What is Chinese New Year but an excuse to overeat, get annoyed daily by your long-winded pseudo-old-man of a 14-year old nephew (he keeps at it till I counter with “Whaddya want, Pakcik*?” and then he disappears for a bit), forgo all forms of exercise, and oh, did I mention the overeating? Still, what best time for foraging in my bedroom for books unread and to reread?
Let’s see, what have I here? Some Sandman, the whole Frederica Potter quartet by A.S. Byatt (The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life, Babel Tower and A Whistling Woman), and oh! half of the Story Teller 2 series from my kiddie days**. But what’s this? Good ole P.G. Wodehouse, he of the prolific comical gentlemen novels filled with troubled lovers. My favourite books of his, though, are his solo works, arguably better than his more beloved series (e.g. Psmith, Jeeves, Blandings Castle).
French Leave covers (l-r): 1955, 1959 & 1992.
This round I chose two standalone books: French Leave and The Luck of the Bodkins. The former is a racous roundabout across the French Riviera involving sisters from an American egg farm, local policemen, a Marquis and his writer son, and not one, but two bottled water millionaires; the second details the shenanigans surrounding three love-struck couples on board a cruise ship with a python, a pearl necklace and an ever-present, ever-troublesome ever-garrulous steward. And that’s just the plot.
Seriously though, the best part is the comedy.
Of course, since dear departed Wodehouse has been writing since forever, I found it delightful to get online and look up past covers of his books, some since the ‘50s. And what a treasure trove I’ve uncovered! (No pun intended.) Some find may find these covers dated or worse, ugly, but to me, they are little time capsules where we find traces of another era, perhaps a period more innocent, more glamorous, more flippant. At least, that’s the way Wodehouse would see it.
Something Fishy (1957), The Luck of the Bodkins (1948),
Service with a Smile (1962)
He had always maintained that there were two ways of writing a novel, one that is true to the realities of the day, harsh or otherwise, and then there was his way. His hand is always light and generous. Some critics have renounced his stories, accusing him of recycling his plots (which weren’t entirely true though a certain framework ran through the backbone of all his books, i.e. lovers separated by miserly uncles or overprotective aunts or quite often, both).
Me, I believe he is the most magnificent exclamation the English language has produced that if you write well, if you can engage and amuse the reader, who’s looking at the plot anyways? (Though many of the writers he has inspired, inc. Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett and Stephen Fry, do manage both the humour and the plot bits.)
Personally, I find no better way of driving away the holiday blues than to curl up in bed with a good volume of Wodehouse, and perhaps a pineapple tart or two. You might just find yourself greeting your open house guests with a “What ho!” or a “Right ho!” (though they must wonder who this Ho fellow is…)
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N.B. You can find some of P.G. Wodehouse’s books at Project Gutenberg free for download as they are in the public domain. I recommend The Man With Two Left Feet and A Damsel in Distress.
* “Pakcik” = “Uncle” in Malay.
**A whole post on this next month! Promise!
wow… that’s a lot of book. how do you manage reading books and reading blogs at the same time. i know i mentioned about finding time… but books + blogs = difficult task.
That’s easy: during CNY in Malacca, I had no internet = no blog reading!
I did take one day out to the local Coffee Bean to make use of the WiFi, but other than that, just spent most of my time at home reading and eating.
Blogs are great though, I love reading them. So maybe the solution is to balance both of them? One way is to juggle several books simultaneously, e.g. one book by the bed, one in the car, one in the kitchen… It’ll take longer to finish them, but once you’re done, you’d have read several books instead of slogging through just one!
Of course, it’s also a sneaky way of evening out the odds.
Chances are there might be a lousy read in there somewhere, but I would have read two or three other good ones in the meantime too.
Hey Uncle, I’ve forgotten to wish ya a (belated, sorry) happy new year aye? See you this Satsday with your roast chickin!
Oh, me and my “roast chickin” will be there alright.
I’ll even bring food…
Menny Kah, thanks for the visit. Hope to see you at the breakfast club, next month?
Haha… That’s brilliant! Now if I apply spoonerism with ya, it’ll be Tak Keh? As in that diva tak “care” if people think she’s wearing a wig? Hee hee.
And yes, see you next month at the Breakfast Club. I’ll even have an incey-wincey role to play also…
Never tried Wodehouse before Kenny but will check them out. Love the covers you posted — very comic-retro.
