Dynamite Uncles and American Women ~or~ Musings on “Uncle Dynamite”

The main character of this month’s Wodehouse*, Frederick Altamont Cornwallis, Earl of Ickenham, has appeared in other volumes.  He is a lively sort of chap who enjoys sorting out the problems of the young.  All in all, I enjoy spending time with him.  There are a lot of uncles like that in Wodehouse, and many feature in my own life and I enjoy them just as much, if not more.  I am fortunate to have a smattering of them, two on my mother’s side and four on my father’s (two of whom are, sadly, no longer with us).  The elder of the maternal uncles also pulls double-duty as my godfather.  When I was a lass in pigtails, I suspect that he used playground excursions with me to lure in attractive women.  Fittingly enough, I informed him that he needed to marry the woman who is now his wife, so that arrangement worked itself out handily.  The younger of the maternal uncles is the one who shares my Wodehouse mania, and we have a lot of other odd quirks in common, which is comforting in this mad world of ours.  One of the paternal uncles is on the other side of the country, but is an unusually liberal host.  The other is a plumber with a sweetly sympathetic side; he was the one who originally put the thought in my ear head it would not be a bad thing for me to have a second husband.  It is also handy to have him in the family when my house decides to act up.

I desperately miss the two dearly departed uncles, both of whom had great senses of humor.  There are also a passel of uncles scattered around Eastern Europe in the small villages that I’m related to (yes, the entire villages, or so it seemed to me when I visited last).  I also acquired a couple more via my marriage, although sadly I have not gotten to know them quite so well yet.  All of this musing is to say that I thoroughly agree with Wodehouse’s take on good uncles.  He always seems to be more fluent when it comes to writing about relationships that are slightly more separated.  For some reason, I get the feeling that it is far more rare to see parents interacting with their children.  One is more apt to see uncles and aunts interacting with their nieces and nephews.  There are indeed some fathers, and rarely some mothers, which is an interesting plot choice.

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Another thing which caught my attention is this quotation on page 99: “Sally was just the sort of girl who appealed to him most, the sort America seems to turn out in thousands, gay, grave, and adventurous, enjoying life with an almost Ickenhamian relish and resolutely refusing to allow its little difficulties to daunt her spirit.”  On the whole, it is very nice to see something positive written about an American. When I lived in the UK, not a Sunday went by that the Times did not make at least one disparaging remark against Americans (its leftist counterpart, The Guardian, probably also had some things to say, but the Sunday Times had a better Style section so that was the one that made its way to my room).  I’m not saying that we don’t do things that merit critique, but it’s refreshing to see something positive, even if it was written in 1948. 

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And finally, I noticed that there were quite a few comments that served as internal advertisements for the quality of Wodehouse’s writing.  A typical example presented itself on page 121:

                “ ‘I like your dialogue,’ said Lord Ickenham critically.  ‘It’s crisp and good.  Do you ever write?’

                ‘No.’

                ‘You should.  You’d make a packet…’”

That one of Wodehouse’s characters was complimenting the dialogue of another, which Wodehouse himself wrote, amused me.  Sometimes, even the best need to have a few compliments lobbed their way to help them carry on.  It’s nice to see that Wodehouse was not above giving himself some.  

*Read July 2015