Where's School Bully?

The Pothunters and Other School Stories by P.G. Wodehouse

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Reading this just takes me back to Palin/Jones and "Tomkinson's Schooldays." Oh, and "If" - of course. What with all the sports (boxing, track) and the vocab, it's hard to picture these characters as kids. They sound more like college (oh, sorry, it is "college") - I mean, university students. I don't think it was adequately explained why Plunkett felt obliged to enjoy his crafty pipe-smoke not only out-of-bounds, but on the property of the crankiest anti-trespasser in town. Lovely period piece!
The sports reminded me of my dad, who ran track in high school and wrestled in college. Although his experiences came 20 years later, it was probably pretty similar (making weight, winning favor from the parental units by competing, etc.).
I upgraded the stars from 2 to 3 when I realized that I was so absorbed in the story, I didn't want to stop reading even to drive home for lunch. It occurred to me after I reluctantly mounted my trusty Corolla that I could turn the speech function on and listen to the Kindle mangle the prose. Ha ha! You should hear the program try to render a drawled "We-e-e-e-ell." And where a section was separated by a string of asterixes, it read each one separately! And the Writers' Guild is worried this will supplant a performed audiobook?!



View all my reviews.
Looking at the Penguin cover I wonder why they're picturing a game of rugger when none occurs in the story ... ("dot dot dot")