Easily one of my favourite books of 2011 was Patrick DeWitt's The Sisters Brothers - a darkly comic story about a pair of cowboy assassins in the 1850s. It had the style and structure of a film script, with roughly portrayed settings and fantastic dialogue.
DeWitt's latest novel, Undermajordomo Minor has a lot of similarities as far as the writing technique goes, but rather than resembling a 1950s western, the structure of the story and the style of the narrative can best be described as a darkly comic fairy tale. All the familiar tropes are there; our jilted hero, a beautiful damsel, a dark castle, a mysterious forest and a collection of untrustworthy characters who mean our hero no good.
Without giving too much of the plot away, the story concerns young Lucien Minor - a rather drab, uncharismatic 17-year-old known to everyone as Lucy. Following the death of his father and the painful rejection of his girlfriend, Lucy leaves his small village to take up the position of assistant to the majordomo at Castle Von Aux - several days train travel away. Other early 1800s England, it is hard to pin down any more details on the books setting than this. Descriptions of locations and characters are not at all detailed. When he arrives at the village at the foot of the castle, it is simply described as "a hundred or more haphazard domiciles linked side by each in the shape of teardrop."
But this lack of detail is not frustrating - but refreshing, leaving DeWitt to do what he does best; wry observations and character interactions. And I loved the world he creates here - built as it is on very thin foundations. DeWitt's writing style and deadpan dialogue charms the reader on every page. I think it's impossible for him to write a dull sentence. For example, when he meets the Baroness, Lucy finds that he admires her, "in the way one might admire an avalanche."
