French Exit
Author: Patrick Dewitt
Published by: Bloomsbury
Pages: 244
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★★
Published by: Bloomsbury
Pages: 244
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★★
Frances Price is in fire straits. Scandals swirl around the recently widowed New York socialite, and her adult-aged, toddler-brained son Malcolm is no help. Cutting their losses, they grab their cat, Small Frank, and head for the exit. Paris becomes the backdrop for a giddy drive to self-destruction, helped along by a cast of singularly curious characters.
Brimming with pathos, warmth and wit, French Exit is a riotous send-up of high society and a moving story of mothers and sons.
Brimming with pathos, warmth and wit, French Exit is a riotous send-up of high society and a moving story of mothers and sons.
My thoughts
The central characters of French Exit are Franklin, his widow Francis and their son Malcolm. Before his untimely death, Franklin Price made a fortune as a ruthless and ethically dubious lawyer. When we meet Frances, it is 20 years after Franklin’s death and she has blown through his entire fortune. Frances Price has always been formidable, and her name is well known around the Upper East Side. She is known for her beauty, snobbery, and especially for scandal. Years ago when she found her husband dead from a heart attack, she left their home and went on a ski trip, not even bothering to inform anyone of his death.
This has left tongues wagging for twenty years but a new scandal is on the looming: she’s pretty much broke.
I really liked the way Dewitt wrote about New York and Paris, and it was interesting to see the how these characters within the two different settings. Paris was especially intriguing, as we are taken on the journey with them as Frances and Malcolm each try to adjust and adapt to their new home. If you’re in the mood for a light, humorous, witty read, then you’ll enjoy this book a lot. I was very quickly drawn in and really liked reading this one. Dewitt’s writing is so distinctive, and his real in this book is in the way he has been able to create such engaging characters that do really eccentric things yet become endearing. From the very first page until the last, his prose is sharp, thought provoking, darkly humorous and totally enchanting.
Frances, in particular, is just so fascinating to read about and she is probably best described as a widow, possessive mother, and Upper East Side force of nature.I loved her constantly unpredictable behaviour, and these moments were perfect balanced alongside an occasional glimpse of her more vulnerable side. Malcolm is very self-involved and appears to be quite emotionless in the way he interacts with his (sort of) girlfriend Susan for much of the story. However, the more we learn about Malcolm’s life the more obvious it seems that his behaviour is perhaps mostly due to the strange upbringing he received after his father died and Frances immediately removed him from boarding school. The flashback scenes worked really well in offering more insight into his character. I felt at many points during the book that he was simply helpless and completely unaware of how to actually exist in the real world.
Arguably the strangest character is of course the family cat, Small Frank. It all got a bit weird towards the end of the book when several chapters were dedicated purely to Small Frank and his time exploring the streets of Paris alone, stuck in a kind of existential crisis. I mostly liked these scenes, but I must admit that my interest began to dwindle a little when he began ‘talking’ with Frances and Malcolm. Things seemed to reach a whole new level of absurd here, and I’m not totally convinced it worked within the story. However, despite this blip things soon got back on track and I felt the remainder of the book was more fitting and absorbing. I don’t want to give too much away, but the ending felt very poignant and well suited to the already very dark humour of this story and these troubled characters.
French Exit is ultimately a touching story about people and their desire for connection. It is about their flaws, vulnerability and ultimately their humanity. The book is beautifully written, at times hilarious, and riddled with bizarre moments, including one of the most unforgettable cats I’ve ever read about. The book is an extremely quirky read and explores the pointlessness of life. The author targets high society in this dark comedy with a few occasions of insightful wisdom and many eyebrow-raising conversations along the way.
I found this to be a quirky, addictive, witty and highly entertaining short read from an author with a very original and distinctive voice. It is a fun and surprising read to enjoy over the summer.
Overall reaction:
The central characters of French Exit are Franklin, his widow Francis and their son Malcolm. Before his untimely death, Franklin Price made a fortune as a ruthless and ethically dubious lawyer. When we meet Frances, it is 20 years after Franklin’s death and she has blown through his entire fortune. Frances Price has always been formidable, and her name is well known around the Upper East Side. She is known for her beauty, snobbery, and especially for scandal. Years ago when she found her husband dead from a heart attack, she left their home and went on a ski trip, not even bothering to inform anyone of his death.
This has left tongues wagging for twenty years but a new scandal is on the looming: she’s pretty much broke.
I really liked the way Dewitt wrote about New York and Paris, and it was interesting to see the how these characters within the two different settings. Paris was especially intriguing, as we are taken on the journey with them as Frances and Malcolm each try to adjust and adapt to their new home. If you’re in the mood for a light, humorous, witty read, then you’ll enjoy this book a lot. I was very quickly drawn in and really liked reading this one. Dewitt’s writing is so distinctive, and his real in this book is in the way he has been able to create such engaging characters that do really eccentric things yet become endearing. From the very first page until the last, his prose is sharp, thought provoking, darkly humorous and totally enchanting.
Frances, in particular, is just so fascinating to read about and she is probably best described as a widow, possessive mother, and Upper East Side force of nature.I loved her constantly unpredictable behaviour, and these moments were perfect balanced alongside an occasional glimpse of her more vulnerable side. Malcolm is very self-involved and appears to be quite emotionless in the way he interacts with his (sort of) girlfriend Susan for much of the story. However, the more we learn about Malcolm’s life the more obvious it seems that his behaviour is perhaps mostly due to the strange upbringing he received after his father died and Frances immediately removed him from boarding school. The flashback scenes worked really well in offering more insight into his character. I felt at many points during the book that he was simply helpless and completely unaware of how to actually exist in the real world.
Arguably the strangest character is of course the family cat, Small Frank. It all got a bit weird towards the end of the book when several chapters were dedicated purely to Small Frank and his time exploring the streets of Paris alone, stuck in a kind of existential crisis. I mostly liked these scenes, but I must admit that my interest began to dwindle a little when he began ‘talking’ with Frances and Malcolm. Things seemed to reach a whole new level of absurd here, and I’m not totally convinced it worked within the story. However, despite this blip things soon got back on track and I felt the remainder of the book was more fitting and absorbing. I don’t want to give too much away, but the ending felt very poignant and well suited to the already very dark humour of this story and these troubled characters.
French Exit is ultimately a touching story about people and their desire for connection. It is about their flaws, vulnerability and ultimately their humanity. The book is beautifully written, at times hilarious, and riddled with bizarre moments, including one of the most unforgettable cats I’ve ever read about. The book is an extremely quirky read and explores the pointlessness of life. The author targets high society in this dark comedy with a few occasions of insightful wisdom and many eyebrow-raising conversations along the way.
I found this to be a quirky, addictive, witty and highly entertaining short read from an author with a very original and distinctive voice. It is a fun and surprising read to enjoy over the summer.
Overall reaction: