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French Exit

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About this listen

A comedy/tragedy of manners. The new novel from the Man Booker-short-listed author of The Sisters Brothers.

Frances Price - tart widow, possessive mother and Upper East Side force of nature - is in dire straits, beset by scandal. Her adult son, Malcolm, is no help, mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there's their cat, whom Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband, an infamously immoral lawyer whose gruesome tabloid death rendered them social outcasts.

To put their troubles behind them, the trio cut their losses and head for the exit. Their beloved Paris becomes the backdrop for a giddy drive to self-destruction, helped along by a cast of singularly curious characters: a bashful private investigator, an aimless psychic and Mme Reynard, friendly American expat and aggressive houseguest.

Brimming with pathos, warmth and wit, French Exit is a one-of-a-kind tragedy of manners, a riotous send-up of high society and a moving story of mothers and sons.

©2018 Patrick de Witt (P)2018 Audible, Ltd Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Tear-jerking
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Very Good novel to read, but very irritating to listen. The narrator should not attempt to indicate the gender of the speaker by employing a homogeneous, rasping, low, growly tone of voice for men. Editors and authors should make a note of this. This is not a radio play, please read in normal voice. We are intelligent enough not to need highlighting of who is speaking. It spoils the experience.

deWitte went from the toxic masculinity in Sisters Brothers to the equally toxic, entitled behaviour of a lot of members in the moneyed classes. Very well observed.

Please do not try gender voice

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