French Exit
A Novel
-
- $13.99
-
- $13.99
Publisher Description
Now a Major Motion Picture Starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges, directed by Azazael Jacobs
A Recommended Read from:
Vanity Fair * Entertainment Weekly * Vulture * The Millions * Publishers Weekly * Esquire
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Evoking Henry James' bittersweet novels of social disaster and P.G. Wodehouse's riotous comedies, French Exit had us howling with laughter and full-on cringing, often on the same page. Frozen out of Manhattan society following her husband's scandalous death, no-nonsense widow Frances Price uproots her coddled adult son and resourceful cat for a fresh start in Paris. As the trio’s new life quickly turns both farcical and tragic, the cracks in their once-glamorous façade become impossible to ignore. Just as in his comic western The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt shows enormous sympathy for his flawed characters.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this entertaining novel (subtitled a "tragedy of manners") that lampoons the one percent, deWitt (The Sisters Brothers) follows the financial misfortune of wealthy widow Frances Price, a magnetic and caustic 60-something New Yorker who has spent most of the fortune her late lawyer husband amassed defending the indefensible. Insolvency comes as a shock to Frances despite repeated warnings her financial adviser about her extravagant lifestyle. She reluctantly accepts an offer to occupy a friend's Parisian flat and sets sail with her rakish, lovesick son, Malcolm; her house cat, Small Frank; and her last 170,000. On board, she concocts a secret plan to spend every penny, while Malcolm befriends a medium who can see the dying (they're green). In Paris, the book finds its surest footing, as Small Frank flees and a lonely neighbor connects Frances to a doctor, his wine merchant, and a private eye, who locates the medium to contact the cat, who may hold some secrets. The love of Malcolm's life and her dim-witted fianc also arrive, as does the owner of the now extremely crowded flat. DeWitt's novel is full of vibrant characters taking good-natured jabs at cultural tropes; readers will be delighted.
Customer Reviews
Great characters
Great characters, kind of a predictable/nothing plot but I felt that was ok because of how fast paced it was. Just the right amount of quirkiness in each character and scenario to be endearing without trying to hard. Looking forward to seeing the movie.
Seriously Disturbed Characters
I had a 4th grade teacher who was a seriously disturbed character herself—agony on a daily basis, but I made it out alive. The one good thing she did was teach our class how to speed-read. Really well. Which came in handy for this book, the only way to sensibly make it to the end of the book to see if there was even one tiny spark of redemption for this swirling toilet bowl of depressed characters. No, not a micron. I’m mostly sorry I purchased this book digitally, since I can’t hurl it down the back stairs without damaging my device.
collection of perfect sentences
Funny, weird, and full of lovably messed up characters. The writing sparkles.