Mike

Mike Jackson is headed to Wrykyn, and he's terrified. His two older brothers are cricket legends at the school, and the entire family expects young Mike to continue the dynasty. The pressure is suffocating before he even arrives. But Wrykyn has a way of reshaping expectations, and what begins as a boy struggling to escape his brothers' shadow becomes something far more complicated and hilarious. Wodehouse, who considered this his finest work, infuses every chapter with the particular anguish of a boy trying to forge his own identity in a world that only sees him as a continuation of someone else. The cricket scenes are gorgeous, the school politics razor-sharp, and the supporting cast, from the family's bemused professional coach to the masters who can't quite place Mike, keep the comedy bubbling. It's a school story that somehow manages to be both affectionate about its genre and bitingly funny about the absurdity of growing up in the shadow of excellence.