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Read Bachelors Anonymous (1988)

Bachelors Anonymous (1988)

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3.93 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0880292792 (ISBN13: 9780880292795)
Language
English
Publisher
marboro books (rockleigh, nj)

Bachelors Anonymous (1988) - Plot & Excerpts

Ivor Llewelyn is a movie producer, apparently he’s Welsh but clearly he’s been Hollywood-based for a fair old while as he now speaks and acts like your stereotypical movie studio head. Following his fifth divorce, he is approached by his lawyer, a Ephraim Trout, who reveals he is a member of a club called Bachelors Anonymous – a group of like-minded men who have sworn off marriage and are keen to get other men to join their group. Now in the hands of another author, the notion of like-minded men who refuse to have anything to do with women and use somewhat underhand means to get other men to join their number would probably be given a much different, more sinister, spin. Here though it’s just another example of Wodehouse’s boys in grown men suits, who’ll swear off the love right until the point it hits them right between the eyes and leaves their hearts not just singing, but charging enthusiastically through the scores of entire Broadway shows. Burnt by this latest divorce, Llewelyn takes Trout’s wife and on a business trip to London hires failing playwright Joe Pickering to help stop him getting betrothed again (most specifically, to stop him getting betrothed to an imperious West-End actress, Vera Dalrymple). Pickering is happy to help, although he finds himself in a much different boat when it comes to love, having recently fallen head over heels with reporter, Sally Fitch (who has recently been left some money, and is also being pursued by her wastrel, aristocratic ex, who is actually – and coincidentally – engaged to Sally’s new flatmate). So Llewelyn and Pickering are an unusual but amicable pairing, one turned away from love and the other smiling at it fondly. But then Mr Trout arrives in London, and Ephraim Trout is about to do a sudden volte-face which will change all his views and his entire personality.I’m sure just reciting the plot gives you some idea of what a charming, delightful soufflé this is There are without a doubt better Wodehouse novels, but on its own terms, this is a slender and near perfect treat. A wonderful novel to curl up with on a wet Bank Holiday Monday afternoon. Published in 1973, this triumphantly ignores all concerns of the 1970s, but there can be few books of the period which are so beguiling and genuinely amusing.

It is never agreeable for a man who is engaged to one girl and has just proposed to another to find himself in the company of both of them."Ivor Llewellyn and his lawyer Mr. Trout have been through five divorces together, but it's time to say goodbye. Llewellyn is headed for England, but he leaves with parting advice from his good friend Trout: for heaven's sake, man, steer clear of marriage! Trout's own secret at avoiding matrimony is simple: he belongs to a discrete club of gentlemen who, when one of their members is headed down the slippery slope of copulation, rescues him. At the first batted eyelash, the first romantic date, the members of Bachelors Anonymous step in fight off the lady-types and redeem their pal. While there is no such club in England, Trout suggests that his friend look into employing some reasonably level-headed fellow in London who can help safeguard him from unwanted female affection. They find such a man in young Joe Pickering, whose heartfelt first play has just been ruined by a diva stealing all of the lines. In the comedy of errors that follows, however, and a string of coincidences so preposterous that even the characters are boggled at them, the book ends with at least two marriages. Wodehouse is a delightful absurdist; there is some pleasure just in the silly situations he comes up with, but the style of the story works to great effective. The characters are often pompous, and Wodehouse sneaks in little barbs that are completely nonsensical, but in a novel of this sort not altogether rout of place. He informs the reader, for instance, that one particular character’s flight to England arrived on time, thanks to the complete lack of a hijacking. It’s so apropos of nothing, and yet if the flight was hjacked, it’s the sort of random happenstances that would fit into a crazy, silly story like this. This is nothing but entertainment, of course, but it’s lively and stylish.

What do You think about Bachelors Anonymous (1988)?

