Review: French Exit, by Patrick DeWitt

French Exit, by Patrick DeWitt. Published 2018 by Ecco. Audiobook narration by Lorna Raver.

As some of you may know I was a pretty big fan of Patrick DeWitt's 2011 Booker-Prize-nominated comedy The Sisters Brothers. So much so that I honestly hesitated to read his latest, French Exit, for fear that I would be disappointed and not have the same delightful experience. Well I needn't have been afraid.

The premise of French Exit is a little less enticing, I have to admit- wealthy widow and man-child son lose their money and must spend their declining time in, of all places, Paris. Poor dears! But the physical location is only incidental to their situation; it barely even registers, honestly. They could be anywhere; what matters is what's going on inside them.

Frances Price is the stunning widow of Franklin Price and the survivor of a scandal that she caused when her husband died. Malcolm is their 30ish son, who still lives with his mother, has no profession and few relationships of any kind. There is Susan, a woman who loves Malcolm, and a cat, Small Frank, who seems attached to Frances for some reason. Frances has a friend named Joan, another wealthy woman who lends Frances and Malcolm her Paris apartment when Frances discovers that their money is gone and they are about to be evicted from their home. Quickly selling what possessions she can, Frances takes her son, her cat and a wad of Euros on a one-way cruise to the Continent, where she picks up a ragtag assortment of friends and enacts a plan.

Patrick deWitt's sense of black humor and his pitch-perfect character building, not to mention talent for the arch phrase and knowing wink of the pen (if there is such a thing) make this story absolutely delightful. I really enjoyed every minute. Lorna Raver's narration shapes the book into theater, with her slightly scratchy, mannered Frances and lumbering-dolt Malcolm especially good. The ending is predictable and the book takes a turn towards the bittersweet at its approach; nevertheless I was still shocked at the last-minute violence of it. It's just a wonderful book, frivolous in just the right way and serious when it counts.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary audiobook from libro.fm.

Review: WAITING FOR TOMORROW, by Nathacha Appanah

Waiting for Tomorrow, by Nathacha Appanah. Published 2018 by Graywolf Press. Translated from the French by Geoffrey Strachan.

Mauritian writer Nathacha Appanah first came to my attention with the release of 2011's The Last Brother, about a friendship between two boys on Mauritius during World War 2. That book was lyrical and haunting. Waiting for Tomorrow is set in present-day France and takes as its subject a tense marriage between a Frenchman and a Mauritian and an uneven friendship between two Mauritian women but lacks none of its predecessor's beauty.

Anita and Adam have been together for twenty years; they live together with their daughter Laura in the southwest of France though they met in Paris, a city where both felt like strangers. Anita came to France as an idealistic young woman dreaming of being a writer; Adèle also comes to France from Mauritius but she is older, jaded and has suffered a great tragedy. Adèle is undocumented and vulnerable. She works for a demanding French family as a nanny when she is hurt in a car accident and finds she can no longer tolerate the indignities of her life. She and Anita meet and forge a bond. Things go well until they don't.

When the story opens Adèle is dead and Adam is in jail. There is also something wrong with Laura. Appanah takes us back and forth through time, from when Adam and Anita meet to the series of events that change everyone's life forever. Since we know something terrible will happen, suspense drives the narrative and we long for that moment when it all goes wrong.

But in the mean time Appanah shows us transformations in all three main characters, their evolution and the changes that take place as they age and interact with each other and the French society in which they live. Through it all Appanah treats us to beautiful prose, lush descriptions of place and of the mindsets of her characters. The strength of the book for me is in these characters and the way Appanah shares their points of view with us one at a time. The only time I felt a little cheated was the act of betrayal that sets off the tragedy at the book's center. It seemed so trite. Or maybe it was meant to.

In any case I'm a fan for life of Appanah's if I wasn't already after the luminous Last Brother. Waiting for Tomorrow is a wonderful, unforgettable book, about the hearts of men and women and what it means to love someone, whether that person be a lover, friend or child. Even at the end, we know the story isn't really over, and these characters will exist in your mind long after you turn the final page.

Rating: BUY

FTC Disclosure: I did not receive this book for review.