The sun also sets

There is a considerable lack of blackface novels. That I have just read my first does not make me think the canon is long or foreboding. Wodehouse's Thank You, Jeeves is one of the early full Jeeves and Wooster novels, and it's a riot. The plot element involving the blackface is as absurd of the rest of Wodehouse's robust plot turns (a group of Negro minstrels boards a boat to play some music for a party; Bertie escapes his involuntary capture by, at Jeeves' suggestion, applying boot polish to his face.) Needless to say hijinks and frivolities abound, all to put Bertie in harm's way. Al Jolson would be proud.

Another full length, Jeeves in the Morning, brings the hapless Boko Fittleworth and the dim D'Arcy "Stilton" Cheesewright to the fro, and again, more nonsense. Nothing to complicated but enough laughs and some outstanding anti-American jabs go a long way.

Aside from The Code of the Woosters, I'm not entirely sold on Wodehouse in full novel. His short stories, particularly in the the collections The Inimitable Jeeves, Carry on, Jeeves, and Very Good, Jeeves, seem brighter and more digestible. I've just referred to Wodehouse's output as a foodstuff, but not without reason. It's nice to read these in the midst of other serious work.

What the novels do explore is, as Jeeves himself would say, the psychology of these individuals, especially Bertie. He's an amazing, aloof literary character. He doesn't remind me of anyone I've ever known or will know, but he has much to say of the course of man, even saddled with his limited intelligence and a kind heart. A reader can't elevate Wodehouse to genius status, but for pure entertainment there is nothing like him.