Although set in a fictional country in North or East Africa (near Soudan?, Waugh’s spelling), the novel doesn’t really have much to say about Africa either. In a case of mistaken identity, Boot is sent to the country of Ishmalia to cover an incipient rebellion. But I did keep thinking, as I read the story of the accidental foreign correspondent for the Daily Beast, William Boot, that I’d rather be reading about Bertie Wooster and Jeeves. If anything, Big Journalism has become more unreliable and farcical in the twenty-first century than it seems to have been in 1937-38 when this book was first published. Scoop is a parody of the world of sensational journalism, and as such it’s neither dated nor inaccurate. Wodehouse wannabe, except more pretentious and not nearly as accessible or humorous. I don’t know if it was just me or my mood or what, but Evelyn Waugh’s comic novel that the NYT Book Review called “thoroughly enjoyable, uproariously funny” just felt like a P.G.
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