The Burger Joint Book

This classic Wodehouse novel is the story of cartoonist Gerald "Jerry" West who meets his soulmate when on jury duty but while he makes a date with her, he forgets to ask her name. And then when he bumps into her again at Barribault's, he makes the same mistake. But these are not his only problems. While he dreams of Jane Hunnicut (he finally does discover her name), he is engaged to the domineering Vera Upshaw. Plus his inheritance has been tied up in trust by his father who believed that no man should be given his money till he reaches thirty for only then do they get some sense in their heads. Jane, however, has come into millions and Jerry does not want to be thought a gold digger. On the other side, a misunderstanding ensures that his uncle Willoughby Scrope who has recently purchased a Gainsborough miniature'"The Girl in Blue" of the title'finds on his return from a golfing holiday that the miniature has been pinched. He is convinced that it has been pinched by Bernadette "Barney" Claybourne who he has just sent to his brother Crispin's estate Mellingham, to keep her away from London and shoplifting. Crispin has his own money problems and after some reluctance agrees to help recover the miniature with his butler (actually a broker's man) Chippendale. Willoughby has also blackmailed Jerry into attempting the recovery of the Gainsborough. What follows is a hilarious comedy of errors of sorts with some thievery, some blackmail, and lots of fun (including pushing a policeman into a brook). This may not be one of Wodehouse's more convoluted plots'in fact, it seems rather straightforward compared to others'but the writing is wonderful (as always) and one is seldom without a smile on one's face. No impostors, though (except one, who was only technically so).