Finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and an international bestseller, Patrick deWitt’s brilliant and darkly comic novel is now a major motion picture starring Michelle Pfeiffer.
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 economic ruin — to riotous effect.
Brimming with pathos and wit, French Exit is a one-of-a-kind “tragedy of manners,” a riotous send-up of high society, as well as a moving mother and son caper which only Patrick deWitt could conceive and execute. A finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and an international bestseller upon its original publication, French Exit is now a major motion picture starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges and with a script by Patrick deWitt.
Finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and an international bestseller, Patrick deWitt’s brilliant and darkly comic novel is now a major motion picture starring Michelle Pfeiffer.
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 economic ruin — to riotous effect.
Brimming with pathos and wit, French Exit is a one-of-a-kind “tragedy of manners,” a riotous send-up of high society, as well as a moving mother and son caper which only Patrick deWitt could conceive and execute. A finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and an international bestseller upon its original publication, French Exit is now a major motion picture starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges and with a script by Patrick deWitt.
| Published By | House of Anansi Press Inc — Aug 28, 2018 |
| Specifications | 248 pages | 5.5 in x 8.25 in |
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Excerpt |
| Written By |
PATRICK DEWITT was born on Vancouver Island in 1975. He is the author of three critically acclaimed novels: Undermajordomo Minor, Ablutions and The Sisters Brothers, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Stephen Leacock Medal, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He lives in Portland, Oregon. |
| Written By |
|
PATRICK DEWITT was born on Vancouver Island in 1975. He is the author of three critically acclaimed novels: Undermajordomo Minor, Ablutions and The Sisters Brothers, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Stephen Leacock Medal, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He lives in Portland, Oregon. |
Commended, International Bestseller, 2018
Short-listed, Scotiabank Giller Prize, 2018
Long-listed, International Dublin Literary Award, 2018
Short-listed, Forest of Reading Evergreen Award, 2018
Short-listed, Oregon Book Awards: Ken Kesey Award for Fiction, 2018
Commended, A Globe and Mail Book of the Year, 2018
Commended, A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year, 2018
Commended, A Chatelaine Book of the Year, 2018
“DeWitt’s surrealism is cheerful and matter-of-fact, making the novel feel as buoyantly insane as its characters.” —New Yorker
“A sparkling dark comedy that channels both Noel Coward’s wit and Wes Anderson’s loopy sensibility. DeWitt’s tone is breezy, droll, and blithely transgressive . . . These are people you may not want to invite to dinner, but they sure make for fun reading.” —NPR
“A cross between a Feydeau farce (fitting, given that the location of most of the novel is Paris) and a Buñuel film, as one after another in an eccentric cast of characters is introduced . . . DeWitt is in possession of a fresh, lively voice that surprises at every turn.” —Vanity Fair
“DeWitt’s particular comic genius is to evoke the darkness behind the dazzle. The novel is a brittle, unsettling delight: a fairground ride swooping above vertiginous drops, wringing out laughter and screams as it rattles towards its conclusion. Whichever style he adopts or genre he inhabits, deWitt remains a true original.” —Washington Post
“DeWitt’s particular comic genius is to evoke the darkness behind the dazzle. The novel is a brittle, unsettling delight: a fairground ride swooping above vertiginous drops, wringing out laughter and screams as it rattles towards its conclusion. Whichever style he adopts or genre he inhabits, deWitt remains a true original.” —Guardian
“A highly enjoyable read . . . DeWitt’s style is nothing if not idiosyncratic, and his elevated language — played for particular comic effect when it comes to dialogue — is perfectly suited to affectionately chiding upper-class mores. And the tenderness between Frances, her son, and her old friend Joan is of the real stuff.” —Esquire
“A ‘tragedy of manners’ about people out of sync in the world, this novel is disconcertingly funny. It strikes postures where a more conventional writer would have been sincere and humourless. Its subjects are effrontery, wealth, death, and bad manners. Many of the greatest novels are about nothing so very important, and they last because they are done beautifully. French Exit shows Patrick deWitt’s literary mastery and perfect ear. It’s an immaculate performance on ice, executed with sharp shining blades, lutzing and pirouetting above unknowable black depths.” —Scotiabank Giller Prize Jury Citation
“Disarmingly funny … Billed as a ‘tragedy of manners,’ French Exit is deWitt’s take on a form of theatre popularized over the centuries (but dating back to the ancient Greeks) by such luminaries as Molière, Oliver Goldsmith, Oscar Wilde, and Noel Coward — with deWitt’s snappy yet droll version most closely resembling the latter two. A traditional comedy of manners employs an abundance of wit and insouciance to skewer the deplorable aspects of high society — and the prevalence of appearance over substance in particular. DeWitt’s absolute mastery over this approach is a thing of beauty: every nuance, scene, character, and snippet of dialogue is pitch perfect … French Exit includes multiple layers of meaning and social commentary, wrapped up in a whip-smart package that cracks with wit and wordplay … DeWitt proves that while The Sisters Brothers may have made his name as an author, it was far from a singular success.” —Quill & Quire, STARRED REVIEW
“[DeWitt] is a masterful storyteller who propels narrative with witty, weird vignettes and digressions.” —Literary Review of Canada
“Darkly comic, perfectly brilliant … Let deWitt take you along on this dizzying, wild ride; you’ll love every second of it, and then hop back to the beginning for another go. It’s worth the trip.” —Nylon Magazine
“Sharply observed moments give deWitt’s well-written novel more depth than the usual comedy of manners — a depth reinforced by the exit that closes the tale, sharp object and all. Reminiscent at points of The Ginger Man but in the end a bright, original yarn with a surprising twist.” —Kirkus Reviews
French Exit satisfies with its delightful economy. Barely a word is out of place, and the dialogue is particularly arch and ironic … One hears echoes in French Exit of playwrights Noël Coward and Oscar Wilde, not to mention novelists Evelyn Waugh and Edith Wharton.
” —Winnipeg Free PressFrench 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, which is what so many of us need in a book. I think you need it, too.
” —Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Less“Patrick deWitt has taken all of what I usually expect and want from a story, misted it in Chanel No. 5, and set to it an immeasurably classy lighter. Love it.” —Natasha Pulley, bestselling author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street