Undermajordomo Minor: A Novel, by Patrick deWitt
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Undermajordomo Minor: A Novel, by Patrick deWitt
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From the bestselling, Man Booker-shortlisted author of The Sisters Brothers, comes a brilliant and boisterous novel that reimagines the folk tale.
A love story, an adventure story, a fable without a moral, and an ink-black comedy of manners, Undermajordomo Minor is Patrick deWitt’s long-awaited follow-up to the internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed novel The Sisters Brothers.
Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the bucolic hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, Lucy is a compulsive liar, a sickly weakling in a town famous for producing brutish giants. Then Lucy accepts employment assisting the Majordomo of the remote, foreboding Castle Von Aux.
While tending to his new post as Undermajordomo, Lucy soon discovers the place harbors many dark secrets, not least of which is the whereabouts of the castle’s master, Baron Von Aux. He also encounters the colorful people of the local village—thieves, madmen, aristocrats, and Klara, a delicate beauty whose love he must compete for with the exceptionally handsome soldier, Adolphus. Thus begins a tale of polite theft, bitter heartbreak, domestic mystery, and cold-blooded murder in which every aspect of human behavior is laid bare for our hero to observe.
Undermajordomo Minor is an adventure, a mystery, and a searing portrayal of rural Alpine bad behavior, but above all it is a love story and Lucy must be careful, for love is a violent thing.
Undermajordomo Minor: A Novel, by Patrick deWitt - Amazon Sales Rank: #186558 in Books
- Brand: Dewitt, Patrick
- Published on: 2015-09-15
- Released on: 2015-09-15
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.09" w x 6.00" l, 1.42 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 336 pages
Undermajordomo Minor: A Novel, by Patrick deWitt Review “Undermajordomo Minor wears a fairytale cloak, but at its wondrous and fantastical heart lies an unexpectedly moving story about love, home, and the difficulty of finding one’s place in the world. Elegant, beautifully strange, and utterly superb.” (Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven)“Patrick deWitt has an untrammelled and utterly original imagination. I cannot think of anyone else who could pull off so beautifully this controlled explosion of drollery, mischief , sly fun and tenderness.” (Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others)“An electrifying adventure, both tender and profane. Nervy, hilarious and utterly unpredictable, Patrick deWitt has served up another dazzler.” (Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette?)DeWitt uses familiar tropes to lull the reader into a false sense of grounding, delivering with abundant good humor a fully realized, consistently surprising, and thoroughly amusing tale of longing, love, madness, and mirth.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))“Undermajordomo Minor is brutal, brilliant, sly, absurd, and poignant. It’s both gripping tale and hilarious subversion. Once again Patrick deWitt proves his wild, original talent, generous wit, and exquisite control.” (Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask)“Undermajordomo Minor is a wonderfully wry and wise novel, and reading it is like coming across some twisted classic-Cervantes by way of Louis C.K. I marvel at all that Patrick deWitt is able to do on the page.” (Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins)“In his previous novel, The Sisters Brothers, deWitt discovered brutal humanity and coal-black humor behind the façade of a recognizable genre, and now he’s done it again. UNDERMAJORDOMO MINOR bursts with exchanges begging to be read aloud in the village square.” (Esquire)“Patrick deWitt novels don’t sneak up on you; they’re the kind you love instantly. His latest...is no exception. From the moment you tumble into its strange world, there is no other world... [A] fairy tale, although one with plenty of room inside for thoroughly modern, adult complications.” (BookPage)“[A] well thought through modern take on folkloric storytelling…. The tale shifts, subtly, from Tolkien to Stoker with a dash of Conan Doyle, but with plenty of humorous touches… DeWitt’s yarn is playful and pleasing… Smart entertainment that blends lighthearted moments with more thoughtful reckonings of the human condition.” (Kirkus Reviews)“deWitt has another askew masterpiece on his hands... deWitt has delivered another intriguing, compelling, and thought-provoking winner that will appeal to anyone who wants to be captivated by a smart, entertaining read.” (Booklist (starred review))“[A] deliciously off-kilter coming-of-age story... a detached levity dances through every moment….Alongside the humor lies a wry wisdom about the hidden strengths of the perpetual outsider. Take special note of this delightful, wickedly sharp gem.” (Shelf Awareness)“Throughout the novel, [deWitt] seeks to play against our expectations, to take the moral lessons inherent in his chosen form and rewire them, give them