Status Updates From The Fifth Form at St. Domin...

I love this. I’ll admit that I’m glad the Cricket season has ended, as the school year has gone along - because I don’t know Cricket rules - but the Cricket sequences were not long anyway, so I wasn’t too discombobulated. Some stories in Tales of St. Austin’s were all Cricket, whereas this is much more than that. Lots of great subplots among the boys, and this cheating business in the late chapters is gripping.

I’m having a fabulous time with this; although I am loving the experience of Giallo July, and Rocket Summer, it was time for something both down to earth and not murder-y. I did love Wodehouse’s early fiction set in boys’ schools…and this cousin to those books is just as good. Maybe better…but then, Wodehouse would move on to his true calling. Meanwhile, it’s fun being back in school, this time in 1881!

It feels traitorous to move a Wodehouse novel from my Currently Reading back to Want to Read, but I’m just not in the mood for his so-called serious novel. But, this “Boy’s School” novel is from the year Wodehouse was born - and, in fact, Benny Green in his Wodehouse bio, of course linked it to Wodehouse’s first published novels, most taking place at boys’ schools. So this is a quiet nod to where Wodehouse started.

Having abandoned the book after a couple of chapters, I rechecked the reviews and gave it a well deserved second chance. Worth the effort!