Customer Reviews

Fore! The Best of Wodehouse on Golf

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If you wanted to read all of Wodehouse's golf stories at once, you'd want the Golf Omnibus. If you'd rather not lug around a phone book-sized volume, however, you may prefer this moveable feast of a dozen prime Plum stories (a baker's dozen if you count the preface by D.R. Benson), the best of Wodehouse on the links. Unlike the pocket paperbacks of some Wodehouse editions, with print so small you nearly need a magnifying lens, this oversized "quality" paperback nearly qualifies as a "large print edition." So it's really the best of both worlds, requiring neither a microscope nor a forklift for enjoyment.

Reading Plum on golf, however, is like playing a familiar course; the same stories are scattered throughout various editions. All of these stories have appeared elsewhere. Fore! opens with a very funny story that is quite unlike most of his golf tales, "The Coming of Gowf," which originally appeared in Golf Without Tears (1924), as did four other stories. That's the American title of a book that appeared in Britain as The Clicking of Cuthbert (1922). Five stories appeared in the American collection, Divots (1927), published in England as The Heart of a Goof (1926). The final tales are from Nothing Serious (1950/1951), published in both British and American editions. For golfers with a literary bent, here's the best imaginable introduction to P.G. Wodehouse, and old Wodehouse fans will be happy to walk around the course again.

Plum has brought the passion for golf alive with unusual style and aplomb in this one. All the stories viewed through the eyes of the "Oldest Member" take on vivid color, and their solutions lie, no doubt, on the greens! Right from a novice taking up golf, to a professional golfer they all have their solutions to the toughest problems in life only on the golf course. Viva le golf! And Viva Wodehousian humor!

Typical Wodehouse humor. I've always enjoyed his light humor and concise writing style, and this book is no exception. A throughly enjoyable read!