deWitt, Patrick
"Frances Price - tart widow
possessive mother
and Upper East Side force of nature - is in dire straits
beset by scandal and impending bankruptcy. Her adult son Malcolm is no help
mired in a permanent state of arrested development. And then there's the Price's aging cat
Small Frank
who Frances believes houses the spirit of her late husband
an infamously immoral litigator and world-class cad whose gruesome tabloid death rendered Frances and Malcolm social outcasts. Putting penury and pariahdom behind them
the family decides to cut their losses and head for the exit. One ocean voyage later
the curious trio land in their beloved Paris
the City of Light serving as a backdrop not for love or romance
but self destruction and economical ruin - to riotous effect. A number of singular characters serve to round out the cast: a bashful private investigator
an aimless psychic proposing a seance
a doctor who makes house calls with his wine merchant in tow
and the inimitable Mme. Reynard
aggressive houseguest and dementedly friendly American expat."--