Rating: 
Summary: Quite Funny
Review: This is possibly the funniest novel I have ever read. Alan our narrator has overdosed on Wodehouse, having read 45 of his 90+ novels. After winning a large personal injury settlement, he decides to hire a manservant, whose name happens to be Jeeves. Ames nicely updates Wodehouse's Wooster in Alan. This Jeeves seem less of a force than the original. After a trip to a decaying resort town, Jeeves and Alan arrive at an artists' colony, which gives Ames a wonderful opportunity to lambaste himself and other artists. Though there is one chapter that seemed completely out-of-sync with the rest of the novel, I absolutely loved this book and found myself laughing two or three times on every page. Also, hands down the best suthor photograph ever.
Rating:
Summary: The Perfect gift for any butler, writer, alcoholic, or human
Review: To call this book 100 times funnier than its new release competition would be a disservice, we all know what 100 times ZERO is, but the point of the matter is Mr. Ames' latest work is perhaps his best, and is no doubt his most humorous to date. While not long on story, the book is crammed with action, interesting characters, snappy dialogue and hysterical internal monologues. As always is the case, Ames' narration is non-judgmental but his content pushes the envelope. Despite the setting and the eccentricity of the characters, he still manages a more interesting, honest, and entertaining delve into human relationships and sexuality than most other moderns out there! His self-deprecating style overcomes any unlikability his character might have and I think that this is one of the rare contemporary comedic books that will equally appeal to both men and women. And while parts of the plot are no doubt silly, taken in the framework of a parody of Wodehouse, they make perfect sense. Wake up, Sir is the perfect compliment to his previous masterpiece, The Extra Man, and before many inside jokes, some obvious, some not so. But don't think you need to read them in any order, they both stand on their own. One area where Sir excels it is allows the reader to see what pseudo insane personalities go through to create art. Sufficed it to say there is some explaining to his fans as to why he goes so long between novels! Finally, threre are 2 distinctions between this book and its predecessors. 1)The invention of Jeeves allows Ames' narrator to be the star and not the straight man (comedically not sexually) which I think suits his writing style quite nicely. 2) While the narrator may seem obsesed with answering the alternative lifestyle question and may claim to fantasize about being prison raped, this tome is decidedly Heterosexual in content and includes one of the great man/woman/nose lovemaking scenes to ever appear in modern American Literature!
Rating: 
Summary: An American Bertie Wooster and His Jeeves
Review: Wake Up, Sir! will be hard for P.G. Wodehouse fans to resist. Jonathan Ames has created an American contemporary version of Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster and equipped him with his very own Jeeves.
Like Bertie, Alan Blair is a person who likes a stiff potion now and then. When under the influence, he's inclined to behave in unpredictable and embarrassing ways that he regrets the next day. But undaunted, he heads off for his next round of binging.
Having won a large settlement from an accident on a slippery sidewalk, the normally impecunious Blair is rolling in the stuff and has hired Jeeves to be his valet. The contrast between Blair and Jeeves provides much of the ground for the humor.
The story has a picaresque quality as Blair lurches from the home of his aunt and uncle in Montclair, New Jersey to visit Hasidic Jews in Sharon Springs, New York. While there, he finds that he has unexpectedly been accepted in a resident writing program in Saratoga Springs, New York and moves on after an overnight disaster involving an injudicious use of a telephone directory. More pratfalls wait there, and the story hits its stride in virtually duplicating many of Wodehouse's school stories . . . except with interesting interludes with the opposite sex and same sex couples.
If you are not a Wodehouse fan, this book will proceed slowly and in lumbering fashion. You will probably think it is a two or three stars book.
If you have not read Wodehouse, I suggest you investigate the original rather than this spoof. Any of the novels about Jeeves will do well.
That, in fact, is the main disappointment of this otherwise entertaining book. Jeeves isn't, well, really Jeeves. He's a source of solace, ice bags and sympathy . . . but he doesn't create any blindingly brilliant solutions like the original.
Right ho!
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