A Prefect's Uncle - P.G. Wodehouse

I had bought this book from Landmark, when I was yet to be knighted with the title of “Wodehouse Fan”. With little to do at the “Forum Mall” other than wait for a movie which was to begin in an hour, I went to Landmark book store and started perusing the books. Now, for a marketing person it might be interesting to know that buying books is getting more and more impulsive for me, like with a lot of other consumers as well. But that is a different subject all together. This piece of thesis is on A Prefect’s Uncle, a book authored by P.G. Wodehouse, which was one of the books I casually picked up and glanced through the front and back cover for hints on the plot. There was nothing which revealed anything that could stimulate my interest. And since I had not really read Wodehouse a lot, I wasn’t willing to buy for the brand alone.

Then I flipped open a random page and read through a gem of a paragraph. I quote it here:
The question “well?” especially when addressed by a master to a boy, is one of the few questions to which there is literally no answer, You can look sheepish, you can look defiant, or you can look surprised according to the state of your conscience. But anything in the way of verbal response is impossible.

I of course had no context to this, but I was stumped by the deep insight into such a simple phenomenon. I was smiling, and then chuckling over this paragraph. And I bought the book. So much for the history behind my reading this book.

The story is set in an English School complete with houses and prefects and headmasters. Now, it takes a while for someone to get used to the setting if they have come from a different kind of a school structure. But it is not too difficult though, especially in the days of Harry Potter where every one is familiar with houses of Griffindor and Slitherin and all. But the way the school functions in the book sure is a lot more complex than the way my school worked. But I didn’t really get too lost in it to not understand or enjoy the book.

And enjoy the book I did. The whole enjoyment of a P.G. Wodehouse book for me is the way he writes. Perhaps all writers in his day wrote like this. I don’t know about that. But that does not make his writing any less enjoyable, especially since I have not read anyone else from that era who writes even remotely in his style.

The book is about harmless school politics, friendships and cricket. And the plot of this book is quite thick, though not complicated, with quite a few important characters swimming in and out of limelight throughout. The story begins with the onset of a new term at Beckford School. The primary focus remains sports and how the cricket tournaments through the term shape up. And how Gethryn, the prefect gets through the complications brought in by his uncle. The Uncle however, is not as central to the book as it is made out to be in the title. So renaming the book might have been a good idea. I guess Wodehouse’s publishers, editors or best friends got too caught up in the story to get nitpicky about the title. The journey through the term is quite fun. All in all, I loved the book. This is again a story from the early days of Wodehouse’s career. And the brilliance of the man is teeming from this book.

That could be a prejudiced opinion of a person who is now firmly a member of the P.G. Wodehouse cult. Plus, there is quite a bit of cricket in this book, which is not really among the top ranking sports in the world. Some might argue about spreading the plot a bit too thin among too many characters. So there are reasons for someone not enjoying the book.
But if you like reading P.G. Wodehouse for the way he writes, and if you remotely enjoy cricket, you will enjoy this book. And in 147 pages there is only so much that one should expect really.