![]() The trip then might be enough for us: funny, sad, violent and illuminated by a minor light. 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 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. More than one important thread vanishes without a gesture toward resolution. And Lucy must be careful, for love is a violent thing. It is an adventure story, and a mystery, and a searing portrayal of rural Alpine bad behaviour with a brandy tart, but above all it is a love story. I think the events do indeed shape Lucy, but his emotional core becomes too inaccessible to judge. Undermajordomo Minor is a triumphant ink-black comedy of manners by the Man Booker shortlisted author of The Sisters Brothers. By the end, there is death and rebirth, more death and the opening of a quest, but also a striking lack of consequence. 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. ![]() 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. About two-thirds of the way in, the reader’s alarm bells should go off. DeWitt’s narrative doesn’t quite have that nimbleness. ![]()
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