Coffee Spew

Dwight Allen writes meticulous, witty fiction about dysfunctional underachievers. The dual protagonists of his funny and warm new novel from the University of Wisconsin Press, The Typewriter Satyr, are two rudderless ships colliding in the night. Oliver Poole, middle-aged  typewriter repairman, and Annelise Scharfenberg, thirtyish community radio show host, seem at first to share little in common aside from fragile befuddlement. Set in a pastoral make-believe Wisconsin town called Midvale (hilariously mirroring Madison’s blend of corporate pragmatism and pothead eccentricity) during the escalating indignities of George Bush’s second term of office circa 2004, Oliver and Annelise’s love affair is neither inevitable nor remotely convenient for either individual. Oliver is already married with four sons and Annelise is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. The abuse angle is more than a little daring on Allen’s part, especially given that no less a talent than John Irving was defeated by similarly queasy material at the center of his 2005 novel, Until I Find You. Irving’s approach was fetishistic and muddled with slapstick, which felt grotesque and out of place. Allen, on the other hand, has struck the perfect tone, respectful of his characters and his readers, and bringing depth to the narrative instead of derailing it. The Typewriter Satyr, like Allen’s short story collection, The Green Suit (2000), and his luminous first novel, Judge (2003), is beautifully constructed storytelling that’s built to last.