Since I've started work, reading has been reduced to a hasty traveling companion, and hypnotic bedtime stories. And once in a while, it'd be refreshing to read some witty, lighthearted and non-consequential literature.

Then I stumbled upon PG Wodehouse, an English writer of the early 20th century. Among the collection of penguin books and illustrated reprints I chose "Young Men in Spats."

A series of short stories about rich, young Englishmen who worry not about money nor anything practical really, revolving around their futile love lives, irritating relatives and tinged with the Socialist movement, which was just beginning to take shape then.

The sort of pleasure derived from this book, is similar to that of watching desperate housewives. Where unexpected twists of fate mingle with instinctive reactions, which are more often than not less than intelligent. Somehow, at the end, everything seems to fall right back into place, and life goes on.

It's the sort of books I'd enjoy on a lazy afternoon, sipping tea and pretending to be in good old Britain, 1920s.

Ratings: 7/10.

Labels: literature, review

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