Customer Reviews

Cocktail Time

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Do you enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process? If so, Cocktail Time will soon become one of your favorite comic novels.

The book's premise is deliciously contrary -- if a friend says that you cannot write a novel, some people will feel bound to prove the friend wrong. The backdrop for that decision is uproariously bizarre. The friend, the fifth Earl of Ickenham, has been feeling his oats a bit too much at the Drones Club and decides to borrow a slingshot (catapult in the UK) to pop the top hat off his old friend, Sir Raymond (Beefy) Bastable, with a Brazil nut as Beefy left the neighboring Demosthenes Club. When Beefy tells Ickenham that he wants to find the miscreant who did the dastardly deed, Ickenham offhandedly comments that it's a pity that Beefy is not an author who could use the literary sword to put all such pranksters in their place. That sets the stage for Beefy's novel, Cocktail Time, which he writes under a nom de plume.

There's only one complication. Beefy wants to stand for Parliament and he has written a scandalous book that would ruin his political career.

As the book's sales begin to take off like a rocket ship, Beefy realizes he needs some cover. Ickenham suggests that Beefy find someone else to pretend to be the author. With that suggestion, an unimaginable series of events follows . . . each more humorous than the last.

Will Beefy keep his honor? Will someone else keep his royalty checks? Will love conquer all?

The plot is one of the most complex ones that I have ever read in a comic novel, and the ever-shifting action works well. You'll have great fun with Cocktail Time. I don't remember a P.G. Wodehouse book that I have enjoyed more than this one.

P.G. Wodehouse made a legendary name for himself by writing dozens of humorous novels. In "Cocktail Time," Wodehouse turns his considerable wit toward politicians, scandalous novels, and of course, the carefree twentysomethings of the British upper-class.

Lord Ickenham (also known as Uncle Fred) gets a little "loopy" when he comes to the city. So when he's at his nephew's favorite hangout, the Drones Club, he fires a brazil nut across the street at a stuffy relative of his, Beefy Bastable. Bastable is not exactly a nice person, and so to retaliate against the young idiot he thinks has attacked him, he writes a scathing, scandalous novel called "Cocktail Time," denouncing modern youth.

Written under a non de plume, "Cocktail Time" gets denounced from the pulpits and is a huge hit. Bastable is terrified that the book will derail his political career, so he enlists his nephew Cosmo to pretend to have written the book. Since the royalties will let Cosmo pay off his debts, he's more than happy to oblige. There are only two problems: An American con artist (known as Oily) is homing in on Cosmo, and so is Hollywood...

If somebody could write songs about brazil nuts and banned books, this would make a GREAT musical. It's lighthearted enough, goofy enough, and complex enough. Wodehouse is in fine form here, writing the lovable characters that fit into the molds we love so much -- stressed young men, disapproving uncles and stolid butlers.

Wodehouse's writing is still fresh and funny -- he has a few awkward moments, such as describing a couple dancing the "rock'n'roll." Okay, what does that mean? But whatever decade his novel is set in, it has that pre-WW II flair. Not to mention deceptive formality -- at first glance, it looks very dry, but it's actually very goofy. ("Yo ho. In fact, I will go further. Yo frightfully ho.")

Lord Ickenham is a fun character, very smooth and debonair with a distinctly loopy personality. The impoverished Cosmo and his deeply stressed uncle Beefy Bastable are good variations on Wodehouse's classic characters, and he adds a twist by having the butler fall in love with his employer's sister (an unexpectedly sweet touch).

"Cocktail Time" is a funny novel about a nasty novel, and the resulting hijinks are fun for anyone to read. It's bumps-a-daisy as billy-o.

I see that my fellow reviewers of this tasty comic novel are willing to weigh in at only four of the possible five stars. I dissent vigorously and award the full five. Nothing less than five will do for a storyline so perfectly convoluted, language and syntax so recklessly heedless of anything real or centered. The characters are familiar Wodehouse types: quaintly erratic and utterly dependable for their supply of humor. Feydeau never plotted anything as neat and door-bangingly twisted, and the master Wodehouse provides page after page of crackpot ways to describe all of the door-slamming action.

