Now a Major Motion Picture Starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges, directed by Azazael JacobsA Recommended Read from:Vanity Fair * Entertainment Weekly * Vulture * The Millions * Publishers Weekly * EsquireFrom bestselling author Patrick deWitt, a brilliant and darkly comic novel about a wealthy widow and her adult son who flee New York for Paris in the wake of scandal and financial … and her adult son who flee New York for Paris in the wake of scandal and financial disintegration.
Frances Price – tart widow, possessive mother, and Upper East Side force of nature – is in dire straits, beset by scandal and impending bankruptcy. Her adult son Malcolm is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there’s the Price’s aging cat, Small Frank, who Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband, an infamously immoral litigator and world-class cad whose gruesome tabloid death rendered Frances and Malcolm social outcasts.
Putting penury and pariahdom behind them, the family decides to cut their losses and head for the exit. One ocean voyage later, the curious trio land in their beloved Paris, the City of Light serving as a backdrop not for love or romance, but self destruction and economical ruin – to riotous effect. A number of singular characters serve to round out the cast: a bashful private investigator, an aimless psychic proposing a seance, and a doctor who makes house calls with his wine merchant in tow, to name a few.
Brimming with pathos, French Exit is a one-of-a-kind ‘tragedy of manners,’ a send-up of high society, as well as a moving mother/son caper which only Patrick deWitt could conceive and execute.
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Such a quirky but amazing novel! The protagonist — an eccentric upper-east-side socialite who rapidly and self-destructively spends her way through the massive fortune amassed by her late husband — is likely my favorite character that I’ve read this year. The medley of other characters and their interactions are almost as wild and farcical, and yet somehow felt very real, as if I had known someone just like each of them from my childhood growing up in NY. Despite the zany and at times surreal plot, there’s a genuine exploration of relationships, money, vanity, and happiness that made me keep thinking about the interactions among the characters long after finishing the book. Thank you Andrew Sean Greer for the great recommendation!
French Exit made me so happy—I feel as if I have downed a third martini, stayed up past sunrise, and still woken up refreshed. Brilliant, addictive, funny and wise, DeWitt’s latest has enough charm to last you long after you’ve put it down.
Would you like to read a laugh-out-loud funny, lighthearted, smart, sassy, somewhat dark and weird and fantastical novel that will take you completely away from current events and make you feel like you’re eating birthday cake all day long, only now birthday cake is somehow good for you?
That’s this novel. It’s absolutely marvelous. I devoured it in one sitting (like you do with birthday cake). It’s an old-fashioned comedy of manners with a dark twist. Much of it takes place in Paris. What are you waiting for?
You have to read it. I can’t describe it except to say holy mother of god do I wish I could wield language this way.
Make no mistake, author Patrick deWitt has a way with language. Whether it’s the mid 1800’s Gold Rush speak in The Sisters Brothers or the catty, upper crust musings in French Exit, his word craft is indisputable.
French Exit drips fanciful and farcical prose, drawing you into the world of madcap Manhattan socialite Frances and her stay at home son, Malcolm. The plot centers on the news of Frances’ dwindling fortune and her abrupt departure to Paris with son to avoid social ruin.
It was easy to fall into this book, but whether or not it appeals will hinge largely on your take of the heroine. She isn’t immediately loveable, or even likeable. I didn’t mind Frances but preferred her over Malcolm: a wet blanket with almost no redeemable qualities. Perhaps this was deWitt’s intention? At times I wanted to slap Malcolm for being so inert and I suppose A reaction to a character is better than NO reaction.
In the end, I wasn’t sure what message the story was trying to convey. The promising start – mother/son escapee story – evolved into a bizarre, random collection of people populating a Parisian apartment. To deWitt’s credit, at all times I was engaged, although I’d rank it as a B story made enjoyable by A+ writing.
If I were to describe Patrick deWitt’s highly entertaining French Exit in a single word, it would be “quirky.” Frances Price and her grown, but highly immature son, Malcolm, have lived a life of wealth and privilege, becoming increasingly eccentric as their money disappeared and the scandal around the death of their late husband and father, Frank, grew.
Yes, deWitt’s novel has it all, all far as eccentricities grow, from an acquaintance who knows when a death is about to occur and communes with the dead to a mother and son who communicate with one another via separate phone lines installed in their respective bedrooms, to a cat possessed of the soul of the dearly deceased.
