The Miscellaneum - Paperback

by G. M. Donley (Author)

A disenchanted college student takes an internship to try to salvage his academic future and finds himself drawn into a bewildering array of situations that lead him to question even his questions.

In a slightly alternative version of present-day Cleveland, Ohio, Evan Erwin signs up for a year-long internship. The timing seems good-he has gotten off track in school and isn't sure what to do next. But soon it seems that his floundering educational career may be the least of his concerns.

The mysterious sponsor organization, The Miscellaneum, feeds Evan seemingly random miscellaneous projects that range from teaching someone to make soup, to helping a mom and kids who lose their housing, to trying to foil a global plot involving obscure English art objects of the late 18th century-people to help, mysteries to explore, crimes to solve, disasters to prevent. For most of these tasks, he embarks with meager preparation at best, abetted and/or challenged by a peculiar cast of characters. There's the Butler, Mr. Raymond, who oversees the impossible-to-find building. There's the Scientist, the German-born Dr. Bettina Zabel, who operates the laboratory. The nocturnal Mr Phyxt seems to be in charge of maintenance and repairs on the incomprehensibly complex mechanical contraption at the center of the operation-a device described as looking like an Aztec temple made entirely out of typewriter parts, the Considerator. Then there's Pug, the bike messenger Evan meets at the library who quickly becomes more than a casual acquaintance. And the subversive artist they call Unk who is not really Pug's uncle. The question lurking behind it all-what exactly IS The Miscellaneum?

Part of the Intern's job description is to keep a weekly journal, and Evan does so dutifully, at least at the start. But as the bizarre assortment of tasks accumulate, he begins to suspect that all is not as it seems. His journal entries document not only the events of each week, but Evan's evolving perceptions of what is going on. Then a family crisis back home in suburban Boston interrupts everything and he presses "pause" on the Miscellaneum and his journal thereof, and on his budding relationship with Pug. His mental state deteriorates until some of the things he had concluded must be bunkum turn out to be very real indeed-real and in need of immediate action. So it's back to Cleveland to try to make everything right.

Told with deadpan wit through Evan's journal entries, this engaging tale is part coming-of-age story, part detective agency genre spoof, and 100% affectionate nod to America's quirky old industrial towns. With sympathetic characters, playful plot twists, and a steampunk vibe, its tone might call to mind Kevin Wilson's Now Is Not the Time to Panic, while the action is Charlie's Angels meets Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, but set in Cleveland.