thrillers, children’s books and modern fiction all have this common food trait:

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A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway’s memoir of his days in Paris, where he was part of the expatriate community of writers, artists and creative minds, known now as the “Lost Generation”

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Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

Capote’s character sketch of Holly Golightly, a nineteen-year-old runaway in New York who tries to escape her sad past

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Eating Bull by Carrie Rubin

Exciting medical thriller that tackles the subject of obesity and the food industry’s role in this serious health problem

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In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

In his guide to eating right, Pollan simplifies the dizzying task of figuring out what to eat:  Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.

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One Hundred Hungry Ants by Elinor J. Pinczes

Entertaining children’s book that uses hungry ants to teach math and a life lesson

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Pete’s a Pizza by William Steig

Pete’s mad because it’s raining and he can’t go outside, so his parents turn him into a pizza in this quietly warm children’s story.

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Taste by Tracy Ewens

Sophisticated and a little bit spicy romance about young professionals in the restaurant business

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The Dinner by Herman Koch

Twisted tale about a seriously messed up and unlikable family with a terrible secret

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The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

One of the greatest American stories of endurance ever told.  When The Grapes of Wrath was published, Steinbeck said, “I’ve done my damndest to rip a reader’s nerves to rags.”

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We the Eaters by Ellen Gustafson

An argument for ways “we the eaters” can change the world by fighting against big companies like Monsanto and Cargill and buying more organic and whole foods

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What do your books in common?

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Ernest Hemingway – love him or hate him?

I’m getting ready to read A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway’s memoir of Paris in the 1920s.  During this time, Hemingway wrote both The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms and became part of the expatriate community in Paris, which included Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Dos Passos.  This group is commonly known as the “Lost Generation”, a description Hemingway made popular when he wrote The Sun Also Rises, and a phrase to whom he credits Gertrude Stein.

Hemingway died in 1961 and A Moveable Feast was published in 1964.  My copy of the book includes a foreward by Hemingway’s son, Patrick and an introduction by Seán Hemingway, the author’s grandson.

Now you either love Hemingway or you hate him.  I happen to think he is one of the greatest writers of all time, but many readers become frustrated with his style.  I have always liked his simple dialogues, word choices and descriptions because I think they make the characters and events all the more moving.  I recently read a review of The Old Man and the Sea  in which the reviewer commented that she thought she would like it better now that she was older but she still hated it!

I’m still working on reading all his books and short fiction, but you can check out my opinions of these:

A Farewell to Arms

The Old Man and the Sea

The Sun Also Rises

“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

“Hills Like White Elephants”

“The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”

What do you think of Papa Hemingway?

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If you enjoy reading about Hemingway and the Lost Generation, you may like The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.

 

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From the Archives: Books about Water and the Sea

With only a few weeks left on our summer calendars, there’s still time to read a book about water and the sea.  Take a look at this mix of classic tales, popular fiction and nonfiction!

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Classic fiction

Lord of the Flies by William Golding
What happens to a group of young British schoolboys when their plane is shot down and they land on deserted island in the Pacific?

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The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The classic Hemingway story of Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman who has not caught a fish in eighty-four days

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Popular fiction

Sea Creatures by Susanna Daniel
Set in Miami, Florida, a story about love, marriage, family, death, art, weather and the sea

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Stiltsville by Susanna Daniel
All about marriage, family and relationships in a community of stilt houses in the Miami sand flats

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The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott
Light historical fiction and romance written into the history of the Titanic’s voyage, its passengers and the disaster’s aftermath

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The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman
A story of a lighthouse keeper and his wife, who live alone on an island off Western Australia

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The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Fast-paced, coming-of-age fantasy tale for adults about the mysteries of life, death, nature, the past, and the present

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We Are Water by Wally Lamb
A rotating narrative about abuse over time and generations, and its range of effects

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Mystery

Death in a Red Canvas Chair by N. A. Granger
Debut mystery novel, the first in a series about Rhe Brewster and her adventures as an amateur detective.  Set in the fictional coastal town of Pequod, Maine

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Death in a Dacron Sail by N. A. Granger
The second in the Rhe Brewster mystery series, full of New England color and Maine personality

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Romance

Catalina Kiss by Tracy Ewens
Where the Tracy Ewens romance series begins.  Set on the island of Catalina during Prohibition, a light, feel-good romance

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Young Adult/Children’s

Casey of Cranberry Cove by Susan Kotch
Teen love on the Jersey shore, lots of fun shore references for Jersey guys and girls

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The Cay by Theodore Taylor
Touching coming-of-age story about an eleven-year-old American boy living on the island of Curaçao during World War II

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Tommy’s Mommy’s Fish by Nancy Dingman Watson
Tommy wants to give his mother the best birthday present so he heads to the beach to catch the biggest fish he can.

