Undermajordomo Minor

An intriguing start, but it rather fell away to become quite a disappointment.

Such a great adventure story. Like Terry Gilliam meets Alice in Wonderland.

It's an upside-down fairytale complete with a simple boy from a modest village wishing that “something would happen” and finding himself sent off to work in a dark and dusty castle.

He promptly falls in love with a girl in the nearby village while a Pythonesque war wages in the hills nearby. There's also a giant hole, a mad baron, a family of cons and pickpockets and an errant salami. All with the same bits of wry deWitt dialogue that so charmed me with his earlier Sisters Brothers.

And while many somethings happen, I'm still not sure what, if anything, has transpired.

For years I have been randomly shouting to anyone who comes near me that genre fiction is the new literary fiction. One of the books I often mention to defend that assertion is Patrick deWitt's Western novel, The Sisters Brothers. That book is a perfect example of the brilliance that occurs when literary talent combines the with plot-driven adventure of a genre story. So when I got that monthly Goodreads email about new books by author's I've read and saw deWitt's latest, Undermajordomo Minor, on the September release list, I new I would get and read the book as soon as it came out. Undermajordomo Minor is not a genre novel like The Sisters Brothers, but it's not the plotless “character-driven” literary fiction that I have grown to find so tiresome either. It's a book that reminds me of the works of P.G. Wodehouse, but where every character is Bertie Wooster. The clever dialogue drives the novel, and when things shift to a strange Bertie Wooster meets 50 Shades of Grey meets Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover vibe, deWitt's prose makes even the most disturbing scene as delectable as a summer sausage. There's also a Very Big Hole. It is well named and essential to the development of the novel's hero.

I realize that this isn't the most detailed review, but Undermajordomo Minor is a novel to be enjoyed, not explained. Lucien ‘Lucy' Minor accepts a post underneath the majordomo at the estate of a nearby Baron, and it turns out that everyone is super wacky. There, now you know what the books is about. Now go read it. Savor it. It's a perfect last couple weeks of summer read.

For years I have been randomly shouting to anyone who comes near me that genre fiction is the new literary fiction. One of the books I often mention to defend that assertion is Patrick deWitt's Western novel, The Sisters Brothers. That book is a perfect example of the brilliance that occurs when literary talent combines the with plot-driven adventure of a genre story. So when I got that monthly Goodreads email about new books by author's I've read and saw deWitt's latest, Undermajordomo Minor, on the September release list, I new I would get and read the book as soon as it came out. Undermajordomo Minor is not a genre novel like The Sisters Brothers, but it's not the plotless “character-driven” literary fiction that I have grown to find so tiresome either. It's a book that reminds me of the works of P.G. Wodehouse, but where every character is Bertie Wooster. The clever dialogue drives the novel, and when things shift to a strange Bertie Wooster meets 50 Shades of Grey meets Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover vibe, deWitt's prose makes even the most disturbing scene as delectable as a summer sausage. There's also a Very Big Hole. It is well named and essential to the development of the novel's hero.

I realize that this isn't the most detailed review, but Undermajordomo Minor is a novel to be enjoyed, not explained. Lucien ‘Lucy' Minor accepts a post underneath the majordomo at the estate of a nearby Baron, and it turns out that everyone is super wacky. There, now you know what the books is about. Now go read it. Savor it. It's a perfect last couple weeks of summer read.