Mating Season - P.G. Wodehouse

After a heavy economic, cum history, cum business book, it was time for some light reading. It had to be Wodehouse.

Mating season is a book for those sentimental, romantic people who are capable of writing never ending odes about a strand of hair of their loved ones. The book will give you a lot of strength in case you ever face an ordeal in your love life, where separation from your lover seems inevitable. It will strengthen your belief that all will turn out to be fine in the end. If you have Jeeves by your side that is.

The book has a plethora of characters who are in love with this person and that person. This creates a tangle of human emotions where everyone seems to find themselves distanced from their better halves. In the center of it all is Bertie Wooster, the good Samaritan who sets to sort out things. So there is Gussie FinkNottle (what a name, even for a Wodehouse book!) who is originally in love with Madeline Bassett, the girl who has categorically stated that if things ended with Gussie she would come hopping into Wooster’s arms. And Wooster in turn, pales at this knowledge and is therefore committed to ensuring that the two are on the best of terms. That endeavor finds him at Deverill Hall where he must go because Gussie gets himself imprisoned. So that means that Wooster goes there as Gussie, which is convenient for his old chums Catsmeat and Corky, who are brother and sister. It is convenient because Corky’s ex-fiance Esmond Haddock who was given the brusheroo because he did not have the spine to stand up to his five aunts is apparently now swooning over Gertrude Winksworth who is the daughter of one of the aunts, the formidable Dame Daphne Winksworth. And Gertrude is the lodestar of Catsmeat’s heart. Eventually Gussie comes there as Wooster, because even Wooster is an expected guest, Jeeves comes there as his man, Catsmeat comes there as Gussie’s gentleman. 

Oh the mind boggles! But wait… I am not done.

Gussie, who is posing as Wooster, falls in love with Corky, and Catsmeat finds himself mistakenly engaged to the Jeeves’s Uncle’s Daughter. Oh Yeah, forgot that. Jeever’s Uncle, Charlie Silversmith is the butler at Deverill Hall. And the daughter, Queenie, is slated to marry the local police constable Dobb. And there is Aunt Agatha’s son, Wooster’s young cousin, a dog and five aunts to contemplate… Jesus… Wodehouse really outdid himself in plotting this one.

The story basically unwinds with the philosophy of from the frying pan into fire where things keep going from bad to worse and it is all upto Wooster and his aide Jeeves to sort it out.

Believe me… this book is non-stop funny.

The Corporation that Changed the World - Nick Robins

Well… I didn’t really finish this book, because I carelessly forgot it in a flight I took from Mumbai to Bangalore… but I had read around 80% of the book so am in a position to comment about the book.

The reason I bought this book is to read up into the history of East India Company and their stance with respect to India. The history books in the school dwelt on the Maratha era and then passed on to the 1857 mutiny and there on to the Independence struggle with only a cursory mention about the impact of the East India Company on the nation from a economic and a political perspective. The only thing that was communicated was the atrocities committed on the Indians under the rule of East India Company and then the British Raj. What this book offers is a proper blend of the rise of East India Company, their functioning, their political and social impact not just in India but globally, and their eventual demise.

The good thing is that the author has managed to keep out any bias while presenting the historical facts. He maintains the business book feel while discussing the operations of East India Company as he compares their functioning, the organizational structure, the capital raising mechanisms and the rampant malpractices of the Company with the modern day organization.

The book gives sufficient detail for a person like me who wants to read on the subject more out of curiosity and for high level information. The writing is entertaining and is not boring in a text book way. It does not mince words about the cruelty that the Britishers subjected the Indians to and how methodically they ruined the entire country’s economy. This is the first business book that sparked my patriotic fury. And it did well to remind me of the struggle that India as a nation has been through to be free from the clutches of the foreign power. All the post-independence rhetoric, however clichéd, strikes true. We as Indians, have struggled for long. It’s about time we did not get carried away with the rampant westernization and rose to the riches of the pre-East-India era, where while there were inter-ruler wars, the per-capita income for the common man, was much higher. It’s high time we stopped being a poor nation.

Quick Service - P.G. Wodehouse

What do you get when you mix Ukridge, Jeeves and PSmith. You get Joss Weatherby: J.B. Duff’s irritable and self proclaimed right hand, Mr. Steptoe’s agreeable valet and Miss Sally Fairmile’s discovered love interest.