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Non-fiction

Colors of Naples and the Amalfi Coast by Margie Miklas
Coffee table/photo book featuring the people, streets and culture of a beautiful part of Italy, showcasing magnificent coastlines, ancient architecture and vibrant street life

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In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
True survival story of the whaleship Essex, attacked and sunk by an eighty-five foot sperm whale in the Pacific

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Read but not reviewed

Billy Budd by Herman Melville
A classic Melville story about the battle between good and evil

Jaws by Peter Benchley
Gripping suspense novel about a killer shark off a Long Island beach

Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Ahab takes on a killer whale.  Classic story inspired by the whaleship Essex

Gift from the Sea by Ann Morrow Lindbergh
Meditations about love, marriage and family written by Charles Lindbergh’s American wife

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Do you have any favorite tales about the sea?

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The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea
by
Ernest Hemingway

Rating:

Warning – some spoilers below:

I’ve been on a Hemingway kick lately and The Old Man and the Sea is another great way to experience a writing style that is deceivingly simple but has deeply thoughtful and powerful themes.  I have always enjoyed books that feature man versus nature.  It is one of the primary themes in this classic, studied each year by a new crop of both students and leisure readers.  And because I love stories about hope and overcoming adversity, another important idea in the book, this one is on the top of my list.

The Old Man and the Sea is the story of Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman who has not caught a fish in eighty-four days.  Every day, he goes out to sea in his fishing skiff, and returns empty-handed.  His companion, a boy, no longer fishes with him, sent by the boy’s parents to a more successful fishing boat.  From the beginning, despite this bad luck streak, there is something enduring in Santiago’s being.  In the first pages, Hemingway writes, “Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.”

When Santiago hooks a giant marlin, he knows he has a big challenge ahead.  Strength, patience and resolve sustain him as the fish pulls him far out into the ocean.  For two days, the fish pulls the fisherman before finally slowing.  But much will test Santiago’s resolve in a series of triumphs and losses.  In the end, the old man remains undefeated in spirit, despite returning with a much lighter haul.  Instead, Santiago simply notes how well the boat sails now that it is lighter.

Hemingway’s story has inspired a lot of art work. I like this picture by Carey Chen from fineartamerica.com

Santiago’s respect for nature and the power of his opponent make him much more than a fisherman.  He is part of a bigger scheme and he knows his place.  He feels deeply for the fish, the birds and the life around him.  Santiago’s connection to nature is most evident when he finally faces the marlin.  “Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or more noble thing than you, brother,” he says.

And when he finally returns to his village, Santiago may discover how much he is revered by the other villagers and most of all, by his fishing companion, the boy who so tenderly cares for him.

The Old Man and the Sea was published in 1952 and was a huge success.  Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.  Check it out and see what I mean!

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A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms
by
Ernest Hemingway

Rating:

Each time I re-read a favorite classic, I finish with a new appreciation for the story and the author. It was no different this week when I picked up A Farewell to Arms. It’s such a well-known book, it’s tempting to think, “Oh, I already know that story. Why re-read it?” Why? Because each time you are guaranteed to get something different out of it. It had been at least twenty years since I had read A Farewell to Arms and I can’t remember if I’d read it only once or twice before. I have always liked Hemingway’s writing style and find his stories easy to read, but full of deeper ideas and feelings. And who doesn’t like a wartime love story?

This is a love story about Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver serving in the Italian army during World War I, who falls in love with a young English nurse, Catherine Barkley. Their relationship is just getting underway when Henry is badly wounded and sent to a Red Cross hospital in Milan. Catherine soon follows and the two begin a romance that is wholly defined by the circumstances that surround them.

This is a commentary on war as much as it is a romance, however and Hemingway used his own experiences as an ambulance driver during the war to tell it. He was badly wounded, just as Frederic Henry was, and recuperated for six months in Milan, where he fell in love with an American nurse named Agnes von Kurowski. They had planned to marry, but the relationship ended when Hemingway was sent home and she became engaged to an Italian officer.