So what is this quirky little book? Once the money runs out, Frances and Malcolm book passage on an ocean liner and flee New York for Paris to begin again in the borrowed apartment of a friend. Thus installed, they befriend an equally quirky cast of characters and fill their days improbably, including in conversation with their cat. It’s absurd, truly, and had I read the description before starting the book, I’d have been highly apprehensive that this was another Confederacy of Dunces. Fortunately, I didn’t read the description that closely and, as a result, read and enjoyed French Exit.
(This review was originally published at http://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2018/10/french-exit.html)
The first time I read French Exit, I raced through, impatient to know the fates of its characters. Then I turned back to page one to enjoy Patrick deWitt’s understated satire and casually brutal wit.
French Exit is so deliciously decadent that you will want to drink it, shaken not stirred. It is classy, it is wicked and it is irreverent.
The assemble of characters dazzles. The three main heroes (though they don’t qualify for that term in any way, shape of form) are Frances, Malcolm and Small Frank. Frances is an extravagant rich widow hellbent of self-destruction, financially and otherwise. Her son Malcolm is a man frozen in inaction, content to drift through life without any clear direction or destination, sort of attached to his mother like a barnacle to the underbelly of a sinking ship. And Small Frank is the late husband-father who has found home in a body of a domestic cat.
In transit to self-destruction Francis, accompanied by her two dependants, makes a stop in Paris.
At first sight you may think this book shallow, degenerate and immoral, but very soon you come to realise that there is a depth of despair and surrender under the surface of flamboyance and extravagance. Patrick de Witt is very elegant in hinting at it. He doesn’t tell you about it. He doesn’t let his characters tell you about it. Still, you know that depth sits there – the root of all trouble.
The story is character driven, and each character is a scream – unique, distinct and irredeemable. But you wish them well, you root for them, you hope for them.
It is a riot of a book!
Calling a novel about a woman’s self-destruction light, funny and enjoyable sounds messed up – and yet somehow, with a surprisingly deft touch – that’s exactly what Patrick deWitt achieved with French Exit.
As with PG Wodehouse, deWitt takes aim at those so wealthy they don’t need to work – and like Wodehouse, he does so with gentle good humour. Those after a biting attack on the 1 per cent might need to find another book.
Instead, you find yourself feeling for the sharp-tongued Frances, who thrives on scandal and lives with her 32-year-old oddball son Malcolm in a swish New York suite – until she runs out of money and they have to flee to Paris with their cat, Little Frank.
Determined to spend every last dollar that she owns, they embark on an adventure that involves a psychic, a private detective, a devoted admirer as well as Malcolm’s fiancée, who could have anyone she wants and yet, for some inexplicable reason, is instead drawn to him.
It was only after finishing this book that I realised I’d once read another of Patrick deWitt’s novels – namely Ablutions, his debut in which he writes about an increasingly alcoholic bartender who works in a seedy Hollywood bar. At first it seemed as if the two novels couldn’t be more different: Ablutions is harsh, shocking and brutal, filled with vomit and despair, whereas French Exit is a joyous comic romp … and it’s only on reflection that you realise that both are still about despair and self-annihilation.
It’s for this reason that French Exit stands out as the most intriguing novel I’ve read in months. Long after I’ve finished it, I’m still unpicking it.
A very quirky little book. Lots of indulgent fun with tragic/comic characters. Like nothing I’ve ever read before.
Kind of odd, but couldn’t put it down.
Really farsical
After hearing the author on Bookworm on KCRW, I was intrigued. It was funny and touching. The characters and plot were eccentric. The writing was snarky and entertaining.
Laugh out-loud funny. The mixed-bag of characters were hilarious.
Not typical. Refreshingly humorous
Happy to learn that a movie adaptation of FRENCH EXIT has recently been made starring Michelle Pfeiffer as the wealthy widow who leaves New York for Paris, bringing along her son and a highly unusual cat. This clever book is for readers who like something a bit out of the ordinary
To begin with, Patrick writes very well, so his style drew me in immediately. Then I settled into enjoying the eccentricity of the characters and the strangely enticing plot line. I’ve already ordered another of his books.
This book was superficial and deep at the same time. Definitely a departure from the same old type of story
Fun, clever, unpredictable–this is the rare “literary” read that I enjoyed. I usually require the the characters evolve, and they did…kind of… plus, it was just funny, and had that whole “look at the crazy rich people” thing going that I enjoy.
Great read!