Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/ “What’s the opposite of a miracle?” Frances sat upright in her bed. “How many letters?” As soon as I started French Exit it seemed very familiar to me. I went perusing my friends’ reviews and discovered Sam had experienced the same sort of déjà vu . . . . And that should be enough to let you know if you want to take a roll of this dice with this one. There are no “sort of” Wes Anderson fans (and if anyone tries to tell you they

Would you like to read a laugh-out-loud funny, lighthearted, smart, sassy, somewhat dark and weird and fantastical novel that will take you completely away from current events and make you feel like you're eating birthday cake all day long, only now birthday cake is somehow good for you?That's this novel.Also, I would like to read an essay about how THE SISTERS BROTHERS is a Coen brothers movie and this one is a Wes Anderson movie.

This novel is unbelievable. The family, (father, mother son), are unbelievably dysfunctional. Their story is unbelievable. There is a cat in this story who is unbelievable. Their lives in New York and then later in Paris are comprised of unbelievable bits of the present day (including unbelievable friends and would-be friends) mingled with unbelievable jaunts down memory lane.Somehow, Patrick de Witt takes all of this unbelievability, wraps it up into a story, and I read it with complete believa...

3.5 Original, inventive, absurdist, all of these descriptions and more would be fitting. Wasn't quite sure where, in my head, to put this book, let alone how to come up with a rating. Generally, I rate like grnres with like genres, but this one seems to have an identity of its own. What a strange tale with some very unique characters, and a very unusual cat. A satirical comedy of manners and errors, if you will.Maybe I was just in the mood for this, but I enjoyed this quirky little albeit unbeli...

French exitNoun. French exit (offensive) A hasty exit made without saying farewells to anybody.I have been a fan of Patrick deWitt's from the beginning, and I believe I've read everything he's written; joyfully revelling in his ink-black, violent comedies. I was, therefore, rapturously delighted to have been sent an ARC – months early – of his latest, and so doubly disappointed when it turned out to be just okay. French Exit begins on a promising note – with a smart-talking Upper East Side widow...

Did you ever read a book that was so bad but you had to get to the end just incase someone would say to you “ Ah! But the ending made the book...shame you missed it” Well, the beginning, the middle or the end couldn't save this one from the one star rating.I have read The Sisters Brothers by this author and while I didn't love it, I did like it, as it was quirky and well written. French Exit was was recommended to me for it’s wit and caustic sense of humor and if you are into that style of

As with Dewitt’s delightful “Sisters Brothers”, we are treated again to quirky people in a minimalist, absurdist plot. This one wasn’t quite as zany, or as serious either. Still, it’s a fast read and left me with an amusing sense of an ensemble cast of simulacra strutting their stuff as partial people and, then, inevitably winding down. Our puppet people include the elderly golddigger Francis Price and her thirty-something son Malcolm, who are living the high life as residents on Manhattan’s Upp...

Update 1-Oct-2018: Giller Prize Shortlisted!I've long been a fan of deWitt's writing and his latest novel, French Exit, feels like it could have been written by no one other than him, but also feels like a move in a different direction from The Sisters Brothers and Undermajordomo Minor . DeWitt has always been funny, but French Exit is a comedy first and foremost. I was definitely getting in a good belly-laugh every 10 pages or so, and its rare that an author is able to deliver the goods

Patrick deWitt has the remarkable ability to write brilliantly in different genres whether the fairy tale of “Undermajordomo Minor,” the western of “The Sisters Brothers,” or in his most recent book “French Exit,” a comedy of manners. The abundant wit, satire, and skewering of the wealthy made this an entertaining read, but the infusion of death throughout the book detracted from what I anticipated based on the book’s subtitle. I appreciate dark humor, but at times it seemed to weigh down the sh...

I don't really enjoy humour in books, and unlike some other readers, I didn't think there was anything funny or believable about this book. I've gained nothing from my experience and am surprised I actually finished it.

