Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Psmith, the journalist

This was probably the duller ones of P.G.Wodehouse's work that I found. I found the story really slowly moving and the repeated addresses of the main character Psmith of calling everyone a comrade was sort of annoying. But nevertheless, Wodehouse kept me with the story and carried me to the end.
Cosy Moments editor, Mr.Wilburfloss takes a vacation for 10 weeks due to his ill health, leaving the running of the magazine to Billy Windsor. The office boy Pugsy Maloney rescues a cat belonging to his cousin, Bat Jarvis, a local leader of hitmen.
Accompanying his friend Mike Jackson on a cricket tour, Psmith dines in the same restaurant as Windsor. With the cat escaping from the basket and Psmith comforting the angry waiter, Psmith meets Windsor over the meal. Psmith introduces a radical idea of revamping the magazine by sacking all the current contributors and starting fresh. He volunteers to be the unpaid sub-editor. He also goes along when the cat is returned to Jarvis.
Wandering in the city, Psmith and Jackson arrive at Pleasant Street, which is not so pleasant and find this a wonderful subject for the paper. When Psmith arrives in office, he finds Kid Brady lamenting about his saggy job and decide to use the magazine as a propagating tool for Brady's boxing career.
They begin their work and are faced with various problems with Mr.Francis Parker, who represents the owner of Pleasant Street. Bat Jarvis is hired to kill the magazine duo, but since he is grateful, he turns the offer down. Yet, Psmith, Windsor and Brady are followed around the city with suspicious eyes.
The rest of the book outlines how the trio kept running and fending themselves from the various forces in the society. At the end, a little twist about the owner of the magazine comes out, but all sets back right eventually.
As I mentioned before, the Wodehouse humour is not lacking, except for the annoying 'comrade'ship. Otherwise, a good read.

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