Here’s a picture of (a very handsome) Hemingway while recuperating in Milan:

Photo: Britannica.com

And here’s the (very pretty) nurse Hemingway fell in love with:

Agnes von Korowsky Photo: Wikipedia.org

In his book, he talks about the Italian countryside in typical Hemingway style, describing the color of the sky, the sparkling water and the mountains above. And then he adds the Italian troops trying to fight against the Austrians, in impossible mountain terrain. Many of his characters question the purpose of the war. One of the drivers puts it plainly, “If everybody would not attack the war would be over.”

Henry sees the war clearest when he returns to duty:

Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.

It’s this new understanding of the war that drives Henry’s decisions for the rest of the story, and when it ends in a hospital in Switzerland, Hemingway leaves the reader to think about how things might have been different, without the backdrop of war.

I enjoyed all of A Farewell to Arms, but the most exciting scene occurs late in the book and involves a rough trip in a rowboat on Lake Maggiore, which borders both Italy and Switzerland. This picture helped me imagine what would seem an impossible voyage.

Lake Maggiore Photo: Wikipedia

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If you’re a movie lover, you may be interested to know that there are two film versions of A Farewell to Arms:

• In 1932, starring Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou. Directed by Frank Borzage. Screenplay by Benjamin Glazer and Oliver H.P. Garrett. It won two Academy Awards, one for Best Cinematography and Best Sound. The film was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Art Direction. Click here to visit IMDb for a full description of this film.
• In 1957, starring Rock Hudson, Jennifer Jones and Vittorio De Sica. Directed by Charles Vidor and John Huston. Screenplay by Ben Hecht. Vittorio was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Visit IMDb for more information on this later film.

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If you’re a Hemingway fan, you may enjoy the following:

The Sun Also Rises
“The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”
“Hills Like White Elephants”
“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

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A Farewell to Arms, like other Hemingway stories and novels, is deceptively simple, with complex ideas, definitely worthy of a re-read or two! I may soon be returning to other Hemingway favorites. Who are your favorite authors? Do you have a favorite re-read? Has your experience been different each time?

Thank you to the following sources: Wikipedia.org and Biography.com.

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Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five
by
Kurt Vonnegut

Rating:

Slaughterhouse-Five is hands down, a genius combination of truth and fiction. Kurt Vonnegut’s famous satirical novel is about violence and war and the idea of free will. It’s an autobiographical and fictional mix built into a story about Billy Pilgrim’s time travels on Earth and his visit to the distant planet Tralfamadore. It was published in 1969, in the midst of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and became a best-seller because of its anti-war sentiment. It has been banned from some schools and studied in others and is considered Vonnegut’s most influential work. I think it is excellent in its message, its symbolism and its construction.

Vonnegut’s main character, Billy Pilgrim, jumps back and forth through time and tries to make sense of a life that has been dramatically transformed by his experience as an American prisoner during World War Two. Billy wasn’t meant for war, but there he is. His miraculous survival after the Allied bombing and total destruction of Dresden, Germany is a turning point in his life, a moment he struggles, unconsciously, to understand and beat.

Billy copes in a way no one around him can understand, by retreating inward and traveling in time, past and future and being kidnapped by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. Tralfamadorians tell Billy that there is no real end in time. “All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist.” They tell him that moments in time are like “bugs trapped in amber.” When Billy notes that life on their planet is peaceful, unlike on Earth, they tell him they, too have experienced violent wars, but they have a way to deal with them. “There isn’t anything we can do about them, so we simply don’t look at them. We ignore them. We spend eternity looking at pleasant moments.”

I like everything about this book. Many of characters are symbols of certain types of thought and are precisely depicted through their actions and what they say. When Billy’s daughter, Barbara treats him like a child, I found myself believing in Tralfamadore. When Billy visits his mother at Pine Knoll nursing home, I felt his mother’s tears, as she pulls all her “energy from all over her ruined body, even her toes and fingertips” just to ask Billy, “How did I get so old?” I hated Roland Weary, I felt sad for Wild Bob and the hobo who says, “This ain’t bad. This ain’t nothing at all.” I saw the irony of Edgar Derby’s fate, a teacher of “Contemporary Problems in Western Civilization” and the image of Derby’s face bursting into tears after Billy feeds him a spoon of syrup.

This is one of those books that reads quickly and gives the first impression of a story casually told, but it’s not. Every word is carefully chosen, every character is deliberately included, and every jump in time is purposefully choreographed. And despite the graphic descriptions and language and the ugliness of war, this book has a beauty about it that’s hard to describe.

While this story is about Billy’s personal struggle, its bigger story and strongest message is about war. I think Vonnegut’s description of the Allied bombing of Dresden in reverse is very powerful:

“The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes.”