I would never have the audacity to reveal the inticate plot of "Cocktail Time," (or any other Wodehouse novel, for that matter.) Suffice it to say that "Cocktail Time" is vintage Wodehouse. The novel contains a variety of familiar Wodehouse characters such as Lord Ickenham (the Uncle Fred of several novels and short stories), Beefy Bastable, and Cosmo Wisdom, a typical Wodehousian "black sheep" of the family. The novel is also filled with eccentric British peers, American con artists, and incompetent law enforcement agents. It even has a scene at the notorious Drones Club, so beloved by Bertie Wooster in the Jeeve's series. It's all very much fun. Wodehouse once described his novels as "musical comedy without music, ignoring life altogether." "Cocktail Time" is indeed reminiscent of a 1920's musical comedy without the music in which Wodhouse skillfully juggles a variety of characters and situations, and creates a satirical and humorous novel that is immensely enjoyable. The novel also ignores the realities of life, a quality that can make it infinitely enjoyable to any reader desiring to escape the crudities of early twenty-first century life.

This is a very funny book, if you think a bunch of silly, priggish, spoiled, rich, goofy upper class Brits, tying themselves into impossible knots of foolishness is funny. Frankly, I do. Think Masterpiece Theater meets Monty Python, and you'll be close to what this book is like. It had me laughing from page one, all the way till the end. It's vintage Wodehouse, and for his fans, that takes some beating.

When chaos theory is mentioned in the popular press, it is close to inevitable that the example given starts with the flapping of a butterfly's wings in the Amazon basin. In this case, the chaos ensues when Uncle Fred, the fifth Earl of Ickenham, borrows a catapult (which would be called a slingshot here in the US) from the young cousin of a member of the Drones Club, at which Uncle Fred is lunching on a visit to London.

Since this is a P.G. Wodehouse novel, the chaos yields more than two-hundred pages of laughs and general enjoyment for the reader, involving, as it does, a best-selling novel, the reuniting of sundered hearts, the betrothal of a butler, and the auction sale of a hideous imitation walnut cabinet. It also marks the only appearance of Howard Saxby, perhaps the most eccentric character in the Wodehouse oeuvre, and certainly the most frustratingly eccentric.

I highly recommend this book. It is very good and entertaining. It's very funny too. Any fan of P.G. Wodehouse's work will really enjoy it.

Wodehouse has created another set of hilarious, self-absorbed, but well-meaning, and typically British characters here. Who needs Jeeves and never mind those stupid pro-Nazi Wodehouse ramblings, this is the real thing. Every page has some serious laugh out loud stuff to it.

First Lord Ickenham initiates some serious soul-searching and literary output from a former class-mate, Beefy Bastable, by slyly knocking his hat off his head as he looks for a taxi. Then to make it even more fun, he encourages poor Beefy in this pursuit by assuring him that he is not capable of writing a novel. The over-worked barrister then pens a blockbuster about how the younger generation lacks discipline, vision, and morality. When bishops decry the racy bits from the pulpit, the novel becomes a success and Hollywoood comes calling for the movie rights.

Now Wodehouse really rolls up his sleeves. Ickenham intervenes in four on-again, off-again romances, putting them all right in the end. The paternity of Cocktail Time becomes a bit confused, as several claim the authorship (Bastable used a nom de plume as he did not want the outcry over the novel to affect his goal of standing for Parliament as a Conservative). Additional loopy characters such as Young Mr. Saxby and the elusive Flannery drop in.

Good light reading, take it to the beach and enjoy.

Uncle Fred, known in the peerage as Lord Ickenham, is one of the hottest lords around. After causing trouble in the interest of spreading sweetness and light, he rushes in to save four loving couples, confront crooks, and generally make life confusing. He also gets a bit of his own treatment with Howard Saxby. An underrated Wodehouse novel filled with some of his finest humor.

It seems that long ago people just drank and drank all day - in the old books I read or the old movies I watch - I wonder if they watered their wine like the Romans - but whatever your drink is, add a pinch of Wodehouse to it to make it really come alive - and in this novel you will have the right formula!

Another great Wodehouse book that made me laugh and laugh is Love among the Chickens - about a chicken from run by a know it all, who knows nothing - what a farce! Well recommend! Love Among The Chickens: A British Humor Classic

Here's to you!