Undermajordomo Minor is a black comedy of manners, an adventure, a mystery, and a 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.
Rising over its self-consciousness, 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 fairy tales and adventure stories it takes on, while reminding us that in the long game of literature, what lasts is what thrills.
It’s daringly imagined, expressed in wavering colors, not quite fully rendered, such that when we get to the end of it we think: Um . . . Would one more draft have done the trick? We’ll never know.
The pacing is superb and, as I read, I kept thinking how grateful I am to writers who can make me laugh. I just also wanted to feel affected. While I marveled at the author’s technique, I cannot assert that he illuminated a corner of existence for me.
