Whose Body? Week 1

Hi, it’s me, your ADHD host, who said I’d post something Thursday about the first quarter of Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers so I would make myself accountable and get it done.

It is now 11:05 pm on Wednesday and I have about a zillion other things I could be, ought to be?, doing, including being asleep an hour ago, and instead I’m writing this. Good one, Past Kristin.

Imagine that I have written here some witty, erudite things that enable you to begin the book laughing, with a leap and a frolic. Instead I don’t even think I have a copy to hand, even though we own three. And I really need to get to sleep.

This is my second read of this book. The first I remember was kind of bumpy. It had some fun things about it, but could be a slog. Also, knowing how it ends allows the clues to stick out with light shining on them, where the red herrings have fallen into shadow. For those reading for the first time, I know this is not the case, but it makes the re-read gratifying.

Also gratifying: the dry humor! Bunter speaking on the telephone with the strangled manner of someone polite. I speak like that every time I’m at work.

Poor Mr. Thipps’s hair fighting a losing battle with fate! And Wimsey accusing Parker of not being able to crawl toward a clue, or something that was quite funny but I can’t conjure at my desk at this hour.

Boring: how the two talk about the possibilities in ways the reader can work out on their own.

Offensive: the anti-semitism about Mr. Levy (the “Pea-Green Incorruptible.” Why Pea Green? And how about those sex workers who were not named as such?) and the dead body. I thought I would be able to tolerate it, given the time and how Wimsey and others are crawling their way to the realization that EVERYONE IS EQUAL, ALREADY. But then the Dowager Duchess gives her deeply unpleasant and racist rant, and hoo boy, was it hard to wade through that. And we’re not supposed to dislike her! She’s supposed to be a sympathetic character!

Elaine Bennis might think I’m using too many exclamation points. But I really found these chapters mostly a delight to read. Except for the racism. And the gory dead body details. (Fleas and curling toenails? Ew.) And:

Annoying: Lord Peter’s habit of casually dropping the G’s, like he has a southern United States accent, and not a super posh English one. I think this is because he’s putting on a show of being casual and bantering when really he’s watching and listening to someone like a hawk about to pounce, with his long chin and birdlike beak. So, Peter isn’t perfect. Funny looking, and can be irritating.

Interestingly, to me at least, many of the characters introduced will recur through the series. And even ones who are mentioned, like the Duke of Denver and his wife, the Duchess, Helen. Also, Peter’s affection for the poetry of Donne.

Which reminds me. The footnote about how that rare book isn’t really in the Vatican and belongs instead to Earl Spencer? That’s Princess Diana’s paternal grandfather.

Who is reading with me? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

What did you notice? What did you think? Is this your first read? And if not, what advice do you have for novices to the Wimsey series?

(If I were a better host I’d have a nice photo too. Alas. Good night, friends.)