In the long slog of midwinter that stretches out after the holiday season, it is a true gift to find a book that unexpectedly makes you laugh out loud over and over. I’ve never been one to fully get on board with the whole idea of reincarnation, but “Jeeves and Leap of Faith” is pushing the dial a bit towards the ‘believe’ side. Ben Schott has channeled the voice of P.G. Wodehouse, inhabiting the pixy-ish humor of the originator in a way that appears both seamless and effortless. Bertie Wooster is up to his usual entanglements in various capers, shenanigans and spoofs – and (of course) saved from doom, aunts from hell, and unintended romantic engagements (or worse) by the all-seeing, all-knowing Jeeves. The Drones Club, the despicable Spode, the Junior Ganymede club (now with a new role that was unexpected), plus the usual suspects…uh, friends – all are compounded into a most entertaining stew. More, please!

This is the 2nd book in the Jeeves series and if you enjoy books set in England and the peerage society you'll love this book. Jeeves runs the household for Wooster and they are again working for the secret agents of the government. this is a fun read and can be read without reading Jeeves and the King of Clubs but I think you will get more of the humor by reading book 1. Lots of hi-jinks and a refreshing look at England's class system of the past. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Sometimes you need pure fun, and for me that time is now. Oh, how I chortled my through this one -- more so than the previous! -- and am delighted to feature it in January’s Read & Recommended roundup for Zoomer magazine’s Books section. The full review feature is at the link.

Another delightful adventure with Bertie and Jeeves. Author Schott does a remarkable job of continuing Wodehouse’s legacy. I love the language, the escapades, and how Jeeves drolly resolves difficulties. I even laugh out loud. Don’t miss this book.

Published by Little, Brown and Company on October 13, 2020

Jeeves and the Leap of Faith is Ben Schott’s second homage to P.G. Wodehouse. It is, I suspect, the first Jeeves novel to end with a cliffhanger. The hanging question involves romance, and for once the question isn’t how Bertie Wooster will escape an impending engagement. In fact, Bertie deftly avoids romantic entanglements throughout the novel, with the able help of Jeeves.

As fans of Bertie Wooster well understand, nothing good comes of having an English aunt. They are given to arranging unwanted marriages and scolding, reacting to poor displays of posture and manners with swift correction and responding to tardiness with “What time do you call this?” They live in a place of their own invention where standards are kept and stations are known. Bertie plainly does not occupy that realm. At Oxford, Bertie was more admired for night climbing than for scholarship (night climbing: a sport involving the scaling of old buildings that school administrators wish to discourage despite its venerable tradition). In the present, Bertie banters with his friends at the Drones Club, gambles on unlikely competitions, ponders crossword clues until Jeeves suggests an answer, experiments with hangover cures, haggles with Jeeves about clothing and wallpaper choices, and does his best to avoid being productive.

This book has more of a plot than the typical Wodehouse Jeeves novel, in that Schott focuses part of the story on Jeeves’ role as a clandestine agent of the British government. Fortunately, the plot does not distract the reader. The Wodehouse books were, like Bertie Wooster’s life, delightfully aimless, and Schott again captures Bertie’s essence. Still, as a service to the government, Bertie does impersonate a man of the cloth (making rather a bungle of the prayers) and tests his night climbing skills, culminating in a leap between buildings to which the title alludes.

The novel takes us to the racetrack in the hope that the Drones Club (with the help of Jeeves) can pay its back taxes with a well-placed bet. Other eventful moments largely involve romance (or the lack thereof). Bertie conspires to avoid the latest match contrived by his aunt while various friends and enemies pursue a confusion of women, including a maid who is apparently an old flame of Jeeves. The same aunt has been trying to convince Bertie to discharge Jeeves, so another scheme must be concocted (with Jeeves’ help) to avoid calamity. A diamond heist lurks in the background.

Schott has given intense study to Wodehouse and his characters, as is evidenced by the extensive notes he appends to the text. For the casual reader, it suffices to understand that there is little distance between Schott’s version of Bertie and Jeeves and the originals as crafted by Wodehouse. The writing style and dialog are much the same, as is the flavor of the stories. The plot, such as it is, is light and silly and full of the digressions that characterized Wodehouse’s work.

The Wodehouse novels are celebrated as some of the best comedic works of the first half of the twentieth last century. I suspect that most Wodehouse fans can’t get enough of Bertie and Jeeves. Thanks to Schott, the Jeeves well has not yet run dry.

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Ahhh, Jeeves and Wooster! Are there any literary couples who engender such happiness, not to mention tales of laughter, at the mention of their names? Very few, I'll wager.
And yet, since Plum is gone, a Wodehouse fan is left to read and reread, with no hope for more, for the most part. The Wodehouse estate has authorized only a few authors to use the beloved characters in new books. Sebastian Faulks wrote one, which I enjoyed very much, but stopped there.

Now along comes Ben Schott, who pens not one, but TWO Jeeves and Wooster tomes, and has me chortling delightedly once again. Schott's first was Jeeves and the King of Clubs, and this one, Jeeves and the Leap of Faith followed closely on its heels, in terms of both publication date and plot.