Vonnegut continues this reverse description back to the beginning of man, where eventually, “Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve.” All that’s complicated and violent, returning to something so simple.

It took me a long time to get to Slaughterhouse-Five. I don’t think these ideas will ever leave me.

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Very Good, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

Very Good, Jeeves
from
Just Enough Jeeves
by
P.G. Wodehouse

Rating:

I have a plan, sir, which I fancy may produce satisfactory results.

These words are music to Bertie Wooster’s ears in the second selection of books from Just Enough Jeeves, by P. G. Wodehouse. Very Good, Jeeves is a collection of eleven stories in which Bertie Wooster finds himself caught in a variety of tight spots and is invariably saved by his faithful manservant, Jeeves.

In these stories, Bertie fancies he has the same problem-solving expertise as Jeeves. His solutions to a variety of situations, such as enacting revenge on his boyhood pal, Tuppy Glossop, wriggling out of the clutches of his controlling Aunt Agatha, or saving Bingo Little’s marriage, fall short in logic and execution and Jeeves is always at the ready to save the day or arrange for a quick escape.

Sometimes Bertie is a nettled that no one takes him seriously, including Jeeves. Sometimes Jeeves is piqued that Bertie goes against his advice, but their amusing back and forths during the situation of the moment lead each story to a happy finish. And in the end, an ever-grateful Bertie always gives brainy Jeeves due credit.

You know, whatever you may say against old Jeeves – and I, for one have never wavered in my opinion that his views on shirts for evening wear are hidebound and reactionary to a degree – you’ve got to admit that the man can plan a campaign. Napoleon could have taken his correspondence course.

Very Good, Jeeves is another wonderful escape into the silly world of the upper class English, poking fun in just the right way.

For more P.G. Wodehouse, please visit these posts:

Joy in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse
P.G. Wodehouse – Author Info

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Joy in the Morning by P.G. Wodehouse

Joy in the Morning
from
Just Enough Jeeves
by
P.G. Wodehouse

Rating:

Imagine a scenario in which ridiculous characters bumble through a series of hilarious coincidences and an equal number of snafus, all in the name of love, marriage and a big business deal. That’s the main idea in Joy in the Morning, the first of three short novels included in Just Enough Jeeves, a great introduction to P.G. Wodehouse’s famous characters, a twenty-something Bertie Wooster and his manservant Jeeves.

In this story, Bertie and Jeeves leave London and head for the quiet hamlet of Steeple Bumpleigh. To anyone wishing to escape a hectic metropolis, Steeple Bumpleigh sounds great. Bertie describes it as located “in the midst of smiling fields and leafy woods, hard by a willow-fringed river.” It’s a place where “you couldn’t have thrown a brick in it without hitting a honeysuckle-covered cottage or beaning an apple-cheeked villager.” Steeple Bumpleigh is also the place, however, where Bertie’s domineering Aunt Agatha and her fearsome second husband, Uncle Percy live. And nothing good can come of meeting up with them.

Uncle Percy, a shipping magnate, seeking wise counsel, enlisted Jeeves to come up with a scheme for Percy to meet in secret and seal a big business deal with a wealthy American shipping tycoon. What better place to meet than the Wee Nooke, temporary country cottage to Bertie Wooster? It takes some convincing to get Bertie to agree, but Bertie is nothing if not a good sport and the promise of a fancy dress ball is an extra bonus.

Add to the mix the ever-changing romantic ties between Bertie, his ex-fiancée Florence Craye, and her current betrothed, Stilton Cheeswright and things get a little complicated. Florence is Uncle Percy’s daughter from his first marriage and Bertie had narrowly escaped her clutches only months earlier. If that wasn’t enough to cause some hilarious disasters, throw in twenty-year-old Zenobia (Nobby) Hopwood, Percy’s ward, who is madly in love with a famous writer, Boko Fittleworth. Nobby needs Percy’s approval to tie the knot, but Percy has vetoed a wedding. In steps Bertie to put in a good word and you can only guess where that will lead.

I loved this clever story! Joy in the Morning is pure entertainment and a great escape into the frivolous upper crust world of a lovable good chap who gets himself into the wildest predicaments. As in all of Wodehouse’s books, everyone counts on the ever-wise Jeeves for a solution and he does not disappoint. It is written in a light and fun-loving mood and I read the whole thing with a big smile on my face. Check it out and you’ll know what I mean!

Click here to learn more about P.G. Wodehouse.
Check out my review of Very Good, Jeeves.

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