Random Thoughts

I’ve gotten to 1933 in my chronological read of P.G. Wodehouse novels, and I was wondering whether there’s a general drop-off in quality in his books… so I googled what people thought, and the rough consensus is that yes indeed, after 1940 his books suck or something? And that this is almost his final top notch novel.

I guess we’ll (I mean I’ll) see!

This is in both a very typical Wodehouse book (in that there’s a lot of amusing running around for 300 pages and then things end happily) and unusual in that there’s so much continuity with the previous Blandings novel, Summer Lightning.

I mean, Wodehouse’s novel have an overwhelming amount of recurring characters, and some continuing plots, but in this one, we basically just continue the plot from the previous novel, including all the different plot strands. So Wodehouse spends the 40 first pages recapping what’s gone on before, and that’s not something he usually does, because there’s no need.

I hate being recapped to, but lots of people love it… so is that the reason lists like this feature Heavy Weather, but not Summer Lightning? But to be fair, Goodreads lists Summer Lightning first.

Anyway, after the book gets underway, I found it very amusing indeed. It’s a more worked through novel than many a Wodehouse book. Wodehouse has a tendency to have chance be the main plot driver, but he doesn’t really do that here — he put more work into the plot.

Great fun.

Heavy Weather (1933) by P. G. Wodehouse (buy new, buy used, 4.25 on Goodreads)

Gah! I woke up in the middle of the night and I don’t feel like wrestling myself back to sleep, so perhaps this is a good night and then day to read comics? I guess we’ll see.

And for today’s music: 1991 only.

Heidi Berry: Love

04:25: Mothballs by Sole Otero (Fantagraphics)

The artwork here seems very 2020 — you’ve got the small heads and big bodies, the missing gutters between panels, the flat colours…

… and the requisite “exploded” views of apartments and stuff.

Mind you, these are all things that I like, but…

The story is very 2020, too — it’s about a young woman staying alone in her recently dead grandmother’s house, and she’s piecing together her grandmother’s life from memory while also trying to figure out her own life.

This all sounds great, right? Well, it’s quite accomplished, but it feels so, so, so calculated — every story beat seems like something you’ve seen somewhere before, and there’s also an unfortunate whiff of thought having gone into how this would be adapted to a Luca Guadagnino TV movie.

And of course there’s a possibly “spiritual” component.

Pet Shop Boys: Behaviour

It’s a frustrating book, really. It’s weirdly repetetive — we get many things presented over again in a kinda verbose way, and the annoying “hand lettered” font they’ve chosen doesn’t help.

But I mean… I can totally see why people would enjoy this.

Joni Mitchell: Night Ride Home

05:48: Broken Wires Part One by Cameron Arthur (Phantoro Press)

This is so intense.

It’s very intriguing. I like it.

05:55: Next by Heather Loase

As usual, Loase is very funny. And I love this art.

It’s also heartbreaking, so it’s a class book.

06:02: Life Sucks by Jessica Abel/Gabe Soria/Warren Pleece (Fantagraphics)

Hang on… is this a reprint or something?

Yes it is! It was originally published by First Second in 2008, and I’ve already read this.

What is it that this never occurs to me until I actually have the book in my hand? I don’t remember whether I already have something when I’m shopping on the net; I have to hold it in my hands before I realise it. I mean, Fantagraphics could have mentioned it in the solicitations, but you know — capitalism.

OK, I’m not going to re-read this now. I vaguely remember it not being very good.

06:07: Et godt nytt år by Espen Birkedal/Arild Rein

The text is written in various dialects, which isn’t my favourite kind of thing, but sometimes it works well? I mean, everybody likes Krazy Kat, right?

Here it’s just kind of annoying.

The artwork isn’t very inspiring. The characters don’t really have much character, and it’s hard to tell them apart (or care enough to tell them apart, really).

