French Exit: A Novel

An Amazon Best Book of September 2018: With French Exit, Patrick deWitt has written the most wickedly funny novel of 2018. You probably know: a “French exit” is when guests sneak out of a party without saying goodbye, and that’s just what Frances, “a moneyed, striking woman of 65 years” does when she blows through the last of her cash and flees Manhattan for Paris. Add to the mix her apathetic 32-year-old son, some ragtag expat friends, and a cat named Small Frank—who may or may not embody the spirit of Frances’s dead husband—and you have a bizarre but wildly successful comedy. DeWitt (Undermajordomo Minor; The Sisters Brothers) adds just a soupçon of pathos, making French Exit more than just frothy fun. This is one party you won’t want to leave early. —Sarah Harrison Smith, Amazon Book Review