additional dimension and heft… The result is a novel that carves out its own amusements, much as its protagonist does.” (Los Angeles Times)“deWitt is the master of episodic structure. In his hands, the pseudo-simplistic fable form becomes a game of dense social and psychological complexity.” (The Oregonian (Portland))“A fun, galloping read that’s appealingly silly at times and fully engrossing at others. …[It’s] a kids’ story for grownups, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment.” (Portland Mercury)Out of all the thieving and warring and heartbreak and, yes, the occasional half-eaten rat--[deWitt has] crafted something worthwhile: humor, and hope.” (NPR.org)“[A] charming vision of a Never-Never Land for adults. It’s an entertaining read, complete with its own implication that distraction from the mundane travails of life is sometimes exactly what one needs.” (Dallas Morning News)“Undermajordomo Minor” not only salutes the literature of a bygone era but fully inhabits it, and the result is a novel that offers the same delights as the fair talks and adventure stories it takes on.”” (New York Times Book Review)“’I don’t subscribe to amusements, Lucy. Laughter is the basest sound a body can make, in my opinion,’ says the valet…. As I read the book, I more than once made the sound the valet finds so base and unpleasant.” (Wall Street Journal)“Compulsively readable sentences, oscillating between the prosaic and the lyrical, the modern and the arcane…” (San Francisco Chronicle)“This novel is compulsively readable. DeWitt’s facility with point of view and narrative style is astounding …Undermajordomo Minor has been engineered by a master craftsman. The pacing is superb and, as I read, I kept thinking how grateful I am to writers who can make me laugh.” (Boston Globe)“Relentlessly wry and often outrageously funny … In Undermajordomo Minor, deWitt has somehow created a fable in which the comic narrative voice is impossibly accomplished, and nearly every word is funny… a gut-busting and satisfying tale.” (Paste)“A fun, galloping read that’s appealingly silly at times and fully engrossing at others.” (Stranger)“[In Undermajordomo Minor], geography and era are purposely abstracted. Where we are, when we are, or why we’re there are all afterthoughts. What matters is Mr. deWitt’s imagination, which is a forceful train that ignores the usual tracks.” (New York Times)“A deliciously off-kilter coming-of-age story…Take special note of this delightful, wickedly sharp gem” (Shelf Awareness)“This kinda-sorta fairytale has humor and quirky, undeniable charm… The story is surprisingly straightforward and unadorned, though the prose oozes with that odd DeWitt charm that makes it compelling.” (Washington Independent Review of Books)“Patrick deWitt is masterful at crafting this oddball, adult fairy tale.” (Read It Forward)“DeWitt takes on familiar tropes just to turn them on their heads, and the results are by turns funny, fascinating and often plain weird.” (NPR, Best Books of 2015)“In its quirky, melancholy charm it’s not leagues away from The Grand Budapest Hotel. (In fact Dewitt may have written the greatest Wes Anderson movie never made.)” (Time magazine, 10 Best Fiction Books of 2015)“DeWitt’s third novel breezes along in staccato chapters, a mix of dark comedy and twee world-building that reads like Roald Dahl for the Wes Anderson generation.” (San Francisco Chronicle, 100 Best Books of 2015)
From the Back Cover
From the bestselling, Man Booker–short-listed author of The Sisters Brothers comes a brilliant and boisterous novel that reimagines the folk tale
A love story, an adventure story, a fable without a moral, and an ink-black comedy of manners, Undermajordomo Minor is Patrick deWitt's long-awaited follow-up to the internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed novel The Sisters Brothers.
Lucien (Lucy) Minor is the resident odd duck in the bucolic hamlet of Bury. Friendless and loveless, young and aimless, Lucy is a compulsive liar, a sickly weakling in a town famous for producing brutish giants. Then Lucy accepts employment assisting the Majordomo of the remote, foreboding Castle Von Aux.
While tending to his new post as Undermajordomo, Lucy soon discovers the place harbors many dark secrets, not least of which being the whereabouts of the castle's master, Baron Von Aux. He also encounters the colorful people of the local village—thieves, madmen, aristocrats, and Klara, a delicate beauty for whose love he must compete with the exceptionally handsome soldier Adolphus. Thus begins a tale of polite theft, bitter heartbreak, domestic mystery, and cold-blooded murder in which every aspect of humanity is laid bare for our hero to observe.
Undermajordomo Minor is an adventure, a mystery, and a searing portrayal of rural Alpine bad behavior, but above all it is a love story—and Lucy must be careful, for love is a violent thing.
About the Author
Patrick deWitt is the author of the critically acclaimed Ablutions: Notes for a Novel, as well as The Sisters Brothers, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Born in British Columbia, he has also lived in California and Washington, and now resides in Portland, Oregon.
