If I Were You (Everyman's Library P G WODEHOUSE)

Hilarious too good

One more for my collection-my online book club were reading this one this month

Ce n'est pas, loin de là, un très bon Wodehouse... Il vaut mieux, pour découvrir cet extraordinaire humoriste, en essayer d'autres...

This novel is subtitled "Ye Old Baby Switcheroo," and the publisher doesn't mind giving away this much of the plot: "Twenty-eight years later, the son of a barber is now an earl, and the son of an earl is now a barber." So the dual themes are "hair restoration and heir restoration." If that sounds witty and droll, it's a good introduction to the rest of the book. This is an oversized, paperback, large-print edition from the oddly-named publisher, International Polygonics (IPL). I don't think a smaller font version exists in paperback. In the preface D.R. Benson says that If I Were You makes use of a bit of plot from W.S. Gilbert (as in Gilbert and Sullivan), and the sense of theatre runs throughout. Add "enter stage right" and "exit stage left" in a few places and you'd have a corking good play. Add singing and you'd have a sprightly musical. For fans who enjoy seeing Plum's "other life" in musical comedy creep into the books.

I'm working my way around to getting every Wodehouse in the series, replacing tatty old paperbacks with hardbacks (and filling in the blanks in my collection).The books are a fantastic read, and this edition will please every Wodehouse fan.

P.G. Wodehouse, though long gone to that great, sprawling country estate in the sky, never fails to lift the spirits with his wry, on-point humor and turn of phrase. His writing, and comments on human nature, especially that of the landed, but often clueless, gentry of upper crust England in the mid 20th century, is timeless, but all in fun. Any of his stories can make your day!