Calgary Herald

KINSHIP WITH CHARACTER

French Exit Author will Be in town for WordFest

- ERIC VOLMERS

At first, Patrick deWitt had modest expectatio­ns for Francis Price, the formidable and tart-tongued, upper-society widow at the heart of his newest novel, French Exit.

Her distinct voice had been with the author for a number of years, joining other restless halfcreati­ons that were milling about his head.

“It’s like this room filled with people waiting to be used and Francis was in that room,” says deWitt, in an interview with Postmedia from a book-tour stop in New York City. “I had thought that maybe she would be a background character, someone in a party scene or something like that who has one witty line. But she wound up just taking centre stage with this book.”

DeWitt counts Francis Price alongside Eli Sisters, the gunslingin­g hit man from his 2011 Giller-winning western The Sisters Brothers, as a rich character that he simply “lucked into.” So Francis’s planned cameo turned into a starring role in French Exit, deWitt’s satirical and very funny fourth novel about an Upper East Side mother and son who find themselves suddenly broke and exiled to Paris.

The author was happy about this turn of events for a number of reasons, including the fact that he felt a connection to Francis.

“I feel a certain kinship with her,” says the Vancouver Island native, who now lives in Portland, Ore. “I think I have a mean streak. I suppose everybody does. I have a mean streak that I suppress because it’s not socially acceptable and it just makes for slow-going in a life, I find; to be blunt, to be too honest. But it was really fun for me to just let that meanness come out. She’s very judgmental ... and curt. In another life, I think I could have been more like Francis. I will have to settle for spending time with somebody like that as opposed to actually inhabiting the persona.”

Francis is not without her good qualities, of course. For one, she is completely devoted to her adult son Malcolm, who exhibits seriously dysfunctio­nal man-boy tendencies that tax his long-suffering fiancée. The book finds the mother and son, alongside their elderly cat Small Frank, suddenly decamping to Paris after discoverin­g they have no money.

The cat, Francis believes, is possessed by the irritated spirit of her late husband, a ruthless lawyer and distant patriarch who expired at an inopportun­e time for his wife. Her seemingly callous response to Frank’s sudden death is seen as scandalous and arguably what starts her tragic tumble from high society.

The novel’s journey involves a cruise from New York to Paris, on which Malcolm meets a troubled clairvoyan­t named Madeleine. She becomes part of a new circle of eccentric acquaintan­ces the two fall in with while living far beyond their means in Paris. Much of the humour in the book comes from a certain obliviousn­ess Francis and Malcolm possess about how the rest of the world lives.

Still, French Exit, recently shortliste­d for this year’s Giller Prize, is not just a simple farce about daft rich people getting their comeuppanc­e.

“It’s not a world that I know intimately, so it felt somewhat like voyeurism,” says deWitt, who will be appearing at Calgary’s WordFest on Oct. 14. “But then that’s how a lot of my work feels for me, just being on the outside looking in and wondering what it’s like. I wasn’t necessaril­y trying to say anything about people of wealth. I think that it was just more of a narrative device: somebody who is used to a particular way of life and suddenly they have to live in another way. From the novelist’s point of view, or from the storytelle­r’s point of view, this is something you can get into. It’s a test for these people. How do they behave in light of this enormous change in their life?”

The novel’s roots go back to deWitt’s initial attempt at a followup to The Sisters Brothers. The author wanted to follow that sly western with a modern story and found himself fascinated with the financial crimes of Bernie Madoff. The book was meant to be about a corrupt businessma­n who flees to Paris to escape arrest.

DeWitt worked on the novel for a few years, even temporaril­y moving to Paris for research. Eventually, he became disenchant­ed with the book and instead penned Undermajor­domo Minor, a strange but funny gothic folk tale that takes place in a dilapidate­d castle in a fictional country. But the research he did in Paris did prove useful for French Exit, which many critics are calling deWitt’s take on a comedy of manners. (The back-cover blurb refers to it as a “tragedy of manners.”) This again highlights deWitt’s penchant for

cheerfully skewering traditiona­l genres.

He admits it’s something he enjoys, but also says this reputation for playful genre-hopping is overdiscus­sed in relation to his work. It’s fun, but it’s not central.

“It’s nice to have a different painting in the background each time,” he says. “But other than that basic visual, there’s not that much more to it. You think of a place where you want to spend the next year-and-a-half to three years. Well, maybe it would be nice to stay in Paris, or maybe it would be nice to be on a tropical beach, or maybe it would be nice to be on a horse.

“I’m looking for something new, but it’s not some crucial aspect of my work, necessaril­y, and I’m not really saying anything about these genres other than just a sense of being aware of their existence.”

Ihave a mean streak that I suppress because it’s not socially acceptable and it just makes for slow-going in a life, I find; to be blunt, to be too honest.

 ??  ??
 ?? TYLER ANDERSON ?? Patrick deWitt is shortliste­d for the Giller Prize for his new novel, French Exit. The Portland, Ore.-based author says he worked on book for a few years, even temporaril­y living in Paris to aid in his research.
TYLER ANDERSON Patrick deWitt is shortliste­d for the Giller Prize for his new novel, French Exit. The Portland, Ore.-based author says he worked on book for a few years, even temporaril­y living in Paris to aid in his research.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada