I’ve been wanting to try more Wodehouse that isn’t about Wooster and Jeeves, and since I couldn’t find any Uncle Fred stories, I decided to try reading more about Ukridge. As it turns out, while I enjoyed the Dog College story in Jeeves and the Yule-tide Spirit, reading a book of stories about Ukridge has only led me to conclude that he’s an insufferable ass.

The stories in this collection are arranged in chronological order, with a few later stories referring to earlier ones, and generally involve Ukridge trying to get rich but getting his steadfast friend, James Corcoran (“Corky”) into financial and other types of trouble.

Although Ukridge is the protagonist of all the stories (narrated by Corky), he just kept grating me the wrong way. I think it’s because that no matter his scheme, he doesn’t bother to consider others. I think he was supposed to come off as this lovable and eternally-optimistic person but he just came off as an opportunist who had no qualms exploiting his friends. If anything, Corky reminded me more of Wooster, with his soft-hearted (and somewhat silly) nature, just that he was poor and didn’t have a Jeeves-figure to help him get out of Ukridge’s schemes.

Annoying protagonist aside, the stories were entertaining. You pretty much know that things will go haywire from the get-go. It’s like a beautifully written train-wreck, where many innocent and hapless people get caught in the gravitational pull of Ukridge. To be honest, by the second half of the book, I was just rooting for Corky to be able to get out of whatever scheme Ukridge needed her help with.

This is not going to put me off Wodehouse forever, but I think I’ll be sticking to Jeeves and Wooster for some time. I just hope that when I get around to reading Uncle Fred, he doesn’t come off as an unlikable ass the way Ukridge does.