Psmith in the City, by P.G. Wodehouse

I was glad that LT had suggested this book from the great P.G. Wodehouse collection because I thought it was one that I hadn't read. I started it and everything was sounding so familiar . . . a bank, "coffee breaks", cricket, etc. WHERE had I heard of this before? Anyway, I decided to go ahead and read it again and I enjoyed it - again.

This time Wodehouse takes us inside a bank and paints a picture of boring monotony such a life entails (or so it would seem). When young Mike Jackson's family suffers a financial blow, he must take a job in the city working at a bank and learn how to make his own way in the world. His friend and "Comrade", Psmith, offers to share a flat with him and pays some of his expenses on account of the fact that he would consider Mike his personal and confidential secretary. Mike agrees to the generosity of Psmith and as a result is led on many an adventure of Psmith's, mostly in the realm of socialistic circles. I was most entertained by the dinner scene in which Mike is cornered and forced to listen to Comrade Prebble babble on unintelligibly about the Rights of Property.

"Mike began to realize that, till now, he had never known what boredom meant. There had been moments in his life which had been less interesting that other moments, but nothing to touch this for agony." (p. 123)

P.G. Wodehouse himself worked in a bank and left it upon finding success with pen and paper. I find this particular book, Psmith in the City, entertaining in light of that fact. Wodehouse, per usual, has an agreeable and witty way of describing his characters and their personality traits. He never paints the entire picture of who any of his characters are. He gives you just enough to paint your own picture of each individual and it is enough to leave you with a smile and a sigh.

Anything by Wodehouse is, of course, to be highly recommended. This one included.