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Aug 2018
5:53pm, 14 Aug 2018
4,603 posts
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BanjoBax
Read this a year or so ago and kept thinking it was one I'd read before but not as good as I remembered.
Am a fan of J&W generally though, and have a soft spot for the Empress of Blandings too. I remember seeing Stephen Fry eulogise about Wodehouse's use of language one time.
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Aug 2018
6:57pm, 19 Aug 2018
105,623 posts
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GregP
To cut a long story short.
Ten pages in I was purring like a kitten - forgotten how much I loved Wodehouse etc.
Twenty pages in I was bored witless and thought perhaps short doses were all I would be able to face.
Having got over that hump I read it very slowly just to make it last. I loved it.
Score then? Eight from me, because it isn't one of the best so nine would perhaps be over-generous. So a top end eight. Loved it.
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Aug 2018
7:03am, 20 Aug 2018
105,628 posts
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GregP
Reading back, see also Diode 29,274.
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Aug 2018
8:18pm, 25 Aug 2018
8,743 posts
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Little Nemo
Not sure how to review this book, it wasn't laugh out loud funny but it did make me smile. I was worried about reading it because the series is such a classic. I had a friend who was obsessed with them and because I'd left it so long I wasn't sure I could enjoy it. I appreciate how well it was written, it can't be easy to make a stupid person engaging. I liked the weird similes the best - my favourite was:
"He also spoke of stirring up my face like an omelette and buttering me over the West End of London." It was surreal and brilliant 
The nearest comparison I can find with the style are those episodes of Frasier that are like French farces. When you're in the right mood they are brilliant but you couldn't watch back to back episodes. They are on the verge of being over-written so you can only take them in small doses. I read this book in 20-30 page bursts otherwise I started to find it too contrived.
I enjoyed it enough that I'd try other J&W books - but only from the library.
I gave this book a 6.
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Aug 2018
8:22pm, 25 Aug 2018
8,744 posts
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Little Nemo
Having read the other comments it seems as though this isn't one of the best. So maybe I should definitely look for one of the earlier ones in the library in a couple of months.
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Aug 2018
11:05am, 31 Aug 2018
106,295 posts
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GregP
This might have been mentioned before, but I just found that JATFS is also known as “Bertie Wooster Sees It Through”.
I know this because I was just googling to find the name of the mystery novel Bertie was reading, as I thought it would make a fine title for my lunchtime bike ride, which in all probability will be called “The Mystery of the Pink Crayfish”.
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Sep 2018
3:10pm, 2 Sep 2018
8,691 posts
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Serendippily
So not reading back - I like a bit of Wodehouse but this didn’t engage me till he got to his aunts. They are all formulaic but the turn of phrase can be sublime. I genuinely laughed when he fell out the cupboard even though it was obviously coming. But it wasn’t quite as fun as I remembered them. I think maybe this just wasn’t one of his best
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