French Exit

If I were to describe Patrick deWitt's highly entertaining French Exit in a single word, it would be "quirky." Frances Price and her grown, but highly immature son, Malcolm, have lived a life of wealth and privilege, becoming increasingly eccentric as their money disappeared and the scandal around the death of their late husband and father, Frank, grew.

Yes, deWitt's novel has it all, all far as eccentricities grow, from an acquaintance who knows when a death is about to occur and communes with the dead to a mother and son who communicate with one another via separate phone lines installed in their respective bedrooms, to a cat possessed of the soul of the dearly deceased.

So what is this quirky little book? Once the money runs out, Frances and Malcolm book passage on an ocean liner and flee New York for Paris to begin again in the borrowed apartment of a friend. Thus installed, they befriend an equally quirky cast of characters and fill their days improbably, including in conversation with their cat. It's absurd, truly, and had I read the description before starting the book, I'd have been highly apprehensive that this was another Confederacy of Dunces. Fortunately, I didn't read the description that closely and, as a result, read and enjoyed French Exit.

Four stars.