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Undermajordomo Minor

by Patrick deWitt

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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7914526,830 (3.64)54
"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" --… (more)
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» See also 54 mentions

English (44)  Piratical (1)  All languages (45)
Showing 1-5 of 44 (next | show all)
The plot and way the story is told is delightful, very arch and amusing and old-fashioned in a way that made me think of The Sisters Brothers (although perhaps that could be chalked up to the fact that Dan Stiles designed the jackets of both books, in the editions that I have). The only thing I really didn’t like was the orgy scene. It was completely unexpected, quite crude details, and I happened to be reading this book on the bus, which was really embarrassing. On the plus side, this has basically pushed French Exit to second place in my overall Patrick deWitt ranking. ( )
  rabbitprincess | Nov 27, 2023 |
Shapeless and rambling neo-fairy tale. The pages fly by breezily and there are some enjoyable moments like the orgy scene, as well as the running joke about Lucy’s pipe. But it’s just one thing after another.

I picked this up at the library booksale and was delighted to discover the donor had left copious underlinings and annotations (I suspect for a book club). So I read it in their company as a kind of parallel text. They liked it less than I did. ( )
  yarb | Aug 2, 2023 |
Has moved into the pantheon of favorite authors. ( )
  Mcdede | Jul 19, 2023 |
While the plot of this novel is unique, its plodding pace and bizarre scenes don't make it an engrossing experience. DeWitt can, and has, done better. This one just seems to go on and on.... ( )
  datrappert | Apr 23, 2023 |
The style was very Catch-22, but lacked the powerful overarching theme of that book, instead focusing more on the development of the principal character. Still a good read despite the weird cheese fevre dream and summer sausage surprise scene ( )
  martialalex92 | Dec 10, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 44 (next | show all)
DeWitt’s narrative doesn’t quite have that nimbleness. About two-thirds of the way in, the reader’s alarm bells should go off. Closing a book, the baroness says to Lucy, “I for one find it an annoyance when a story doesn’t do what it’s meant to do. . . . Would you not find yourself resentful at the promise of an entertainment unfulfilled?”Is this the author coaching us as to what’s not coming? Maybe. By the end, there is death and rebirth, more death and the opening of a quest, but also a striking lack of consequence. I think the events do indeed shape Lucy, but his emotional core becomes too inaccessible to judge. More than one important thread vanishes without a gesture toward resolution. The story ends with a beautiful epitaph seemingly meant to bookend the Walser epigraph, but that doesn’t quite fulfill the story we’ve just read.That said, the world deWitt gives us is generous, and the protagonist is someone we’re happy to follow. The novel proposes somewhat gently that the pursuit of a painful thing might just be the point, rather than the moment the quest is over — and deWitt illustrates that sweetly. The trip then might be enough for us: funny, sad, violent and illuminated by a minor light.
 
From its pitch-perfect opening onwards, it's clear from the unusual atmosphere and droll narration that deWitt has created a unique fictional universe....This novel is funny but it won't necessarily make you laugh out loud. Instead, suppressed mirth ripples through deWitt's prose....he challenge for the reader is to resist the temptation to devour a novel which should be savoured.
 
The Canadian writer Patrick deWitt has nerve. In the much-loved Booker-shortlisted The Sisters Brothers, he memorably reinvented the western in a poignant comic drama of greed, grit and ruthlessness starring a pair of contract killers. In Undermajordomo Minor, his rickety, occasionally shambolic but engaging new flight of fancy, he riffs on the folk tale, transporting the reader into a gothic Europe which, like its California-set predecessor, is not only free of morals and moralising but positively allergic to the very thought of them. DeWitt’s characters are never either truly good or fully bad. Instead, and more interestingly, they are specimens of flawed but game humanity, baffled souls struggling in a Petri dish, oddly touching to watch.....if Undermajordomo Minor occasionally lacks the heft and panache of The Sisters Brothers, it only proves the rule that great acts are murderously hard to follow.
 

» Add other authors (4 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Patrick deWittprimary authorall editionscalculated
Aronson, EmmanuelleTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Aronson, PhilippeTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Prebble, SimonNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Voillot, SophieTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
“It is a very painful thing, having to part company with what torments you. And how mute the world is!”
 
ROBERT WALSER
Dedication
For Gustavo
First words
Lucien Minor's mother had not wept, had not come close to weeping at their parting.
Quotations
What a violent thing love is.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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"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" --

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Average: (3.64)
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