Product Description

Who but P.G. Wodehouse could have extracted high comedy from the most noble and ancient game of golf? And who else could have combined this comedy with a real appreciation of the game, drawn from personal experience? Wodehouse's brilliant but human brand of humor is perfectly suited to these stories of love, rivalry, revenge, and fulfillment on the links. While the Oldest Member sits inside the clubhouse quoting Marcus Aurelius on patience and wisdom, outside on the green the strongest human passions burn. All human life is here, from Sandy McHoots, the cocky professional, to shy Ramsden Waters, whose only consolation is golf. Even golf-haters will not be able to resists stories which perfectly combine physical farce and verbal with a gallery of unforgettable characters.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #530756 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-13
• Released on: 2002-05-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Review
A brilliantly funny writer--perhaps the most consistently funny the English language has yet produced. -- The Times (London)

The works of Wodehouse continue on their unique way, unmarked by the passage of time. -- Kingsley Amis

Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale....He has made a world for us to live in and delight in. -- Evelyn Waugh

From the Publisher
Fans of P.G. Wodehouse's comic genius are legion, and their devotion to his masterful command of the hilarity borders on obsession. The Overlook Press is pleased to feed their obsession by returning his funniest books to print: Heavy Weather, Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Mating Season, Laughing Gas, Joy in the Morning, Meet Mr. Mulliner, Lord Emsworth and Others, and more.

From the Back Cover
A Golf collection The Oldest Member knows everything that has ever happened on the golf course – and a great deal more besides.

Take the story of Cuthbert, for instance. He’s helplessly in love with Adeline, but what use are his holes in one when she’s in thrall to Culture and prefers rising young writers to winners of the French Open? But enter a Great Russian Novelist with a strange passion, and Cuthbert’s prospects are transformed. Then look at what happens to young Mitchell Holmes, who misses short putts because of the uproar of the butterflies in the adjoining meadows. His career seems on the skids – but can golf redeem it?

The kindly but shrewd gaze of the Oldest Member picks out some of the funniest stories Wodehouse ever wrote.

Customer Reviews

A woman is only a woman, but a hefty drive is a slosh
Probably most famous for his Jeeves and Wooster books, P.G. Wodehouse was an avid golfer. 'The Clicking of Cuthbert' was the first of two books Wodehouse wrote about golf (the other being 'The Heart of a Goof'). It was originally published in the US as "Golf Without Tears" in 1924 - 2 years after the first UK publishing. It's also one of the first books by Wodehouse that I read, back in the days when I did play the game myself. However while I have, just like the Oldest Member, long since retired it's still a book I can pick up and enjoy.

Rather than a straightforward novel, the book is a collection of ten short stories. With the exception of the tenth, each story is 'told' by the club's Oldest Member. There is a common theme throughout the stories the Oldest Member tells - how golf is vital to success in every aspect of life. The last story, however, is my favourite one in the book. It's a historical tale, telling of the coming of a strange new religion called Gowf to the country of Oom.

I think that this book would appeal more to the golfing community than to the uninitiated. There are certain terms and phrases specific to the game, which mightn't make much sense to a non-golfer and could possibly break the flow of the story a little. Furthermore, some of the terminology associated with the game has changed since the book was written. Clubs are referred to in the book as baffies, niblicks and mashies while, at the time Wodehouse wrote the book, the word bogey meant par. On the other hand, it's still a book written by P.G. Wodehouse - he does have a very distinctive style of writing and certainly appears to have a hugely loyal fanbase. If you've read other books by him and enjoyed them, odds are you'll enjoy this - regardless of your expertise on the golf course. If you haven't read any Wodehouse before, I'd probably suggest starting with a Blandings or a Jeeves novel.

Hilarious title story
Many of these golf stories are not above average Wodehouse humor--but that's funny enough! The title story alone is worth the price; it's very clever, very funny, and one of his best little gems. Cuthbert is having trouble competing with a local literary light for the attention of a fair maid, until a bigger foreign literary light comes to put the local novelist in the shade. Vladimir Brusiloff's character is a marvelous caricature of the deep, dark, dismal Russian novelist; his systematic self-promotion by tearing down the reputations of other literary lights with lightning-bolt rapier thrusts (which at the same time humiliate Cuthbert's local rival) is ingeniously funny. In the end, an unexpected enthusiam proclaimed pontifically by the visiting literary lion enables Cuthbert's prowess in the great game of golf to trump the literary pretensions of his local rival in the great game of love.

The elegant, inexpensive Overlook Press hardback edition is a "best buy."

Formulaic, but pure Wodehouse (and a great gift for golfers)
The "Oldest Member" of a country club narrates ten comic tales to dispirited and frustrated younger golfers in order to boost their spirits, enhance their morals, and keep them from snapping their clubs in half. In typical Wodehouse style, most of the stories involve chasing skirts as well as replacing divots (although definitely not in that order of priority).

There are two principal scenarios: a player's love of golf either impresses or repels the girl of his dreams, or two players fall in love with the same woman and their performance on the course settles the dispute. Since these formulae have, of course, a very limited number of possible outcomes, it's best to savor the chapters singly, more to enjoy the humor and less to anticipate the endings, which are usually foreseeable. (My favorite story strays from the basic blueprint--sort of. A golfer with a mean temper relies on some randomly selected sayings of Marcus Aurelius in order to maintain his cool, impress his boss, earn a promotion--and keep his fiancee.)

How much one appreciates this volume will, not surprisingly, depend on whether one plays golf. Golf lovers are sure to enjoy these sketches, which are greatly enhanced by Wodehouse's trademark drollery and smart-aleck asides. Recuperating 18-hole addicts (I myself have been club-free for 23 years, 6 months, 10 days) will find themselves heading for a tavern to avoid relapse. Golf widows (and widowers) are likely to burn the volume before they get to page 20. And non-golfers--even readers who enjoy Wodehouse's other works--are certain to be baffled by passages such as this one: "The twelfth is a long, dog-leg hole, bogey five. Alexander plugged steadily round the bend, holing out in six, and Mitchell, whose second shot had landed him in some long grass, was obliged to use his niblick. He contrived, however, to halve the hole with a nicely-judged mashie-shot to the edge of the green."

If haven't read Wodehouse before, this volume isn't where you should start--especially if you don't play golf (I recommend "Joy in the Morning"). If, however, you have had to endure the passions of a golfer, this is probably one of the best gifts you can get him or her.