When you enjoy Wodehouse for what it’s really worth – the wonderful phrases, the multi-layered (even if similar) plots, the endearing if not exactly heroic protagonists, etc. that’s all you want from his books. And I thought that’s all his books would ever be about.But then I read The Adventures of Sally. And it is totally different from any of his other books. Well not totally different – the writing is still as rich and amusing. But the plot! It is an out and out love story. And for once, not one of those love-at-first-sight stories which are so rife in Wodehouse books. This one is spread over several months… in fact more than an year, in which characters develop, people get over their flaws, they evaluate their feelings, businesses are built and destroyed, and what not!! This is a Wodehouse book like no other.
Having inherited 25000 dollars, Sally sets off on a holiday in France, where she runs into Ginger, an amateur pugilist, office assistant, and among score of other things, a dog trainer, and one with an uncanny talent of screwing up everything he ever does. She also runs into a sophisticated businessman wise with the ways of the world, and Ginger’s cousin brother, Bruce Carmyle. Both fall for her over a period of time. Mind you, a period of time and not at the first sight. Well Ginger does somewhat fall for her at the first sight, but truly realizes his love only later. When Sally gets back, she becomes the financier for the production of a play, which is owned by her brother Fillmore. The playing becoming a runaway success, and with Fillmore finding his love in life, all seems to be going okay, except for one little thing: Sally’s betrothed, the playwright Gerald Foster, has gone and married an actress. Though broken hearted, she is not alone, for pining for her affections, both Ginger and Bruce come to America. And Sally flees to London to escape the haunting ghosts of the romantic adventures that she had with her Gerald Foster in the streets and restaurants of America. The peaceful and idyllic London sway her heart one way as she picks a man for herself. Meanwhile there is a ruined marriage of Gerald Foster with his actress wife, a betting business in boxing which goes awfully wrong. And of course, everyone knows one another they way they do in Wodehouse novels.
So you get the picture. The book is about the love story of Sally Nicholas, complete with love letters and tears and everything. I never had an appetite for mushy love stories. But this one was quite delightful. Not that the characters grow and mature and all of that they way they do in Booker prize winners. They do, but in a more Wodehousian way. And they sure as hell make you smile by their quirks and eccentricities like Wodehouse characters always do.
