Spilled Ink

Some time ago I promised a review of Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome, and here at last are my thoughts on it.

For those of you who enjoy humorous books, particularly Patrick MacManus and P. G. Wodehouse fans, Three Men in a Boat will be a treasure. For those of you who don't particularly like "frivolous" reading, well, this probably isn't the best of choices. I once heard this book described as "Wooster and all his friends on a boating trip--without Jeeves." Which summary, I have found, is surprisingly accurate. Three London gentlemen fancy themselves sickly and decide the best thing for them is a relaxing fortnight boating up the Thames. They will take their food (and one man's dog) with them, and alternately stay at inns and camp on the riverside. What follows is a hilarious, first person account of their "journey," punctuated by equally amusing but often very loosely relavant ruminations.

I found the book difficult to get through, though how much of this was due to my large school load and how much to the rambling tone of the narrator, I do not know. (I am inclined to attribute my slowness to the former: my brother finished the book in about three days.) But when I did buckle down to reading it, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Though not, perhaps, as classic as Jeeves or cleverly written as MacManus, Three Men in a Boat offers a good compromise between the two, and bears my official recommendation. Lucky book, eh?