Set in an English Castle, Claines Hall, which houses the erstwhile American Steptoes, who pine for the American way of living, Quick Service revolves around a portrait of Mrs. Chavender, a relative of Steptoes who resides in the premises. J.B. Duff, the undisputed ham merchant, who was originally engaged to Mrs. Chavender before breaking it off, wants the portrait for his own business reasons. And he is ready to employ a bevy of criminal masterminds for the purpose. And his cronies have their own things they would like to barter the portrait with J.B. Duff for. So, Sally’s betrothed, Lord Holbeton, wants to get his money from Duff which he is holding on to as his trustee, Sally wants Duff to give it to Holbeton so is a willing accomplice, Joss wants a job as Head of Art department (somewhat in line with the modern day marketing function) at Duff’s Ham selling company, Mr. Steptoe wants to get some cash to pay of gambling dues and to fly back to the America, and even Mrs. Chavender, who also is the subject of the rather fearful portrait wouldn’t mind getting some dough. So there are quite a few contenders for the prized portrait. Add to that a vigilant butler who is somewhat of a champion boxer, who is bent on preventing any crimes inside the mansion, the situation is bound to get complex.

To sum it up, which would be quite a bit, this is one of the most complicated and intricate plots of Wodehouse. And I really enjoyed the simplicity of how it unraveled itself in the end. And the humour in the book is priceless. J.B. Duff is quite a character. And his chemistry with the Joss is something to really enjoy. It’s a boss and subordinate relationship, where the subordinate ends up calling the shots, despite the boss making all attempts to keep a grip on things.

Also, this is one of those novels where the ending is happy for absolutely everyone. So everyone is a good guy in their own place. Therefore, the book’s a happy read, which will bring an unadulterated smile on your face.

Carrie - Stephen King

Carrie is the first book of Stephen King, as a lot of SK’s fans might know. And to think that he almost didn’t write this book for some other job that might get him some money, had it not been for his wife who pushed him along, makes me think of what a tremendous loss that would have been in the world of fiction writing. Well, that’s the reason you should marry… so that your partner can keep nudging you back on the path you are supposed to be on, whenever you think of taking a detour.

Carrie is the story of a young girl with telekinetic ability, that is to move objects by just the power of thought. Remind you of Jean Grey? Well, she is much like that. Only a lot more troubled. She isn’t troubled because of her power. She is troubled by her fanatically religious mother who doesn’t let her lead a normal life. She is troubled by her peers in college who make her the butt of every classroom joke. And she is troubled by her own inadequacy to be like a normal college going kid.

The book is not about how she learned to master her power. The book is not about a superhero girl who took on the responsibility of saving the world. The book is infact about the travails of a teenaged girl and the ultimate manifestation of her anger and frustration. You can push anyone only so far. And you should not be pushing people with telekinetic powers around. And when you do, not just you, but many more innocent people might just pay the price.

The climax of the story is truly scary. You really struggle to label Carrie as a protagonist or an antagonist of the book. Can’t give away much more.

Narration apparently is what SK decided to experiment on in his first book. Well it’s not too over the top an experiment as such. But it is definitely more engrossing than the regular linear story telling. The story as such is fairly simple to summarize. SK took a fairly simple story to new heights through the narration alone.

Carrie does showcase the writer that Stephen King was going to be. In his very first book, he successfully connects with the reader and generates fear, anger, disgust and sympathy. All that together, makes Carrie an excellent read even today!

Leave it to PSmith - P.G. Wodehouse

PSmith is at it again. As usual he is doing his good deeds for his friends, searching for adventure, and taking a slight deviation from the normal scheme of things, is falling in love.

And pursuing all these things, he finds himself in the idyllic locale of Blandings Castle. So you also have the delightful Lord Emsworth in the plot. Though the screen presence, or should I say, page presence, of Lord Emsworth is fairly constrained, he doesn’t fail to put a smile onto your visage.

Leave it to PSmith is an extremely entangled plot with past friends, burglars, imposters, secretaries, hen-pecked husbands, poets, and what not thrown in. There is no way I can get into that in much detail. It should suffice to say at this point that PSmith ends up in Blandings with the task of stealing Lady Constanance’s twenty thousand pound necklace. Before you start doubting his noble intentions and pass a judgement on his flawless character let me bring upon you the fact the benefactor of this little scheme would be his childhood friend Mike Jackson and his wife, and the wife’s genial step-father and Lady Constanance’s husband and the bumbling Freddie Threepwood. And if your righteous side still denounces the act of crime, I will let it be known that the original perpetrator of the idea was the victim’s husband who is kept on a tight financial leash by his wife. Now, if you ever did, I hope you do not sympathise with Lady Constanance. And it is a cause of great convenience and joy for PSmith that his heart keeper, his love of life, Eve Halliday should be camping at Blandings in the same period. Of course this is just the beginning. The plot gets infinitely complicated after that. The only thing that I can assure you off is that all of the threads are very satisfactorily tied together. The story is as gripping and hilarious as a Wodehouse novel can be.