At 92, author still surprises, pulls switcheroos, pops happy endings. For near a century, valet Jeeves smartly kept Wooster single. Antics still inspire silly slapstick 2014 TV Blandings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWkcz8... (Some videos "not available in your country") . Warm honeymoon first-love feelings are like spring to winter. Joe, lawyer on two-week vacation to put on his play, cauliflower ear and flat nose from boxing, is more than pretty fribble. Three times the charm, he bumps into pretty Sally "on the previous night he had fallen in love at what virtually amounted to first sight, and this naturally disturbed his mind and affected his steering" p 48. Equally smitten, Sally will inherit fortune £25K in two years if no smoking. PI Daphne Dolby will be watching onside, paid by Anti-Tobacco League who want the boodle. Years ago, Sally declined Sir Jaklyn Warner, whose "rent collector was prepared to accept the charm of manner and glibness of speech as a substitute for cash" p 79. Now Jak is engaged to Daphne, but proposes again to Sally, pretending not to know about inheritance. Daphne has open eyes to greedy fiancé.(view spoiler)[Daphne coerces Jak to registry office with bruiser operative looking forward to witness role. "Jaklyn did not spoil his treat" p 139. Daphne leaves her cigarette case behind, returns to catch Sally mid-puff. Ivor, happy to be kept single, pays Joe £25K for play to make Hollywood film."As a child of eight" mistletoe kiss banks "forty years passion .. like water in a dam" p 168. Trout transported by Cupid. Motherly widow Amelia Bingham "comfortable .. she radiated an atmosphere of coziness" p 162, recognizes American says "mailman instead of postman" p 164. Trout apologizes for Plan B, dosing Joe with Mickey Finn knockout drops to miss his date with Sally. Amelia will be a Trout; Sally will be a Pickering. (hide spoiler)]
—An Odd1

Love quadrangle (or more) amuses in silly Wodehouse farce!PGW's books rarely fail to amuse and entertain, and certainly "Bachelors" is no exception. Big-time Hollywood producer Ivor Llewellyn, a five-time divorcee (due to a compulsion to propose over dinner) is off to London where his California divorce lawyer, Ephraim Trout, fears he might fall to the wiles of yet another woman. Trout belongs to "B.A.", patterned after AA, which helps men prevent getting married off. He suggests Llewellyn look up a lawyer while in England to help fill the gap. Sure enough, Llewellyn hires Joe Pickering, a young attorney and fledgling playwright, who has just been smitten by a fledgling reporter, Sally Fitch. Meanwhile, Trout decides to come to London himself in case the "big gun" is needed, and, while interfering in the budding Fitch/Pickering romance, falls for a "comfortable" neighbor lady, Amelia Bingham. Llewellyn spends the whole time avoiding being trapped by Vera Dalrymple, star of Pickering's now closed first play. There's a few more players in this comical farce, but you get the drift... And will they all live happily ever after ?!?! As with his Bertie and Jeeves books, Wodehouse's storyline is little more than an excuse to parade his silly characters and their antics, revealing all too common human foibles at which we can share a low-cost laugh or two. His short novels tend to fly by, with rarely a serious thought or puzzling intrigue to slow us down, just sheer frivolity for a couple of hours. Reading with a smile all the while - this is a good thing, right?
—Jerry

Wodehouse first introduced us to movie mogul Ikey Llewellyn in ‘The Luck of the Bodkins’ smuggling some jewels for his wife Grayce and again in ‘Pears, Girls and Monty Bodkin’. In both these he is a bit player supporting the hapless Monty Bodkin but here he moves up to be the second name on the bill, top billing going to Joe Pickering. Ikey has recently being divorced by fifth wife Grayce and is concerned that due to his inability to talk of other matters that he will shortly be proposing again and due to his animal magnetism whoever his dinner date is will, of course, accept. His lawyer, Ephraim Trout, despite being grateful to the fees Ikey’s divorces pull in suggests he join ‘Bachelors Anonymous’. As Trout explained ‘It was Alcoholics Anonymous that gave the founding fathers the idea, our methods are frankly borrowed from theirs. When one of us feel the urge to take a woman out to dinner becoming to strong for him, he seeks out the other members of the circle and tells them of his craving, and they reason with him’. Difficulties arise when Ikey travels to England as their is no chapter of Bachelors Anonymous their so Trout suggests a level headed solicitor, Joe Pickering, to deputise for them. When Trout discovers that Joe is engaged and very much a fan of the opposite sex even to the point of donning morning coat and spongebag trousers he travels to England to take charge.So Wodehouse has his work cut out to bring a universally happy ending with all the bachelors suitably paired off, can even Trout discover love?Not the greatest Wodehouse novel but still manages to bring some joy to a couple of rainy hours.
—Ian Wood

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