Frances has been avoiding her financial advisor. She knows what’s coming. After years of jaw dropping extravagance her husband’s money has finally run out. She sells the contents of her swanky apartment, then the apartment itself, stashing 185,000 euros in cash along with her sedated cat in her handbag and crosses the Atlantic with Malcolm in tow. On board ship, Malcolm briefly takes up with a medium, later banged up in the brig for telling a passenger she’s about to die which said passenger promptly does. Once settled into her best friend’s apartment, Frances sets about ridding herself of her cash but not before Small Frank runs away. Soon they’ve acquired a full house of lodgers including a lonely widow, a private investigator and Madeleine the medium, tracked down to contact Small Frank. Frances is still spending money like water, handing it out to strangers when there’s nothing left to buy, and she’s desperate to find Small Frank. He is, after all, the vessel that houses her dead husband’s spirit.
DeWitt’s satire is almost cartoon-like in its outlandish comedy, lampooning the rich with a cast of vividly memorable characters: Frances the sharp-tongued widow, long thought to have taken off to Vail on a skiing trip after discovering her husband’s corpse; Small Frank lumbered with Franklin’s truculent, whining voice as he roams Paris, flea-ridden and hungry; and Malcolm whose only purpose in life is to keep his mother company. There’s a degree of humanity amongst all this excoriation: Malcolm’s emotional constipation after a childhood of being ignored by both parents contrasts with his mother’s attempt to burn the house down to get attention when she was a child. Not my favourite deWitt novel – The Sisters Brothers still holds pride of place for that – but still a welcome treat.
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I didn’t get on with The Sisters Brothers, although the rest of the Book Group loved it, so it must have been something wrong with me. Should I rush to read this, or is it going to bore me in the same way?
Best not, although your book group might like to know about it.
My library hold just came in so I’ll pick this up on Friday. Looking forward to it! (And pleased there’s a cat.)
I should warn you: Little Frank’s not like any cat you’ve met, at least I hope not! Hope you enjoy it.
Oh, this is intriguing…
This is the first time I’ve seen this cover – I might like it better. Maybe I’ll have a preference after reading the book.
I’m hoping I’ll enjoy the humour in this!
Interestingly, I think I prefer yours, although Little Frank gets a more prominent role in ours and quite rightly so. I’ll be interested to see what you make of it, Naomi.
I think it’s the cat on the cover that I like. 🙂
This does sound like a lot of fun. What really strikes me about your comments on de Witt’s books is how different they are from one another. Clearly a writer with more than one trick up his sleeve!
It’s the mark of sharp writer, isn’t it. I wonder what he’s going to come up with next.
I loved The Sisters Brothers and am looking forward to this one. He teally does seem to be able to turn his hand to any genre.
Ah, that’s still my favourite but I think he had a lot of fun with this one.
I really enjoyed The Sisters Brothers. This sounds completely bonkers so it is very appealing 😀
I think you’ve summed it up there! I’d also class it as a novella…
Even better
I really enjoyed it, but found the cover boring! The Sisters Brothers is still one of my favourite ever books.
Have you seen the Canadian jacket, Annabel? I much prefer it. I’m with you on The Sisters Brothers.
Ive just finished this …so finally read your review. I agree it isn’t quite The Sisters Brothers which was so different and fresh that it just swept me away. I did enjoy French Exit immensely though….. it was a change to read something absurdist and amusing ( given the news at home and abroad) and there are some fab characters…….I thought Frances was very poignantly drawn. Some the dialogue read asif it had just been lifted from Beckett which annoyed me but there were some great set pieces…….the visit to the ships morgue and the word game at the party particularly stood out !
It was Little Frank that did it for me. I think The Sisters Brothers is a hard one to beat but, as you say, this is a pleasing diversion and like all good satire does have something serious to say.
I missed the second because I wasn’t sure I could read him and have it be Not-the-Sisters-Brothers which was a book that pulled me in all sorts of contradictory directions and ended up wholly overwhelming me (in a good way, though against my wishes). Over the summer, however, I watched a film he wrote, “Terry”, a surprisingly tender (but, still, dark) coming-of-age, which I stumbled upon via the library catalogue when I was putting a copy of French Exit on hold, and I realised that I am up for reading more after all. I’ve only read the first three chapters, so I’m still wriggling around, trying to figure out what I think. Which I’m sure you understand, as you’ve read those chapters too.
Yes, I’d agree but I warmed towards it as the novel progressed. Each of his books are so different from each other although as you can see from my review The Sisters Brothers remains unmatched for me. Undermajordomo Minor is still worth a read, though, particularly if you liked The Grand Budapest Hotel.
That was a fun film – I’ll swing back to UM at some point then. Thanks for the nudge!
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