French Exit (2018)

Intriguing and thought provoking, the main characters were people I have never known. Weirdly, I dreamt in the rhythm of Mr. deWitt's writing. The ending was near perfect. ( )

So deWitt. Bizarre, peculiar, but still really intriguing. It is not easy to review something so zany, so I will leave it here. I will read whatever he writes next, if that tells you anything.
Oh, and I liked French Exit more than Under Major Minor Domo but less than Sisters Brothers. ( )

This felt disjointed to me, but it could be how/when I read it. But the characters were not altogether like-able and their exploits were more annoying than entertaining. Frances Price, a NY socialite and widow has lost everything, despite her financial adviser's dire warnings. But Frances does not take kindly to losing and does not go gracefully or shamefully, but in a splurge of a sea voyage to Paris to live in her friend's empty apartment. Frances has a grown son, Malcolm, from whom she has never cut the apron strings - he lived with her in NY and neither see reason to alter that arrangement in their new circumstances. He leaves behind (without much thought) his fiancee Susan, though they take more care to take the cat, Small Frank, named for Frances' dead husband - she believes his spirit inhabits the feline. There are all the makings of a comedy here - wacky characters who band together and converge in Paris - Madeline, a fortune teller who can see people turn green just before death, a shy private investigator, Mme. Reynard an old peer of Frances - now an American expat and a few others who have their 10 seconds of fame. I just couldn't care about any of them. Frances was known for skiing while her husband lay dead in their apartment - she is cold and domineering and Malcolm is a wimpy mama's boy, though both seem better off without Frank Price who had been a wealthy but unscrupulous businessman.This was referred to as a "tragedy of manners" and that is an apt description. ( )

Trigger warning: suicide

When the money runs out on the estate of Franklin Price, his widow, Frances, and their son, Malcolm, move to Paris on the proceeds of selling off their properties and material objects. They brave the ocean journey with their cat, Small Frank, whom they believe houses the spirit of Franklin. Once in Paris, they do eccentric rich-people things and collect an assortment of hangers-on as they blow the proceeds of their estate sale.

One of my favourite parts of the book was the ocean voyage to Paris. My grandmother used to travel from Canada to the UK by ship and she loves to talk about her trips, so those details served me well in imagining the scene. The part with Malcolm and the ship’s doctor edged toward a darker humour. On a grim note, the line “A cruise ship is a death ship” has an extra resonance these days.

The book is described as “brimming with pathos and wit”—it does contain those two things, although I found there was a lot more pathos and world-weary absurdity. The humour picked up once they were in Paris, with the interactions between all of the characters with connections to either Frances or Malcolm, and of course Small Frank’s observations. But the ending, with one character committing suicide, was shocking and depressing. So I’m not sure how to recommend this. You’ll know yourself best: if you want to give this a go, do. If you’d rather not, don’t. ( )

Clever, well-written; all of the characters are terrible people and I never did figure out why anyone was doing what they were doing. Why did Frances need to spend all of her money before she killed herself? Why did she kill herself? Why was her son so enormously passive? About everything, always? Why did the husband end up in the cat? So many questions, so few answers, and unfortunately, I didn't really care by the end. ( )