Wake Up, Sir! - Hardcover

Ames, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743230043 ISBN 13: 9780743230049

Publisher: Scribner, 2004

Synopsis

Increasingly relying on his loyal valet, Jeeves, alcoholic writer Alan Blair wonders at the valet's coincidental likeness to the famous character from the P. G. Wodehouse mysteries and travels to a New York artist colony, where a confrontation with a nosy sculptress prompts Jeeves to show his true colors. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

'This gleefully knowing mash-up of Wodehouse and literary fiction makes me smile every time I remember it' Nick Curtis, Evening Standard, Books of the Year

'Superb and audacious... the word 'hilarious' seems inadequate. The novel is extremely funny but it is also sad and poignant, and almost incredibly clever.' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

'Ames is a considerable misanthropic talent, even if he does hail from over the pond. What ho, in all senses of the phrase' James Kidd, Independent

Jonathan Ames has a brilliant way with words and summons the ghost of PG Wodehouse with almost genius (apparent) effortlessness... [he] never, not for one page, forgets to be very, very funny' Big Issue

'Fiendishly funny' Esquire

'It's a Necker Cube of a book in that it can be either extremely funny or extremely sad, depending on the face that presents itself to you as you read (it is of course both, and everyone who bought this book on my recommendation has told me they loved it)'Nicholas Lezard, Guardian Books of the Year 2015

'A picaresque tale with pratfalls aplenty' Tatler

'A rip roaring delight... A cauldron of wit, myriad themes and hilarity... 'Wake Up, Sir' is a genuinely brilliant novel, a neatly crafted slice of literary chaos with some heart-warming tenderness added to the mix' Huffington Post

'Amid the hilarity [is] a deep pathos... This is an audacious more-than-pastiche' New Statesman

'What ho! A novel inspired by Jeeves and Wooster? First published in the US in 2004, this is the story of Alan Blair an alcoholic American writer with a weakness for British novelists and a host of problems spanning the mental to the spiritual and a very specific sexual fantasy. Fortunately, he has a valet named Jeeves to help when things go awry. But does he even exist?'Fiona Wilson, The Times - Books of the Year

'Frequently hilarious... Ames's mastery of the Wodehouseian idiom is total; it's hard to believe that Bertie Wooster's legions of admirers won't find much to enjoy here... The best Jeeves and Wooster novel Saul Bellow never wrote' Spectator

'Clever, ingenious and really, really funny' Daily Mail

'Too funny for the canon of high literature, the book is too brilliant to be mere diversionary humour' New York Press

Jonathan Ames's latest comic novel is so brilliant and charming that any description of it is bound to be impossibly dull by comparison Seattle Weekly

'A Wodehouse novel for the recovery era' The New York Times Book Review

'What do you get when you cross Carry On, Jeeves with Portnoy's Complaint? . . . Jonathan Ames's very funny new novel, Wake Up, Sir!' Newsday

'The X-rated Woody Allen'Guardian

'Ames is a remarkable comic writer. He excels at punching out hilarious monologues on subjects ranging from nose fetishes to the planks of Buddhism' Time Out New York

Cause for celebration... As Jeeves himself might prompt Ames, 'Carry on, sir!'' Washington Post

Pungent and hilarious, if completely off the deep end'

--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author:

Jonathan Ames is the author of nine books including The Extra Man, I Love You More than You Know and the graphic novel The Alcoholic. He also created the hit HBO comedy Bored to Death, starring Ted Danson, Zach Galifianakis and Jason Schwartzman, and has fought in two amateur boxing matches as "The Herring Wonder". He lives in New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0743230043
• ISBN 13: 9780743230049
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 334