I was pleasantly surprised during one of my recent daily trips to Amazon to discover that Mark Dunn had a new novel out.

Hot damn!

Dunn’s first novel, Ella Minnow Pea, is a deliciously charming tale about the fictional island of Nollop. The island is named after Nevin Nollop who penned the now famous pangram* the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. All hell breaks loose when the cenotaph bearing Nollop’s famous phrase, loses a letter and the high council bans the letter’s use. What follows is a wildly satirical, comedic love letter to the English language. It’s a marvelous novel.

Sadly, Dunn is in the sophomore slump. Welcome to Higby is not anywhere near as captivating as its predecessor. This novel introduces us into the lives of Higby, Mississippi’s citizens. What’s supposed to be a well-spun southern yarn is really just a horrifyingly predictable bore.

Sure the wacky characters who in habit Higby are kind of funny, and the small-townishness of the story is kind of charming, but really when you can predict what’s gonna happen from like the fourth chapter the story loses a lot of it’s luster. Perhaps that’s what Dunn was going for, utter predictability. If so, then score! He wins.

Perhaps I’m being a bit hard on Dunn. He does present the reader with an extensive cast of well-developed characters, which is often lacking in a lot of novels. But it seems he chickens out on the story line. Higbyians fall in and out of love faster than you can turn the page, and often for reasons that can’t be figured out by the reader. Apparently in Higby one only needs to look at someone and have a conversation for love to sprout. They also have an easy enough time proclaiming love after the initial conversation. No fears of commitment or going too fast here.

Really, Welcome to Higby is a sit-com of a novel. Sort of amusing and all while you’re in there turning the pages but once you put it down it’s gone, there’s nothing in there that’s gonna stick with you.