Yo Kennyyyyy!I couldnt make it to the Litbloggers’ thingy! Forgot that I had cello lessons! What a waste !I had already dry-cleaned my labuccied bustier for the occasion!! But pray tell, how was it?
hi,
thanks for dropping by. i have no problem about the libnk to my blog.i am actually reviving my passion to write poems and i do love to read. the book book i read this year ( being this is only feb) is the memory keeper’s daughter by kim edwards.
Eliza D,
I love those covers too! I’m hoping to bring back more retro-style designs to covers myself — maybe even local books?
The Quiet Storm,
What a shame. I was looking forward to meeting you but saw no one matching your description at the Breakfast Club. I’ll wrote more about it tomorrow, after I’ve recovered from this long day — five events/functions from 9:00am Saturday till 1:30am the next day!
Enar,
I’m glad you are writing poems again. They are good. Looking forward to reading more of them!
Hi Kenny,
I am the main administrator of puisi-poesy, so would like to thank you for visiting our blog. We are trying to foster a poetry reading community in Malaysia, including Malay puisi and sajak, but haven’t been able to get that side of it going yet, so have concentrated on poetry written in English instead, because that is what most of us are more familiar with. We hope to venture into local writing later, when the time is right, and perhaps start a literary journal of sorts.
Cheers. Hope you’ll visit us from time to time.
Heya Dreamer Idiot,
A literary journal sounds like a fine thing to aim for; you can count on my interest and help in spreading the word whenever it comes out.
Did I meet you at the Readings @ Seksan’s yesterday? So hard to tell when we don’t know the real names of the bloggers, heh heh.
Kenny
I grew up with P G Wodehouse and remember A Damsel in Distress, altho I can’t exactly remember what it’s about. But he’s best known for his Jeeves and Blandings Castle stories. There’s even a British TV series called Jeeves and Wooster, starring Stephen Fry as Jeeves and Hugh Laurie (Dr House) as Bertie Wooster.
I must go and download his books from Project Gutenberg. Thanks for the tip!
Glad to have you dropping by, Chet!
Yes, I do know the series, and I am a big fan of Mr. Fry, though I haven’t seen the series yet. Fry himself is huge admirer of Wodehouse (and Oscar Wilde, whom he portrayed in the film titled, strangely enough, Wilde).
A Damsel in Distress provides a small lesson in the end about how funny memory can be and how badly it serves us…
Was there a line in the book about the damsel crying and adding a star to the sky? I have the quote in my scrapbook and I’m quite sure it was by PG.
No, I don’t think so, but do let me know if I’m wrong. It seems a tad too sentimental & elegiac, even for Wodehouse.
I need to unearth the scrapbook from the many boxes in the store room.
I’m sure there will be many treasures there. Likely you will have an enjoyable time side-tracked by old books you’ve forgotten about…
Kenny, one simple question for you. I had a read of “Broken Mornings” — it is very good — why hasn’t a publisher taken it up yet?
Uhm, cos I haven’t submitted it to anyone yet?
That’s my dirty little secret, Tunku. Despite being “brave” enough to put it online for all to read and criticize, I haven’t found the courage yet to send it to a real publisher.
Perhaps I worry about the length of the stories, that publishers would want something meatier. But I’m beginning to enjoy these brief tales of mine, and have decided to write more in this vein rather than a longer, typical short story form (as I had initially planned).
The other obstacle would be my own marketing experience which keeps bugging me with the question, “How are you going to sell this in the local market?”
Would Malaysian readers want this?
“Would Malaysian readers want this?”
You won’t know if you don’t try.
Oh you shame me, Chet, with your words. Yes, I guess I won’t till I try. And if I believe in Yoda, I’ll do more than just try…
Kenny — why not pitch to book to Eric Forbes? Very short stories are fine. People have little time these days! Also, it’s a fantastic cover.
With your encouragement, Tunku, I shall!
Basically I need to gather up a few more stories and start pitching to publishers… I believe I will leave Broken Mornings as a free online sampler though, and pitch a new book, with most of the stories in Broken Mornings, plus many more new stories and a new title. And a new cover design!
Kenny, your Broken Mornings has a nice cover too. Lovely model.
Thanks, Eliza. The original photograph was taken by Evan Welsch; I then photoshopped the heck out of it, and voila! Will be designing more book covers in coming months, so keep an eye on this blog!
[…] when I was home in Malacca for the holidays? So many books, so little time. I doubt any of us will ever finish reading all the books we own, […]