REVIEW: Misadventure, by Millard Kaufman

Misadventure, by Millard Kaufman. Published 2010 by McSweeney's. Literary Fiction.

Misadventure is a comic noir about a a real estate agent entangled in a very messy domestic menage-a-trois leading to several murders and other shenanigans. Stylishly written with a cast of eccentrics and losers, it's like GlenGarry Glen Ross crossed with Fargo.

 It's California and it's the 1950s, and local real estate mogul Tod Hunt wants to be rid of his gorgeous but treacherous wife Darlene; he hires Jack Hopkins, a bitter, cynical ex-Marine and himself an unhappy real estate agent. At the same time, Darlene hires Jack to kill her husband, and the two become embroiled in a tempestuous relationship. When Darlene turns up dead (don't worry, it's not a spoiler- look at the cover), all heck breaks loose as Jack tries to juggle Tod, his boss, his wife Gayle, and more. Meanwhile, his boss at the real estate agency wants him to spy on their rival. There's a private island, a young mistress and misadventures galore in this witty romp.

Reading Misadventure is just plain fun. Kaufman, author of 2009's Bowl of Cherries and co-creator of Mr. Magoo, passed away last year and left us two terrific, eccentric novels. Misadventure was the better one for me, because I like noirs and thrillers over picaresques like Cherries; Misadventure has more twists and turns than a bendy straw and tight, excellent writing to boot. This guy knew how to string a sentence, that's for sure. Jack narrates a scene midway through the book:

In the tub I lay like flotsam, my mind a faulty projector reeling off flashbacks to San Dismaso and flashforwards to Darlene. Gayle [Jack's wife] should have been home by now, but there was no sign of her. I was resigned to passing out alone, maybe just sinking under the waterline and succumbing, when the phone rang. I sped to the receiver balls-ass naked.

I think the thing to do would be to pick up the pair of Kaufman's books, either for yourself or a memorable holiday gift for the hipster on your list. And if you do, get the beautiful hardcover editions. McSweeney's has a nice tendency to publish their books as very attractive, well-designed hardcover volumes; take advantage of it!  I'd absolutely recommend Misadventure for the litfic reader looking for something off the beaten path, or the thriller junkie with a sense of humor. If you fall into either of those categories, you kind of can't go wrong.

Rating: BACKLIST

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.

REVIEW: Bowl of Cherries, by Millard Kaufman

Bowl of Cherries, by Millard Kaufman. Published 2007 by McSweeney's. Literary Fiction.

Bowl of Cherries is the first novel by screenwriter and Mr. Magoo co-creator Millard Kaufman, who passed away this year at the age of 92. It's the story of one Judd Breslau, a teenage prodigy who finds himself working for an eccentric scholar. Soon Judd falls hopelessly in love with the scholar's mercurial daughter, Valerie, and follows her to the ends of the earth. Almost literally.

When the story opens, Judd is in prison in a backwater of Iraq, awaiting his execution at the hands of his rival for Valerie's affections. From there Judd tells us his backstory interspersed with the slow forward motion of his hopeless-seeming predicament. The narrative has a picaresque quality as we follow his adventures from Connecticut to New York to Colorado and Iraq, and Kaufman writes in an elevated, literary style not at all like the voice of a fifteen-year-old. Whether you find this charming or annoying will determine how you feel about the book as a whole. On moving to Colorado and finding his mother, he notes

The house sat on the crown of a snowy hill, gleaming in the twilight. A big-shouldered stone fireplace dominated the living room, and next to it stood my mother. She wore the white robes of a vestal, cinctured with the silver and turquoise of the Navajo. From her neck depended a silver chain, and her earrings were like quoits. I had never seen her so gussied up, but the style was matchlessly Mother's.

Here you can see the penchant towards preciousness and hoity-toity vocabulary which dominates the entire book. Those of you bloggers who participate in Wondrous Words Wednesday will feast. It didn't bother me that the style doesn't really sound like that of a teenager; what bothered me was that the style muddied the action and slowed the pace, so rather than skipping along, I felt like I was crawling through molasses to find out what would happen next.

The best thing about Bowl of Cherries for me was the comic cast of characters. Phillips Chatterton, the bathrobe-clad scholar, back-stabbing Abdul and inconstant Valerie made the book memorable and kept me reading. Even the minor characters are brought to life with color and texture. It's a coming of age story for readers of idiosyncratic literary fiction with an emphasis on stylized writing and character over plot. It's not destined to be a favorite, but I'm glad I picked it up.

Rating: BORROW

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review from the publisher.