Psmith

"The P in Psmith , you learn, is silent, as in pneumonia or psittacosis. We’ve been speaking about humor and escapism and jeu d’esprit and yet, the Wodehouse book that I’ve selected has more of a social conscience than any other Wodehouse I can think of. It is about crusading, rabblerousing and doing the right thing. Rupert Psmith was always my favorite among Wodehouse creations. He is an etiolated, monocled figure with a dry wit and he’s paired with his friend Mike, who is quite normal. The Psmith series just gets funnier. In this book, Psmith is muckraking in New York tenements. So, it has a social conscience, but it is still a delight. Interesting question. I guess I’m metatextual and probably because that’s just how my brain works. When I start building a story, I’m going to be comparing it with other stories out there, I’m going to be figuring out what I can do that they haven’t and how I can lean on them. I’m never going to pretend that what I write doesn’t exist on the back of what came before it. I’m going to acknowledge what I am building on. So, for instance, in The Graveyard Book I acknowledge that it’s in conversation with The Jungle Book and that’s okay."