Schott has expanded Wodehouse's Woosterian parameters in two ways: first, he sets the books in the World War 2 era and deals directly with the fascist movement in a broader societal setting, giving the old favorite target of the Black Shorts, Roderick Spode, a juicy role; secondly, he casts Jeeve's' Ganymede Club as an asset for British Intelligence. Who else, but a Gentleman's Personal Gentleman or a Butler or a Valet has such unrestricted access to the tony set, and who least suspected of spying?

Bertie, of course, is recruited to help. As one might imagine, this sets the hapless fellow on path strew with complications and mishaps from a croquet challenge to a soaring trifle to night climbing in Cambridge. The plot itself is fun, and Schott seeds his story with the off-hand allusions and minutia of British culture of that era which appear like Easter eggs in the long grass as one strolls along. One theme that runs through the book is Bertie's attempt to complete a very British crossword puzzle, the clues for which are likely to confound those who have not attempted such a feat before. Helpfully, the author includes all the clues and the answers at the end of the book, along with notes on phrases, allusions, and events In the text. The notes were quite as much fun to read as the book itself.

Perhaps the most impressive part of Jeeves and the Leap of Faith is the way in which Schott absolutely captures Wodehouse's style, in both phrasing and, perhaps more importantly, cadence. There's a rhythm to a Wodehousian sentence, and the author recaptures it beautifully. Honestly, I'm frightfully sad that I've just finished this one and will have to wait for the next. Be warned, after reading these two, the reader will be as thirsty for more as Tantalus standing in his watery pool. Happily, it appears that our wait will not be quite as long as the unfortunate Greek's Huzzah!

At the best of times I love a comic novel, and these have not been the best of times. I really, really needed an entertaining read right now. And I found it in Jeeves and the Leap of Faith, Ben Shott's second homage to P. G. Wodehouse's classic Wooster and Jeeves novels.

Shott brings Wodehouse's eccentric characters back to life, embroiled in a zany and complicated tangled plot of comedic excellence.

Over the course of a week, Bertie evades matrimony, helps save the Drones club from insolvency, goes undercover for the government, battles fascism, challenges Jeeves choice of bedroom wallpaper, and stands up to his formidable Aunt Agatha.

Strange things go on. What's even stranger is that they are based on history! Like the annual Boot-Finding in Spitalfields Market and the Pavement Club, a Cambridge society that sat on the pavement on Saturday afternoons, and the Hysteron Proteron club of Balliol College that in the 1920s spent a day living backward. Also appearing are the night climbers of Cambridge and the daring leap that gives this volume its name.

Throughout the novel, Bertie struggles with the Times crossword puzzle, which is included in the endnotes for readers to solve!

I am fortified with gladness, ready again to face the chaotic world.

I received a free galley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

I have a feeling that with the Jeeves books, either a person loves them or loathes them, with a sprinkling of they’re okay but…. I’m in the okay, not my favorite, but that might be because this is the first Jeeves book I’ve read. I was glad to hear that this was an authorized continuation of the Wodehouse series. Bertie Wooster is a first-class doofus. I bet his name is what Illustrates “doofus” in the dictionary. It is a good thing his manservant, Reginal Jeeves is around. There’s a lot of problems going on in Bertie’s life. And to top it off, Jeeve’s club is a cover for British Intelligence and Bertie has to help end the political hopes of a fascist. It is a fun book, one for when you’re wanting to be entertained and not have to think, and we all have those days.

In the space of one week, Bertie Wooster battles an aunt intent on marrying him off and firing his man Jeeves, helps foil some British fascists, engages in a complicated horse-race betting scheme to save the Drones Club from income tax ruin, masquerades as a clergyman and a female fortune-teller, climbs various college buildings at Cambridge, attempts to defy Jeeves with regard to choice of bedroom wallpaper, becomes entangled in his friends’ love lives, and (gasp) may be falling in love himself. All the while, Jeeves slides about unobtrusively in the background, setting things to right.

Bertie lurches from delight to disaster, from the pleasures of his Drones friends and new lady friend Iona, to the perils of Aunt Agatha and the loathsome Roderick Spode, head of the British Black Shorts. Schott captures Wodehouse’s witty dialog and dizzying plot entanglements well, but there are some departures from Wodehouse’s style. While Wodehouse liked to poke fun at British fascists, he kept things resolutely light and frothy. Schott’s books still ridicule the fascists, but now Bertie and Jeeves are part of a British government group working against Britain’s right wingers. Hearing this, you will not be surprised that Schott’s Bertie has his brain set at higher voltage than Wodehouse’s. He’s no Einstein, but Wodehouse’s Bertie would never be trusted within a mile of an espionage operation.

If you are a Wodehouse fan, you will not mistake this for his work, but it is highly entertaining and should provoke more than the occasional Wodehousian giggle. I am very much looking forward to Schott’s third Bertie and Jeeves, especially since this one ends in a romantic cliffhanger.