A prominent change in the novel is PSmith’s name… which changes from Rupert to Ronald Eustace! I have no clue why that happened. I tried googling it with no satisfactory result. Well, as Shakespeare said, a PSmith with any other first name is just as engaging.

The Physics of Superheroes – James Kakalios

Have you ever been so fascinated by a superhero that you try to get yourself bitten by a spider so as to be able to swing from one high rise building to another, regardless of the fact that those spiders were neither genetically mutated through exposure to radiation nor are there that many high rise buildings in the city that you live in?

Well I have been. That probably explains why I liked this particular book so much. This book will be enjoyed by the following grades of people, in the descending order:

1. People who love superhero comic books and love physics

2. Superhero Comic Book Lovers

3. Physics lovers

I belong to the first kind. And so does James Kakalios. The difference being that he is actually a physicist.

The author goes about exploring one physics aspect after another, in more or less increasing amount of complexity of the concept and uses superheroes as and when required to show how comic books got their physics surprisingly right or ridiculously wrong. So there are lessons on mechanics, thermodynamics, electricity, magnetism and lastly quantum physics with the superheroes that use the fundamentals respectively thrown in. If I am making it sound as if the book focuses more on physics than on superheroes, I wouldn’t be entirely wrong. Because the book does explain some concepts quite at length. That said it is not in a boring, class notes kind of a way and loaded with mathematical equations. The sense of humour is retained through the book. Even while explaining Schrodinger's equation. (A picture of a smiling scientist, coupled with the fact that he was somewhat of a Casanova will cheer you up even in your grumpiest mood)

Another very pleasing aspect of the book is that it dwells into quite a bit of history of comic books as it explores the physics side of things. That gives a lot of interesting trivia which any comic book lover would love to be abreast with. Did you know the earlier Superman could not fly and was only able to jump great heights and his source of powers was not the Sun but because he hailed from Krypton which had a supposedly stronger gravitational field. (After calculations, Kakalios determines the gravitational force of Krypton to be 15 times stronger than that of Earth’s) That and many more interesting tit-bits from the Comic Books hall of history are showcased in the book.

Overall, Kakalios keeps a nice balance between science, history and most importantly superheroes. Even Quantum Physics is explained in an absolutely layman’s language and how superheroes like Flash and Kitty Pryde use such complex principles. The book keeps getting better and better as you turn the pages over and ends with a brilliant closing chapter on Superhero bloopers.

So read it for superheroes, or read it for physics, you should have fun. You probably wouldn’t enjoy it if you are not into either of them. But then, if you are neither of them, this book is not meant for you. And as far as I am concerned, I am the target market for who the book was written.

Ukridge - P.G. Wodehouse

Stanley Featherstonehaugh (it’s supposed to be pronounced as Fanshawe. I don’t know why though) Ukridge is one of the most delightful scums you will ever run into. He is a wily opportunist, whom fate never seems to favor. But he is undeterred nonetheless, and never loses his optimism in the face of stormy weather. That is, in a nutshell, Ukridge for you.

Ukridge has a friend who always holds him in good stead; a Mr. Corcoran, or as Ukridge calls him, Corky. All the stories in the book are narrated in first person by Corcoran. Corky has witnessed the blossoming of Ukridge from a little child to a shrewd man. And there are but a few changes in the character of his childhood friend over the years. And Ukridge demonstrates his flair to earn a quick buck, or get screwed trying to, in the stories in this book.

The grand plans include training pet dogs amusing tricks, being a manager of a sentimental and a moody boxer, swindling insurance companies and so on. But lest you lable him as a money hungry, corrupt, immoral swine, let me also point that there are a handful of anecdotes which highlight the nobility of this fellow. He is the kind who helps out his friends in need and damsels in distress. He therefore comes up with an ingenious plan to finance a girl 100 pounds when she needs them and goes all the long way to help his friend win an election. Now wouldn’t you call that angelic?

Accompanying Ukridge are several other characters which make this book a delight to read. Amongst them my favourite were the two other stars, Corky, and his land-lord, an ex-butler who looks upon Ukridge like the son he never had. Corky has a dry, sarcastic sense of humour that I could really relate to. And even though he is not that well off, he always has a few coins or even socks to lend to Ukridge. That is the material good friends are made of. There are other characters of course who contribute to your laughter in their own way. Tying them all up is Ukridge, whose adventures, will blow away the dark clouds wandering over your heads and lighten up your day.