Review: Darkly hilarious and deliciously snarky
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 2, 2012
How to describe this dark and hilarious novel? Octavia VanderPlatts is one of new my favorite characters. She's 340 pounds of snark and cunning strategy, a wonderful twist on Nero Wolfe with a flamboyantly gay butler for her Archie. When her poet pal with jelly for a spine gets screwed by his cheating wife, he comes for her help and gets more than he bargained for. Deliciously twisted and compulsively readable, when you're not gasping at Octavia's outbursts, you'll be wanting to smack the cowardly narrator as he flinches his way through his pathetic crumbling life. It's to Smith's credit that he makes Mick Thooft- what a perfect name for the useless professor- an enjoyable schlub to spend time with despite his cowardly nature.I also enjoyed the playful jabs as upper middle class Minnesota life, having lived there for almost a decade. Save yourself 600 pages of Jonathan Franzen's navel-gazing. Mick Thooft is all you need to know.