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Literary Review
HUMOUR
Echoes of Wodehouse
PANKAJA SRINIVASAN
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Pleasant but seems like pale imitations.
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Tales from the Puffugees; Jaspar Utley, Westland Books, Rs. 250
Jaspar Utley must like P.G Wodehouse. Even going by just the cover of his book, Tales from the Puffugees, that is obvious.
The cover looks remarkably like what The Jeeves Omnibus or The Man Upstairs, Mr. Mulliner Speaking would look like. Inside the pages too, it faintly echoes Wodehouse.
Which is a disadvantage, if you ask me. If you have read Wodehouse, you can’t shake off the feeling that they are a pale imitation of the real stuff. But, if you have not, then the stories in themselves are nice enough.
Setting
The setting is the veranda of an old club much like the Drones Club. A retired General, like Mr. Mulliner keeps his smoking buddies entertained with stories that are sometimes funny, often outrageous and always with an obscure lesson somewhere. The stories (20 in number) are always triggered by some incident or misadventure befalling the club members, and the heroes and heroines in them are always members of his extended family.
The Puffugees would be perfect reading matter on a flight or a train/bus journey. It is simply narrated with no convoluted plots and sub plots to unduly tax one’s mind.
And, while the liberal sprinkling of words like “Old chap”, “Golly”, “Jolly good” and so on might cause mild irritation in those who have been weaned on Wodehouse, the stories are pleasant enough.
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