Arrested for snorting cocaine off a car bonnet, award-winning author and quintes
sential dilettante Frederic Beigbeder reflects on his troubled childhood, while
spending a night in police custody. Confined to a cell, Frederic Beigbeder's see
ks escape in his childhood memories, only to discover he can recall just one. Fr
om this, he reconstructs both his past and that of his family; the glamour of Si
xties Paris and his father's playboy life in New York, so distinct from the expe
riences of his soldier grandfather, whose lifespan Frederic has now exceeded.
His arrest all over the tabloids, Frederic wonders if the time has come to grow
up. 'A French Novel' is a belated coming-of-age tale, profoundly tender and cha
rmingly ironic.
