French Exit – A Review
Frances is getting older. Her husband has recently passed away. Her adult son still lives with her. She has spent a lot of time being married to a rich man. Now she decides to go away to Paris, and she takes Malcolm with her along with a cat.
The book has a distant tone throughout. Even with tragedy in the family, there is a sense that nothing is worth crying over. Bad things happen, but they quickly pass by and it is perfectly normal to keep going without even a chance to stop and mourn.
That seems to be the attitude Frances takes. She has been cheated on in her marriage, but she also has lots of money, so things don’t seem too bad from the outsider point-of-view.
With dry humour, wit, and life seeming to be permanently stuck at one speed when members of a family don’t feel they need to improve because of their wealth, it creates a sense of distance between the reader and the events on the page.
There is a matter-of-fact tone to the writing that doesn’t allow for emotional investment with the main characters, and their aloof and pretentious lives.
This allows the conclusion to feel like a punch to the gut that is surprising even when there are clues along the way on how the story unfolds.
French Exit
by Patrick deWitt
House of Anansi Press
2018
It is Canada Day long weekend. I was busy helping to put on a Canada Day event on Saturday and ended up spending most of the day downtown helping out with various events.
For some reason, I am feeling the passage of time more keenly. Perhaps it is the age I am at, or because I have been paying more attention to the news lately and the war in Ukraine. There is much to worry about, even when I try to act cool and as if the rest of the world doesn’t affect me. Even with the connection to the world that computer technology allows, I still like to think I live in my own little world surrounded by what I like: books, family and friends.
For the month of July, I have a stack of books I would like to read. Many of the titles are for the Booktube at War readathon, which is taking place throughout the month. The objective is to read about war. Books can be fiction or nonfiction.
I have 10 titles all together:
- Mona Lisa Overdrive
by William Gibson - Our Man in Havana
by Graham Greene - French Exit
by Patrick deWitt - The Best Kind of People
by Zoe Whittall - Dail A for Aunties
by Jesse Q. Sutanto - Art of War (孫子兵法, 孫臏兵法, 三十六計)
- The Song of Achilles
by Madeline Miller - The Good German
by Joseph Kanon - Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia
by Ahmed Rashid - The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman