Book #16

I have fallen a bit behind in getting these posted, so you may see several more books over the next few days.  The one that follows was finished several weeks ago.

Cocktail Time
P. G. Wodehouse

How about a novel, that starts with an old man using a slingshot to knock the top hat off an acquaintance, which causes that acquaintance to write a novel.  When the novel becomes a hit, the acquaintance, an eminent barrister does not wish the publicity, so he lets his nephew claim to be the author.  Of course, as in any Wodehouse novel, the nephew is a nitwit and that is where things really get fun.

Cocktail Time is an Uncle Freddy novel.  Now, Uncle Freddy is another of Wodehouse's wonderful characters, and this is another example of why Wodehouse is the accepted master of the Comedy of Manners (look it up, I do not really have time here).

Things go from bad to worse for the barrister, when first his nephew and a con man try to get some extra money off the barrister.  There is a letter involved, and eventually Uncle Freddy ends up with it.  Now, he wants to extort something from the barrister, but what Uncle Freddy wants is for the barrister to treat his sister better (the barrister's sister, not Uncle Freddy's).

I cannot even talk about the plot without ending up in a twisted story, but it is that twisted story that is at the heart of Cocktail Time's and indeed Wodehouse's charm.  I won't go further in laying out the plot, both to avoid spoilers and to keep my brain from getting overloaded and overheating.  Just read the book, it is great fun and you won't regret a minute of it.