An Old-Fashioned Romance 
 Literary history defines "romance" less as a love story than in terms of the fantastic world inhabited by the hero and the many adventures he has along the way. We are talking Tasso or Ariosto, Spenser or Cervantes. It was against these traditions that Tolkien and CS Lewis were writing, or more recently Kazuo Ishiguro in 
 The Buried Giant 
 . And it is this tradition that inspires Patrick deWitt's thoroughly modern and comic subversion of the genre in Undermajordomo Minor. It is a curious book, thoroughly enjoyable on a chapter-by-chapter basis, even laugh-aloud funny. But surprisingly unfilling; there is no substance there, nothing to chew on when the book is done. And very little to write about. 
 Lucien Minor, known as Lucy, leaves home to take up the position of Undermajordomo at the distant Castle Von Aux. It is hard to pin down the period; he travels by train, but the castle itself has the feel of 19th-century Gothic, and the local population seems to be fighting one of those perpetual 18th-century wars. But no matter. Lucy finds himself working for the majordomo, the dustily benevolent Mr. Olderglough. He and the culinarily-challenged cook Agnes appear to be the only inhabitants, until the Baron himself appears--and this kicks us into higher gear, with even more fantastic happening and more grotesque outcomes. Meanwhile, Lucy falls in love with a girl from the village named Klara, whom he has to pry away from her soldier-suitor and larcenous father and brother. 
 I could go on--and deWitt does go on, with charmingly understated humor and bizarre invention. But what's the point? At no time does the book go beyond skillfully executed entertainment. Which will be enough for some, I think; but not for me.