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Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful. An Old-Fashioned Romance By Roger Brunyate Literary history defines "romance" less as a love story than in terms of the fantastic world inhabited by the hero and the many adventures he has along the way. We are talking Tasso or Ariosto, Spenser or Cervantes. It was against these traditions that Tolkien and CS Lewis were writing, or more recently Kazuo Ishiguro in THE BURIED GIANT. And it is this tradition that inspires Patrick deWitt's thoroughly modern and comic subversion of the genre in UNDERMAJORDOMO MINOR. It is a curious book, thoroughly enjoyable on a chapter-by-chapter basis, even laugh-aloud funny. But surprisingly unfilling; there is no substance there, nothing to chew on when the book is done. And very little to write about.Lucien Minor, known as Lucy, leaves home to take up the position of Undermajordomo at the distant Castle Von Aux. It is hard to pin down the period; he travels by train, but the castle itself has the feel of 19th-century Gothic, and the local population seems to be fighting one of those perpetual 18th-century wars. But no matter. Lucy finds himself working for the majordomo, the dustily benevolent Mr. Olderglough. He and the culinarily-challenged cook Agnes appear to be the only inhabitants, until the Baron himself appears -- and this kicks us into higher gear, with even more fantastic happening and more grotesque outcomes. Meanwhile, Lucy falls in love with a girl from the village named Klara, whom he has to pry away from her soldier-suitor and larcenous father and brother.I could go on -- and deWitt does go on, with charmingly understated humor and bizarre invention. But what's the point? At no time does the book go beyond skillfully executed entertainment. Which will be enough for some, I think; but not for me. [3.5 stars]
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Life Is When Something Happens By Jill I. Shtulman What type of book IS Undermajordomo anyway? Is it an old-fashioned adventure tale? A dark fairy tale (think: Brothers Grimm)? A serio-comedy narrative in the vein of his earlier work, Sisters Brothers?It’s hard to define, exactly, but I will say this: for a reader like me, who leans towards strong character-driven or theme-based novels, I was a bit out of my comfort zone and that was just fine. The strong writing and the plot kept me eagerly turning pages and I surrendered to DeWitt’s talent.The main character is Lucien Minor (consistently called Lucy), an earnest and naïve young man. Spindly and pale, and – at the very beginning – at risk of dying – he sees a shadowed man who asks him what he wants out of life. His answer: “Something to happen.”The rest of the book explores what DOES happen as he goes into service to the Majordomo, Mr. Olderglough, a good-hearted man who has a tenuous grasp of reality. The characters of an adventure tale are all here – a mad love-sick baron (who reminded me a bit of the “crazy wife in the attic” from Jane Eyre), an extraordinarily handsome and potentially dangerous soldier, two sneaky (but redemptive) thieves, and of course, the fair maiden who gives Lucy a reason to live.We don’t know exactly where and when this tale takes place (think: Ishiguro’s Buried Giant) but it feels somehow familiar, somehow knowable. There was a point over half-way through – a scene of debauchery – where I began wondering, “Where is the heart of the story? It’s a fine “read”, but what do I take away from it?”On reflection, I had my answer. The book is about life itself. As the majordomo himself says, “What are rooms for if not entering, after all. Or else exiting. Indeed, think of how many rooms we enter and exit in our span of days, boy. Room to room to room. And we call it a life.” A life – defined in this book – is when something happens and we show up for it. Patrick DeWitt delivers again.
13 of 17 people found the following review helpful. You may get squeamish, but what the hell—it’s worth it! By Ryan J. Dejonghe If Tim Burton and Wes Anderson collaborated to write a novel in the writing style of Ronald Dahl, it would turn out a lot like Patrick DeWitt’s UNDERMAJORDOMO MINOR.The story is about Lucien (Lucy) Minor, an inconsequential young man from the town of Bury. Seeking to escape the undesirable and uninteresting, Lucy finds his way to Castle Von Aux. “…a decision which led to many things including but not limited to true love, bitterest heartbreak, bright-white terror of the spirit, and an acute homicidal impulse.” As he notices, “Lucy couldn’t shake the notion that there was some malicious anathema about in the castle.”“…we’ll die here.”“That’s not how we see it…”“How do you see it?”“We’ll live here.”Through quirky verse and fanatical happenings, DeWitt tells the tale of life and love. I REALLY enjoyed it all. As he writes: “Undemonstrative manner of reportage; and yet he was moved by the tale as well.” This is more than a story; it is a pondering of a quick life boiled down to a summary that can be bound up within an epitaph. At times the events may not make sense, but then it strikes your heart.“I have no regard for a man so willing to give his life for an idea…”“Yes, and what is the idea?”“Precisely.”“May I ask who it is they’re fighting?”“What are they fighting about, do you know?”“Well now, what does anyone fight about, boy?”There are two wars taking place in this book: a war between men with an unknown cause, and a war of love. “What a violent thing love is, he thought. Violent was the word that had come to him.” Not only does Lucy battle, figuratively and literally, with the concept of love, but so do the others around him—in all manners and forms. “For if love had so degraded a personage of the Baron’s powers, what might it do to him?”The person Lucy goes to work for is twisted within his own heart’s constraints. Lucy also battles to become significant in within his own life. “Lucy recognized his taking solace in giving up; he was familiar with the comfort which existed in the acceptance of failure.”“All that I’ll say is that there is an unwellness rampant in the castle.”“A pervasive unpleasantness…”A word of warning. This paragraph has minor spoilers about animal cruelty and sexual pervasiveness. Twice you may think harm befalls a puppy—take comfort, it does not! However, a rat is devoured by a crazed man (the things love will cause!). And, yes, there is a tart-induced orgy in the castle. As for violence with humans, heads are blown off via cannon balls and fingers are chopped off via envy. End of spoilers.This book was a fabulously fun ride with quite a bit of meaning. Its story is simple, its effects complex. DeWitt is a magical author with tons of character. You may get squeamish, but what the hell—it’s worth it!
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