Why didn’t anyone tell me…

Oh, and I also picked up The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories by P. G. Wodehouse. It’s a short story collection that includes one of the earliest Jeeves stories, and honestly Jeeves just plays a bit part. It feels so different than the rest of the Jeeves stories I’ve encountered so far because any one of these short stories goes only one direction – guy gets girl, end of story. Dog foils plot, end of story. Most of the Jeeves stories are deep enough of a roller coaster to have several ups and downs, surprises, etc., and watching the mayhem is all the more fun. These are like mini-portions of those. You get just an up or just a down, and only one before it breaks off and goes on to the next one.

My favorite so far was the story told from the perspective of a self-admitted ugly dog that is trained as a flawed watch-dog by some thieves, in hopes they can place it in a rich house and then come in through the window in the middle of the night with no barking. Well, all goes well until the dog goes and gets his pal, another dog, who has no such qualms with raising the whole house. This is probably the one that felt most like the Wodehouse I know better, and the completely unusual perspective was fun.