Patrick de Witt

I think of it, coming into it, I know that I was thinking of a very specific type of comedic writing, something that is often referred to as a comedy of manners.

And typically this is writing that is coming from the Commonwealth.

And, for example, I had a couple of different authors and also one filmmaker in mind, but somebody who was at the forefront of my mind during the writing of French Exit was Evelyn Waugh, somebody who I came to in life as a reader and discovered, I suppose, two or three years ago.

I came away from reading Evelyn Waugh's books with a great admiration for his wit and his ability to sort of skewer and gleefully criticize the upper crust.

I really enjoyed the way he handles that whole world, exposing just sort of the silliness of some of our society's rules and games that we play.

I also had Jane Bowles in mind, whose one novel that she wrote is called Two Serious Ladies.

And I think in particular I was considering the scenes in my novel whereby this apartment in Paris becomes increasingly filled with this sort of group of ragtag characters.

And one sort of enters the apartment after the other.

And nobody ever questions whether this is proper etiquette or realistic.

It's completely ridiculous, almost like a Marx Brothers skit or something.

But the apartment becomes filled to the brim by the end of the book.

And this is something that occurs in Jane Bull's novel, Two Serious Ladies, and I just really admired the way she handled the ridiculousness of that scenario.

So she was on my mind.

Lastly, there are subtler influences, which I could address too, but the third artist that I had in my mind in the writing of this book was the American filmmaker named John Cassavetes.

And

I know that this is a show about books, but I feel inclined to point out that this is somebody who is in my mind as well.

And I think with John Cassavetes, I've always admired the way he handles scenarios whereby a group of adults devolve in the course of the night, usually with the assistance of copious amounts of alcohol.

And this is something that is echoed in this book several times.

But there's an ugliness to that.

scenario, as we all know, but there also can be moments of real wonder and delight and high humor.