Published by Penguin Books,1976, softcover, 237 pages, condition: very good.
Piccadilly Jim is probably the most popular standalone Wodehouse book (no Jeeves, no Blandings, no statistic to back this up). I tend to start off these non-Jeeves Wodehouse books initially missing the presence of Jeeves and Wooster but Wodehouses charm is pretty irresistible.
Piccadilly Jim is about Jimmy Crocker, another one of Wodehouses stock ne'er-do-well young male protagonists. This is not a criticism as their adventures are always a hoot. Besides, the alternative would be a sensible chap who does everything right; that is unlikely to elicit many laughs. At the beginning of the book, Jim lives with his father and step-mother in London where Jim is a notorious party animal. After socking a fellow sprig of nobility on the jaw, Jim decides to leave London to spend some time in New York to avoid causing further trouble for his beloved father. He soon meets and falls in love with Ann Chester who recruits him in a scheme to kidnap her super-spoiled fourteen-year-old cousin Ogden, not for money but to confine him at a dogs hospital so that the hospitals keeper can teach him to behave.
In order to win Anns affections, Jim has to pretend to be somebody else because five years ago he ridiculed Anns book of poetry in a newspaper article, and while she never met him before she considers him an enemy. However, in order to carry out Anns kidnapping scheme he has to pretend to be impersonating Jimmy Crocker, i.e., himself. If that does not make sense dont worry about it, while the storyline is simple there are many plot elements that would make for an awfully convoluted synopsis.
From a well-intentioned kidnapping to an espionage subplot, numerous imposters at a family mansion, and a larger than life female detective with crazy eyes. Wodehouse throws a lot of crazy notions into Piccadilly Jim. In lesser hands, this many plot elements would result in a hot mess but Wodehouse ingeniously weaves them all into a delightful, comic novel. The outrageously implausible plot defies logic, but I dont read Wodehouse for logic or plausibility. What I do read him for is a good chuckle, an appreciation of clever language usage, and a generally upbeat feeling. As usual, Wodehouse populates this book with colorful, silly characters. My favorite has to be ace detective, Ms. Trimble, she is tough as nails, and, in spite of not having a sense of humour, everything that comes out of her mouth is pretty hilarious. Here is Wodehouses vivid description:
She had thick eyebrows, from beneath which small, glittering eyes looked out like dangerous beasts in undergrowth: and the impressive effect of these was accentuated by the fact that, while the left eye looked straight out at its object, the right eye had a sort of roving commission and was now, while its colleague fixed Mrs. Pett with a gimlet stare, examining the ceiling. As to the rest of the appearance of this remarkable woman, her nose was stubby and aggressive, and her mouth had the coldly forbidding look of the closed door of a subway express when you have just missed the train.
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE, was a comic writer who enjoyed enormous popular success during a career of more than seventy years and continues to be widely read over 50 years after his death. Despite the political and social upheavals that occurred during his life, much of which was spent in France and the United States, Wodehouse's main canvas remained tha
