The Heart of a Goof

De: P. G. Wodehouse

Narrado por: Jonathan Cecil

It was a morning when all nature shouted "Fore!" P. G. Wodehouse leads the listener out on to this little nine-hole course with a collection of nine Golf stories - as observed by the Oldest Member. The stories included are: "The Heart of a Goof", "High Stakes", "Keeping in with Vosper", "Chester Forgets Himself", "The Magic Plus Fours", "The Awakening of Rollo Podmarsh", "Rodney Fails to Qualify", "Jane Gets off the Fairway", and "The Purification of Rodney Spelvin".

©2011 The Trustees of the Wodehouse Estate. All rights reserved. (P)2011 AudioGO

Very funny golf & love stories.

I wasn't sure I'd like this Wodehouse without Bertie, Gally, or Ukridge but these were worth the listen. He's in top form.

Not Just for Golfers

What did you love best about The Heart of a Goof?

You don't have to be a golfer to enjoy this collection of comic tales from P.G. Wodehouse.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

All of the stories are fairly predictable - boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. This collection is a light but pleasant way to pass a few hours.

What does Jonathan Cecil bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Jonathan Cecil is an excellent reader of P.G. Wodehouse's material. He's a master of character, expression, and interpretation - one of the all-time bests!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I enjoyed it, and I would listen to it again.

Any additional comments?

The Heart of a Goof is an entertaining addition to the P.G. Wodehouse canon, in the same vein as the Mr. Mulliner tales.

The Oldest Member Strikes Again

Don't think you need to golf to enjoy these stories, because they aren't really about golf. They're about people who are obsessed, depressed and perplexed by what our narrator, the Club's Oldest Member, always refers to as "the noblest of games". Golf is merely the prism through which Wodehouse views his fellow humans in nine delightful stories--the last three of which tell an ongoing saga of a love, betrayal, jealousy, and how a most frightful bounder redeems himself through--you guessed it--golf.

One of the things I find so captivating about Wodehouse is that his characters think and act in ways that are so utterly improbable and irrational outside the world he has created, yet so probable and rational inside that world. Reading him is like being in a dream where the normal rules don't apply: where a man can't propose to the girl of his choice until he's won at least one round of golf. Where a business tycoon leads his wife and mother-in-law to suspect he's having an affair rather than admit he's competing in a tournament for a pewter mug (value: $3). Where a awful golfer finds the confidence he needs to become truly great from a pair of unsightly plus-fours. Then you realize that you've done things that are, in their way, just as improbably and irrational.

Laugh out loud funny

I’ve been an Audible member for many years, and this book of short stories may be my favorite. It’s extremely funny, essentially for a golfer. P. G. Wodehouse’s writing is priceless, and Jonathan Cecil’s performance is outstanding. If you want to laugh out loud over and over, I highly recommend this audiobook!

At His Very Best

In the golf stories, Wodehouse despite being a humorist, as mediocre though avid golfer at this period of his life, brought a deep understanding of the game and those who are devoted (hooked on?) to it. Employing the exaggeration, the mock heroic and the seamless plots that are characteristic of his finest work, in these stories Wodehouse pokes gentle gun at the sub culture of golf and golfers. If you are a golfer and self aware, I defy you to read these stories without being able to see yourself. Whether you are the helpless hack, the preening scratch man, the instruction obsessed, the rules lawyer or ab insecure being who has too much self worth dependent on what is after all a game, you are here. In the finest of these stories Wodehouse, as is the wont of truly great humorists, gets to kernel of the nut as well as any golf writer ever has and moreover he provokes smiles and the occasional guffaw.

Johnathan Cecil's reading is masterful with the appropriate heightened dignity layered onto the mock heroic and faux melodramatic stories.

Wodehouse: 5 stars; Golf: 2 stars

I’ll admit, much as I generally love Wodehouse’s novels and stories, my least favorites are generally the Mr Mulliner collections, followed by the golf stories. There’s a part of me that sympathizes with whomever the Oldest Member has buttonholed to tell another, only-tangentially related golfing tale. They tend to be all predicated on the same one joke. Nevertheless, Wodehouse still manages to turn no fewer phrases in these than his other books, so for the sheer love of language and humor, they’re worth a listen.

I love PG Wodehouse and Jonathan Cecil

Anything by these two great talents is a must! I wish there were more!

Amazing Jonathan Cecil

Only Jonathan Cecil can rightfully read Wodehouse. All the characters come to life when he reads. It is like magic.

Good listen

Enjoyed listening to it. It was very entertaining how it was designed around golf sport.

Fun Book

I love the colorful descriptions and laughed out loud consistently. But the silliness wears thin at times. These stories are fun because they are powered by Shakespearean capers but golf plays a central role in all of them.

I can see myself downloading more of his works when I need a good laugh and a break from the normal fare.