<p>Arrested for snorting cocaine off a car bonnet award-winning author and quintessential dilettante Fr&#233;d&#233;ric Beigbeder reflects on his troubled childhood while spending a night in police custody.</p> <p>Confined to a cell Fr&#233;d&#233;ric Beigbeder&#8217;s seeks escape in his childhood memories only to discover he can recall just one.</p> <p>From this he reconstructs both his past and that of his family; the glamour of Sixties Paris and his father&#8217;s playboy life in New York so distinct from the experiences of his soldier grandfather whose lifespan Fr&#233;d&#233;ric has now exceeded.</p> <p>His arrest all over the tabloids Fr&#233;d&#233;ric wonders if the time has come to grow up. &#8216;A French Novel&#8217; is a belated coming-of-age tale profoundly tender and charmingly ironic.</p>