French Exit

Patrick deWitt published his first novel, Ablutions, in 2009, and his work has gained a reputation for both dark humor and insight. With his second novel, The Sisters Brothers, deWitt began experimenting with genre, and his next two books, Undermajordomo Minor in 2015, and French Exit in 2018, followed suit. With each of these novels, deWitt focuses on a particular genre and its conventions, using its typical characteristics as a way of both exploring and subverting the genre itself.

The Sisters Brothers is, in many ways, a typical Western novel. It uses many of the genre’s conventions, taking place in the typically Western setting of the American West, California and Oregon, in 1851. The defining characteristic of Westerns is the wide-open setting of the American West, and the often desolate and barren nature of the landscape. Against this backdrop, Western literature often features violence and criminality, which deWitt exemplifies in the older of the Sisters brothers, Charlie, who is, typically for the genre, a remorseless criminal with an uncontrollable alcohol addiction. However, in deWitt’s hands, the novel also becomes a way of questioning many of those conventions and stereotypes, resulting in a thoughtful exploration of masculinity. Eli, the younger of the Sisters brothers, is contemplative and sensitive, a startling contrast to his more genre-appropriate brother.

With his third novel, Undermajordomo Minor, deWitt explores the genre of fables and fairy tales. He does so with an incorporation of Gothic elements, such as a dark castle full of secrets. The story follows the rollicking momentum of a classic adventure story, complete with mad aristocrats, a beautiful maiden, and a contest for her favor. However, deWitt pushes back against the genre in his treatment of these elements—they are, in many cases, nonsensical, and, told through the perspective of a young outsider, these inconsistencies are undeniable.

French Exit, deWitt’s fourth novel, has a tagline defining it as a “tragedy of manners.” Although there is no such genre, this is a reference to (and subversion of) another genre—the comedy of manners. This genre has existed since the advent of early Greek drama but became better known and further developed by the work of Molière and, later, the plays of Oscar Wilde. A comedy of manners satirizes social classes by observing them in their milieu. Stylistic conventions include witty dialogue and banter, innuendo, and irony, all of which deWitt utilizes in French Exit. His indirect characterization echoes that of the genre—rather than commenting on the hypocrisies and behavior of the characters explicitly, this style merely shows the scenes without comment, but in such a way that the conclusions to be drawn are self-evident. However, what makes this book a tragedy of errors instead of a comedy also has its roots in genre. A tragedy, by theatrical definition, must end unhappily and typically involves the demise of the protagonist. The novel ends with Frances’s death by suicide, qualifying it as a tragedy.

French Exit also has absurdist elements. Absurdism explores the idea that all action is ultimately meaningless and futile because life itself is inherently purposeless. Like the comedy of manners, absurdism uses satire to make its points, and the dark humor of French Exit is typical of absurdist fiction, as are some of the supernatural and fantastical elements of the novel, such as Madeleine’s ability to see a person’s death, and Franklin’s possession of the cat, Small Frank.