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."
The chapters are very short and story easy to follow. I inhaled this book of the course of just a few days, very happy to be in its simple oddball world with Lucy as my guide. But what lets everything down for me is the ending - or rather - the lack of an ending. I understand how DeWitt does not feel the need to give this story a conventional conclusion, and after reading The Sisters Brothers you could hardly expect any kind of fairytale ending here, but leaving so much up in air in this novel seems inexcusable. It feels as though DeWitt became tired of his characters and sought the fastest separation from them he could manage.
Now, having said that, if it turns out that DeWitt plans this novel to the first in a series, then I take everything back about the rushed conclusion. Unfortunately, I have not heard anything about a second part surfacing any time soon.
Aside from this, there is still a lot to enjoy here, especially for fans of people like British writer Magnus Mills and American Steven Millhauser.
I long for a return to the world of Undermajordomo Minor, and do recommend it as a novel, it's just that - fairytale or not - it leaves the reader feeling largely unsatisfied.
Undermajordomo Minor is published by Granta ($29.95)
Illustration / P.K. Stowers