I’m afraid I didn’t get on with French Exit at all. It seems to me to be a novel which thinks a great deal of itself but adds up to very little. Frances, a wealthy, viciously bitchy, snobbish New York widow (Really? Again?) completely dominates her overweight, ineffectual son Malcolm, and destroys any other relationship he may develop (Really? Again?). Her financial profligacy means that she is reduced to the abject penury of her last few hundred thousand dollars, and her only (improbable) frien...

“I ran from one brightly burning disaster to the next, pal. That’s the way I was. Possibly you won’t like to think of your mother as one who lived, but I’ll tell you something: it’s fun to run from one brightly burning disaster to the next.” This is a comic novel about disasters and despair, a raised middle finger to existential angst, a character study of a remarkable woman that refuses to go quietly into the Big Nothing. “They broke the mold with that one.” exclaim the people who meet France

This novel could not amuse me at all and I am sure that this was certainly Patrick deWitt's objective. Being sarcastic is something else than being hilarious. Such a shame after his very enjoyable and special novel The Sister Brothers.

Sixtysomething Manhattan socialite Frances, her 32 year old son Malcolm and their cat, Small Frank, live a relaxed life – until the family fortune runs out. Suddenly homeless, they head to Paris, France, to stay in a wealthy friend’s apartment where destiny awaits… Oui - Patrick deWitt’s latest novel French Exit is tres bonne! It’s this pleasingly bizarre comedy about nutters that reads uncannily like a Wes Anderson movie by way of Arrested Development. I read the book with Lucille and Buster Bl...

French Exit (aka ‘ghosting’) is apparently a term meaning to leave a social situation without saying goodbye to the hosts - a particularly apt title for this novel with the New Yorker socialite protagonists decamping to Paris after being declared bankrupt.Although I am a big fan of black comedy, I found this rather a difficult one to engage with until I tuned into the author's wavelength. The dysfunctional mother and son relationship reminded me of JK Toole's 'Confederacy of Dunces', and de Witt...

I loved Patrick de Witt’s Undermajordomo Minor. It was completely quirky and weird, but seriously turned my crank. Unfortunately, while French Exit has a similar oddball sensibility, this one fell quite flat for me. The story focuses on mother Frances and adult son Malcolm. As the story opens in New York, Frances learns that all her money is lost, after which she and Malcolm move to a friend’s apartment in Paris, where a number of people drift into their world. De Witt writes beautifully. I love...

I learned about FRENCH EXIT through Buzz Books (Publishers Lunch). If you are not familiar with them, Buzz Books issues monthly publications where they list by category most books coming out that month, and also include a list of book excerpts from the list.I read the first chapter and was drawn by the writing and sharp dialogue. After living a comfortable and wealthy lifestyle, Frances Price and her son, Malcolm, find themselves completely broke and without a home.Thanks to Frances’ lifelong fr...

I’d enjoyed The Sisters Brothers though not as much as many readers had. Perhaps this new offering from deWitt would charm we in a way that his Western novel had failed to? The story of a dysfunctional relationship between an unpleasant mother and her very odd son (not to mention the deceased father who may now be living within the body of the pet cat) is a very strange offering indeed. Wealthy widower Frances Price had gained notoriety – and social exclusion – as a result of her having discover...

Oh dear. I'd consider myself a big Patrick deWitt fan, having adored The Sisters Brothers and Undermajordomo Minor. But little of his famed wit and ingenuity is present in his latest novel. It has a cast of peculiar characters and a story that just goes nowhere.Frances Price is a wealthy 65-year-old New Yorker, a sharp-tongued widower who doesn't suffer fools gladly. Living with her in a luxurious apartment is her brooding son Malcolm ("a lugubrious toddler of a man") and their cat Small Frank,

Frances Price has never really given a damn about what people think. A wealthy widow, she looks down on nearly everyone with whom she comes into contact (except Joan, her best friend since childhood). She and her adult son, Malcolm, live in an aging apartment on the Upper East Side and spend money indiscriminately, despite multiple warnings of increasing intensity from their financial advisor.One day, Frances is told that she is on the verge of losing everything, and she must sell off all the po...