Very Good, Sir.

P.G. Wodehouse is the author of a series of comedies that interconnect. The main stars are Bertram Wooster and Jeeves. Bertram Wooster is an upper class twit who is chronically incapable of denying requests and frequently winds up in absurd situations. Wooster also has very poor taste in clothing, a fact that Jeeves continually attempts to correct. Jeeves is, despite what common knowledge would have you believe, employed as Wooster’s gentleman’s gentleman and not a butler. He is the hypercompetent straight man to Wooster’s incompetent lunacy, and he constantly gets Wooster out of trouble through impressive application of knowledge and skills.

For those of us who did not grow up with the trappings of English aristocracy, a gentleman’s gentleman is similar to a butler. However, instead of being dedicated to the service of the entirety of the house, the sole charge of a gentleman’s gentleman is the well-being of the gentleman who employs him. A man such as Jeeves is expected to know about fashion, modern goings-on, how to instruct other servants, make tea and certain foods, fade into the background when guests arrive, and be at the beck and call of his gentleman amongst other things. He does less cleaning, cooking, and washing up than other servants, but must know about accountancy, investments, and fiscal management in order to help maintain the lifestyle of his gentleman, as well as knowing how to navigate any social situation that might arise. In short, he is a man that is paid to be sensible, which means that Wooster is being a bit unreasonable when he disregards Jeeves’ advice.

The stories of P. G. Wodehouse almost always follow a simple formula: Wooster is at least satisfied with where he is at. Wooster wears some form of garish clothing or takes up an objectionable hobby and ignores Jeeves’ input. Wooster promptly runs into an old acquaintance or receives a phone call and is incapable of refusing the request that is given to him. Wooster gets in over his head. Things get more and more complicated, and Wooster recruits Jeeves’ help. Jeeves solves the issue handily, and, as payment, either takes away the offending clothing or has Wooster stop the ridiculous hobby.

There is very little symbolism in these books. Instead, there is focus on Wooster’s dialogue in which he complains about how events are working out. The books spend more time focusing on character development and how the characters interact. This would become repetitive if not for the invariably funny thoughts and antics of Wooster. For example, when Wooster is in jail, he argues with himself for and against being in prison. First, Wooster argues for the prison that he would be provided with a cake of soap and a hymnbook. Arguing against himself, he claims that soap and a hymnbook are nigh useless, then reverses his position, claiming that he could invent a game out of soap and a hymnbook, making them valuable after all. This absurdity is hilarious and provides a good example of how the comedy of inanity makes up for P. G. Wodehouse’s formulaic plots.

I rate this book 8/10. While I don’t typically go in for comedy, I enjoyed this book and read it multiple times, and will most likely read it again sometime in the future.

Never Mind the Ocean…

… let’s talk about a lake. Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell, is a story where much of the action takes place near the lake, ditches, and culverts of his home town. Black Swan Green‘s viewpoint character is Jason Taylor, a boy who lives in 1981-era Worcestershire in the titular village. He is thirteen and therefore has problems: he is obsessed with his standing at school, and he has a difficult stammer. His father is controlling, his mother is image-obsessed and wants more independence, and his sister dehumanizes him by calling him Thing. Most of the book is about how Jason deals with his life changing over the course of a year. During the year, Jason deals with his family’s escalating internal conflict; high school cliques; his creative mind turning against itself; bullying; and his growing conundrum of blind conformity verses growth as a person, poet, and member of the community.

Black Swan Green is a book in the ‘Slice of Life’ genre. The book deals with the important events in Jason’s life, describing how he lives through these events with little focus on external conflict except on how the events affect his life. Fortunately, Black Swan Green is a good Slice of Life book. Instead of the warm, fluffy chocolate chip cookie that is most Slice of Life, Black Swan Green is stone ground 60% cacao chocolate: gritty and bittersweet, but much better because of it.

The symbolism in Black Swan Green is quite good. Mitchell uses innocence – ice parallels in some of the early chapters. For example, several characters try to warn Jason away from the frozen lake with words that take on double meanings. Another character tries to rattle Jason with a dead, frozen kitten. These scenes contribute to the overarching extended metaphor.

The thematic use of sexuality as a means of power is also present here, as it is in many classic books. However, as a Slice of Life novel, sexuality is used to indicate how grown up a character is. At the beginning of the book, Jason has no idea what sex is beyond a vague notion and a studied avoidance of anything that he thinks might be seen as “gay” by his classmates in order to maintain his position in the school pecking order. Near the end of the book, Jason knows what sex is, acknowledges the fact that he can use words and perform actions that others would deride as gay, and has a heated makeout session with a girl in the back of a discotheque. This coincides rather neatly with him finally defeating his bullies and refusing to take part in school cliques, demonstrating his power.

I rate this book 7/10. I enjoyed this book but would not read it again. I am not fond of the Slice of Life genre, which no doubt colored my opinion of this book.

Setting Sail

The Ink Ocean is going to be a little pet project of mine; a review blog for books. Perhaps the scope of the original mission will expand, but right now it’s going to be as simple as can be; I will read books. I will write what I liked and disliked about the books. I will give an overview of the plot. At the end, there will be a summary and a rating out of ten. I plan to get through at least one book a week.

Is there an equivalent to ‘Happy Trails’ when you’re of a more nautical persuasion? Well, in any case, this is the beginning of something new.