3.5

For those considering this (the first half of the 1909 novel Mike; unabridged version bizarrely out of print since... 1935?), I should like to clear some things up.

There's not *that* much cricket. I mean to say, yes, it's a public school story about a cricket genius prodigy boy, and there is indeed cricket, but as far as I can recollect, only two chapters focusing almost solely on the cricket play-by-play, those chapters indeed being unintelligible.
But the chapters here are short, and many.

Besides that, a pleasant read. 'Pleasant' isn't exactly the highest praise I can give a book, but with Wodehouse that doesn't matter, as a lot of things don't.
Despite being his first 'adult' book, it reads rather like what we would now call YA.

Fast paced (it's Wodehouse) and inclusive of far more humour (often of the quiet sort) than I had been led to believe.
I'd gotten the impression from certain reviews that this was a dull, unfunny tale of altogether too much cricket.
And it is dull, in its way, but its way has a certain charm about it.
And in certain passages, you can see the Real Wodehouse poking in his nose.

Certainly, though, believe neither the writer nor the likes of Orwell when they say this is Plum's best work.
I think that you'd have to be an obscenely old Englishman with fond reminisces of Eton or something to believe that.
The rose-tint is powerful in those chaps.

Still: fun, funny, with a couple memorable characters and some impractical life advice: Wodehouse, then. ( )

Another of Wodehouse's early school stories, this is actually the first half of a novel in two parts - not that it shows too badly. The two halves of Mike, originally published in 1909, were set two years apart at two different schools, so reprinting them with new titles as two separate books isn't a terribly detrimental decision. (The other half, reprinted as first Enter Psmith and later Mike and Psmith, introduces one of Wodehouse's more famous comic characters.)

As with earlier books, Wodehouse has a great grasp for the slangy dialogue and political machinations of a boys' public school. His earliest "novels" feel more like short stories strung together, though (and to a large degree, they are), and thankfully, that's missing here. The whole unit is far more cohesive, and thankfully, he's finally learned to pull back somewhat on the sheer number of characters.

It isn't a very funny book, but it's a perfectly pleasant boys' sporting story. You're sure to like it even more if you understand the ins and outs of cricket. ( )

This book may have flagged up the risk of re-reading favourite books from our childhood. It must me not much short of fifty years ago that I first read this book, and I remember think that it was marvellous.

I have always looked books set in schools or universities, and have had a lifelong passion for cricket. Originally set in the Edwardian period, this books lands in both parts of the Venn diagram, telling the story of Mike Jackson, latest of his family to attend Wrykyn Public School. (As an interesting note, the version I read was a slightly updated version of the original which was published in the 1950s. The original, published in about 1907 as Mike, included this book and Mike and Psmith, which introduced Rupert Psmith, one of Wodehouse’s most popular characters. This 1950s separated the two stories out, and also featured updated references to leading cricketers, with occasional mention of the likes of Denis Compton and Fred Truman.)

Both of Mike’s elder brothers had shown great prowess at cricket: Joe has already left school, and is playing for one of the counties, while Bob is still at Wrykyn in the Sixth Form, and on the fringes of the First Eleven.

There are some entertaining descriptions of school cricket matches, in which mike has fluctuating fortunes, but the background plot is very laboured, and not a patch on some of the better known school sagas, such as the Greyfriars cycle featuring Billy Bunter, or Anthony Buckeridge’s later canon of Jennings stories.

If this had been my first encounter with P G Wodehouse, I might never have tried his later novels, which would have been a tragic loss. ( )

Eerder gepubliceerd als Mike, in 1953 uitgebracht in twee delen: Mike at Wrykyn en Mike and Psmith

Reading this novel easily tripled my knowledge of cricket. The best chapter was #19, Mike Goes Back to Sleep Again (seriously) because it had a useful lesson. Otherwise, it was a cute story of a boy trying to make the team at his school and dealing with the other boys. ( )