Jonathan Cecil

Book Review: The Mating Season

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The Mating Season
Jeeves #9
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

This book isn’t bad any any means, but for me, after listening to the entire series up to this point, it’s too little Jeeves, too little new, too little funny. There are still funny moments here and there, and certainly Jeeves perpetrates some kind of scheme to solve a problem, but overall, the fact that the main conflicts continue to involve friends of Wooster who have some kind of romantic entanglement that has run into trouble makes the stories feel a bit tedious. Wooster is yet again forced to bend over backwards to try to avoid an engagement with a woman who assumes he’s pining after her. Maybe this situation is normal for this culture and time period, and maybe other people find it funny, but it mostly just makes me roll my eyes. In the end, though I have been enjoying my first time with Jeeves, I plan to put an end to it here. I know I’ll re-visit this world in some way again, but I don’t know if I’ll re-read the first half-dozen or so or continue with the series after the rest aren’t as fresh in my mind. 

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Book Review: Joy in the Morning

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Joy in the Morning
Jeeves #8
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

If I could forget a lot of what I had read in previous books in this series, I think I would have enjoyed this installment a lot more. The problem is that the problems that arise around Wooster tend to not be different enough to be interesting. A friend’s engagement is in danger, so Wooster takes it upon himself to help them reconcile. A woman he doesn’t care for randomly decides that he must want to marry her, so he finds himself engaged, despite his utter lack of desire for such. And he’s too much of a gentleman to say, “No, thank you,” so he has to plan some scheme to get out of it or, oops! He might just find himself married! I will say, at least, that the intricacies of how some of these mostly unrelated messes are twined together so that one solution can somehow fix them all is usually clever enough to provide some fun while I’m listening. And Wooster’s trademark humor, combined with Jeeves’s straight-man wit, still makes me laugh, even amongst the feeling that we’ve “been there, done that.” Jonathan Cecil is a great narrator for these books (though I still miss Kevin Theis).

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Book Review: The Code of the Woosters

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The Code of the Woosters
Jeeves #7
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

The Jeeves and Wooster dynamic is what makes these stories great, so having a novel-length story (as opposed to the previous short story collections) with Jeeves being largely absent just isn’t quite as good. Plus, the longer single story means prolonging Bertie’s troubles often requires scenarios that are a bit outlandish. How many times can an engaged couple break up and reunite before it becomes ridiculous? And while I realize that Bertie letting his friends and family cajole him into doing things he doesn’t want to do is a common catalyst to the messes he gets himself into, it’s taken a bit far in this story, besides the fact that some of it too much of a repeat of previous stories. Even still, I still enjoyed the book overall and look forward to continuing the series.

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Book Review: Right Ho, Jeeves

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Right Ho, Jeeves
Jeeves #6
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Kevin Theis

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

This is another great addition to the series! Bertie Wooster is in fine form, attempting many schemes of his own to show that Jeeves isn’t the only one with brains. How Wooster keeps getting himself “accidentally” engaged is beyond me. Misunderstandings, outlandish scenarios, and “psychology of the mind” all come together into a fun, engaging story. Like in the previous book, which was the first novel after short stories up until that point, a few of the situations went on a little longer than I would prefer in this book, and Jeeves’s brilliant plans don’t feature nearly as much as they do in the short stories. Still, though, I really enjoyed this book, and I always love Kevin Theis’s narration. I’ll miss it during the rest of the series.

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Book Review: Thank You, Jeeves

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Thank You, Jeeves
Jeeves #5
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

The short story collections I’ve read in this series so far do usually have some connection between some of the short stories. But this is a whole different feel, being the first full novel in the series. I mostly enjoyed that format, but I will say that some of the storyline went on a bit too long for me. But the continuity throughout and the setting being the same the whole time, did give the author room to expand on the humor, and he did a great job. It’s definitely something of a farce, complete with constables coming across random men in sheds and garages, Bertie being snuck off a yacht by Jeeves, and many other outlandish scenarios. And to start things off, Jeeves actually leaves Bertie’s employment because he can’t stand his boss’s playing of a banjolele. While I didn’t truly expect that situation to last, that does not mean the overall story was predictable. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jonathan Cecil, who did a great job, and I’m really looking forward to continuing!

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Book Review: Very Good, Jeeves

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Very Good, Jeeves
Jeeves #4
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

This was definitely one of my favorite collections of the series. Maybe the outlandish situations Bertie Wooster gets himself into should be getting stale, but I’m only enjoying them more as I go. Maybe because I’m starting to get into the overall feel of the stories more? There were several moments that made me laugh out loud or at least smile; I regret that I was listening to the audiobook and couldn’t make note of them at the time. Bertie fooling himself into thinking Jeeves doesn’t always get his own way, though, is one such moment. I only wish I could have continued to listen to Kevin Theis, but apparently he only narrated 4 of the books. Though I still like Theis more, Jonathan Cecil was good too, excepting for the strange speech impediment he gave to Bingo Little. I can say with certainty at this point that I will listen to these audiobooks again someday.

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