Reviews
"A fun, galloping read that's appealingly silly at times and fully engrossing at others. âŠ[It's] a kids' story for grownups, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment.", "A deliciously off-kilter coming-of-age story...Take special note of this delightful, wickedly sharp gem", DeWitt uses familiar tropes to lull the reader into a false sense of grounding, delivering with abundant good humor a fully realized, consistently surprising, and thoroughly amusing tale of longing, love, madness, and mirth.", "[A] well thought through modern take on folkloric storytellingâŠ. The tale shifts, subtly, from Tolkien to Stoker with a dash of Conan Doyle, but with plenty of humorous touches⊠DeWitt's yarn is playful and pleasing⊠Smart entertainment that blends lighthearted moments with more thoughtful reckonings of the human condition.", "This kinda-sorta fairytale has humor and quirky, undeniable charm... The story is surprisingly straightforward and unadorned, though the prose oozes with that odd DeWitt charm that makes it compelling.", "[In Undermajordomo Minor], geography and era are purposely abstracted. Where we are, when we are, or why we're there are all afterthoughts. What matters is Mr. deWitt's imagination, which is a forceful train that ignores the usual tracks.", "Relentlessly wry and often outrageously funny ... In Undermajordomo Minor, deWitt has somehow created a fable in which the comic narrative voice is impossibly accomplished, and nearly every word is funny... a gut-busting and satisfying tale.", "This novel is compulsively readable. DeWitt's facility with point of view and narrative style is astounding ...Undermajordomo Minor has been engineered by a master craftsman. The pacing is superb and, as I read, I kept thinking how grateful I am to writers who can make me laugh.", "deWitt has another askew masterpiece on his hands... deWitt has delivered another intriguing, compelling, and thought-provoking winner that will appeal to anyone who wants to be captivated by a smart, entertaining read.", "Patrick deWitt has an untrammelled and utterly original imagination. I cannot think of anyone else who could pull off so beautifully this controlled explosion of drollery, mischief , sly fun and tenderness.", "Relentlessly wry and often outrageously funny ⊠In Undermajordomo Minor, deWitt has somehow created a fable in which the comic narrative voice is impossibly accomplished, and nearly every word is funny⊠a gut-busting and satisfying tale.", "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 fair talks and adventure stories it takes on."", "deWitt is the master of episodic structure. In his hands, the pseudo-simplistic fable form becomes a game of dense social and psychological complexity.", "This kinda-sorta fairytale has humor and quirky, undeniable charm⊠The story is surprisingly straightforward and unadorned, though the prose oozes with that odd DeWitt charm that makes it compelling.", Out of all the thieving and warring and heartbreak and, yes, the occasional half-eaten rat--[deWitt has] crafted something worthwhile: humor, and hope.", "In his previous novel, The Sisters Brothers, deWitt discovered brutal humanity and coal-black humor behind the faade of a recognizable genre, and now he's done it again. UNDERMAJORDOMO MINOR bursts with exchanges begging to be read aloud in the village square.", "[A] deliciously off-kilter coming-of-age story... a detached levity dances through every moment....Alongside the humor lies a wry wisdom about the hidden strengths of the perpetual outsider. Take special note of this delightful, wickedly sharp gem.", "Undermajordomo Minor is brutal, brilliant, sly, absurd, and poignant. It's both gripping tale and hilarious subversion. Once again Patrick deWitt proves his wild, original talent, generous wit, and exquisite control.", "[A] well thought through modern take on folkloric storytelling.... The tale shifts, subtly, from Tolkien to Stoker with a dash of Conan Doyle, but with plenty of humorous touches... DeWitt's yarn is playful and pleasing... Smart entertainment that blends lighthearted moments with more thoughtful reckonings of the human condition.", "'I don't subscribe to amusements, Lucy. Laughter is the basest sound a body can make, in my opinion,' says the valet.... As I read the book, I more than once made the sound the valet finds so base and unpleasant.", "Compulsively readable sentences, oscillating between the prosaic and the lyrical, the modern and the arcaneâŠ", "In its quirky, melancholy charm it's not leagues away from The Grand Budapest Hotel. (In fact Dewitt may have written the greatest Wes Anderson movie never made.)", "Throughout the novel, [deWitt] seeks to play against our expectations, to take the moral lessons inherent in his chosen form and rewire them, give them additional dimension and heft⊠The result is a novel that carves out its own amusements, much as its protagonist does.", " Undermajordomo Minor wears a fairytale cloak, but at its wondrous and fantastical heart lies an unexpectedly moving story about love, home, and the difficulty of finding one's place in the world. Elegant, beautifully strange, and utterly superb.", "A deliciously off-kilter coming-of-age storyâŠTake special note of this delightful, wickedly sharp gem", "Undermajordomo Minor is a wonderfully wry and wise novel, and reading it is like coming across some twisted classic-Cervantes by way of Louis C.K. I marvel at all that Patrick deWitt is able to do on the page.", "Patrick deWitt novels don't sneak up on you; they're the kind you love instantly. His latest...is no exception. From the moment you tumble into its strange world, there is no other world... [A] fairy tale, although one with plenty of room inside for thoroughly modern, adult complications.", "DeWitt takes on familiar tropes just to turn them on their heads, and the results are by turns funny, fascinating and often plain weird.", "Patrick Dewitt Is Masterful AT Crafting this Oddball, Adult Fairy Tale.", "DeWitt's third novel breezes along in staccato chapters, a mix of dark comedy and twee world-building that reads like Roald Dahl for the Wes Anderson generation.", "An electrifying adventure, both tender and profane. Nervy, hilarious and utterly unpredictable, Patrick deWitt has served up another dazzler.", "[A] charming vision of a Never-Never Land for adults. It's an entertaining read, complete with its own implication that distraction from the mundane travails of life is sometimes exactly what one needs."