There’s so much drama. Every single fucking scene has people shouting at each other. I wondered whether this book was created by two nineteen-year-olds that had read How To Write A Damn Good Novel — the main tenet there is that every scene should have a primary and secondary conflict, and this book adheres to that pretty slavishly. But no, the writer, at least, is old enough to know better.

This was a slog to get through, and I started skimming halfway in. It covers all the clichés you’d expect. And also some you won’t.

Oh, it started as a film script. That explains a lot.

Laurie Freelove: Smells Like Truth

06:46: Epiphany by Pip Caplan

This is wild.

I’m not sure I quite get it, though.

On the other hand, perhaps that means it’s time to take a nap, so I’ll do that, then.

Cabaret Voltaire: Colours

12:51: Griz Grobus by Pollard/Roy/Nazarov (Image Comics)

Eep. That was a long nap.

I like Simon Roy’s artwork — it’s pleasantly scratchy while still being cute.

This is a pretty odd book structurally — it’s got two and a half stories jammed together. First it’s about restoring and old robot, and then it’s about finding a treasure, and meanwhile…

… we also get to read a book the people in the story is reading.

So it’s got a kind of meandering, pleasant feel. Very anti epic, and quite amusing.

It’s good stuff.

Steven Brown: Half Out

13:23: Visitations by Corey Egbert (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Oh no! Another comic book about religious damage!

And such symbolicness! Much deep.

But… I was wrong! I retract my scepticism. This is actually a pretty unique story.

It gets pretty harrowing, but not quite in the way you’d expect. It’s an interesting story, and it’s told well. The author doesn’t go into the seemingly obvious connections between his mother’s schizophrenia and his own religious visions at all, and that somehow makes things even more interesting.

Two Nice Girls: Chloe Liked Olivia

14:23: Miasmamyopia 2 by Floyd Tangeman (Deadcrow)

As usual, this is pretty fab.

It’s pretty disjointed, though… it seems to be going in a narrative direction, and then er it goes off somewhere else?

The Wolfgang Press: Queer

14:39: Astrid Løken by Lene Ask (No Comprendo Press)

This is a kinda sorta high concept book: It’s about a scientist who did field studies into bumblebees…

… under the occupation during World War II, and she was also part of the resistance. But it’s a true story!

So we get a lot of facts about bumblebees…

… and also about what it was like living under constant threat of being killed and tortured by the Nazis. It’s really good and it’s quite moving.

15:09: Belly Full of Heart by Madeline Mouse (Silver Sprocket)

This is very cute.

It’s about being in love and stuff. It’s a very sweet book.

Aphex Twin: On

15:22: Mendel the Mess-Up by Terry LaBan (Holiday House Publishing)

Wow! Terry LaBan!? There’s a name I haven’t seen in a minute…

Hm. I wonder whether LaBan has been doing animation? This has that look, slightly. I mean, the sheen… Perhaps it’s just not working on paper that gives the line that quality. Anyway, what I meant to say that this looks like it was meant to be printed in a slightly smaller size? And I think it would have looked better on non-shiny paper.

It’s about a country neighbouring Russia being invaded, so it’s got nothing to do with current events at all!

It’s pretty amusing in parts, but it sags dramatically after a while. I’m afraid I just kinda started finding the whole thing kinda boring? (Sorry for using hate speech.) It’s aimed at kids, I guess, but…

Phranc: Positively Phranc

16:07: In the Garden of Earthly Delights by Rich Tommaso (Floating World Comics)

I guess this apes the old digest format? Or were those slightly larger? Anyway, this is a cute little book printed on something that resembles phone book paper.

I really like how Tommaso’s artwork appears here, what with the limited colouring and stuff. It’s cool.

(As usual, comics people have to get a dig in at Lichtenstein…)

The story, though… I mean, it’s an entertaining heist kind of thing, but perhaps a bit too twisty? The tension seemed to disappear somehow. I dunno. It’s pretty good?

Breathless: Between Happiness And Heartache