Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames (2004. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7434-4907-6)
OK. My title for this review is a bit harsh. To be fair, I don’t ordinarily choose humor as my choice of fiction: I lean to the dark, the serious, the literary. So I’m not the best choice to review this novel, a book proclaimed by The New York Times Book Review as a notable book for 2004. I’m not sure what the undaunted arbiter of good taste (The Times) saw in this novel. But then, who the hell am I? What the hell do I know anyway? But, since I started to try to give you, kind readers, an “Average Joe’s” view of Mr. Ames’s book, here goes.
The premise of this tale is that Alan Blair, a once published, now writer’s-block-plagued Jewish novelist hits the road with his man Friday, Jeeves, a personal attendant right out of an old British sit com. Alan sets out to rekindle the flickering light of creativity by escaping to the New York State countryside. But, after a false start (involving a slight error in judgment by Alan) the protagonist is invited to a writer’s retreat in Sarasota Springs. Surrounded by kooks, nuts, and depraved artists and writers, Alan falls into debauchery and shenanigans involving crabs (the genital kind), a beautiful blond with a Jimmy Durante nose, too much booze, too much pot, and very little writing. I have to admit: While reading the book in my booth during the recent Living Green Expo in St. Paul, I laughed real belly laughs as I read some of the scenes. At its best, the plot moves along like a Seth Rogen movie: Smart and mature in its humor and distinctly more compelling than Will Farrell’s increasingly stupid movie plots and characters. (Note to readers: Avoid Farrell’s “Semi-Pro” like the plague. It is the worst movie I’ve ever seen.) But, despite the guffaws the story drew from me as I sat in the cavernous exhibition hall of the Minnesota State Fair grounds (strangers likely avoiding my booth due to my inappropriately loud laughter) the book just didn’t do it for me.
Why? The plot is more screenplay than novel. Maybe, for some readers that relationship, that dissonant chord makes for a good read. But not for me: I want meat on the bones of a story’s skeleton. I want to experience compassion, passion, empathy, conflict, lust, revenge, redemption, and any number of other adjectives that make a story compelling as I dig in. Wake Up, Sir! doesn’t display such attributes. And even though the absurdity of having Alan traipse around New York State with his butler is the focal point of the satire; I think Jeeves should have found a good English cozy mystery to inhabit. That career choice would have spared him the embarrassment of playing second fiddle is this thinly orchestrated comedy.
3 stars out of 5.
