From 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 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.
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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2
bennettgavrish
(Grade: 4/5) There's never a lack of wit or biting comedy in a DeWitt novel. This story, in particular, feels like a spec script for Wes Anderson to drool over. The actions of the characters are baffling and bizarre but their dialogue is so dry and direct that the result is a net positive – at least up to a certain point. Just as the author appears ready to embrace absurdity and deliver a worthy ending, he reduces the action to a simmer, leaving his protagonists (and a talking cat) with not much to say.
(Grade: 4/5) There's never a lack of wit or biting comedy in a DeWitt novel. This story, in particular, feels like a spec script for Wes Anderson to drool over. The actions of the characters are baffling and bizarre but their dialogue is so dry and direct that the result is a net positive – at least up to a certain point. Just as the author appears ready to embrace absurdity and deliver a worthy ending, he reduces the action to a simmer, leaving his protagonists (and a talking cat) with not much to say.(Rated on Jan 4, 2019)
1
RemusLupin
(Grade: 3/5) The writing in this book was stop-and-reread-that-sentence-four-times beautiful. But the impressive word choice and wit could not make up for the boring plot and strange, undeveloped characters. I had no one to root for and didn’t ultimately care about the conclusion. I’d like to read more of his books in hopes that the narrative in a different one would be of more interest to me, and better match his obvious talent with words.
(Grade: 3/5) The writing in this book was stop-and-reread-that-sentence-four-times beautiful. But the impressive word choice and wit could not make up for the boring plot and strange, undeveloped characters. I had no one to root for and didn’t ultimately care about the conclusion. I’d like to read more of his books in hopes that the narrative in a different one would be of more interest to me, and better match his obvious talent with words.(Rated on Jan 13, 2019)