20th Century Classic. Le
locataire was published in 1934 but not translated until 1983.
The Lodger –
Georges Simenon
It’s the early Thirties in Europe and the world-wide
economic slump has forced young people to extreme measures – such as going
overseas for work. A young Frenchwoman, Sylvie, leaves her family in the dreary
Belgian mining town of Charleroi for a job as a “taxi dancer” in places like
Cairo, Istanbul, and Bagdad. A young Turkish guy, Elie Nagéar, has left his
native country to do clinch a deal in – what else? – carpets. Sylvie and Elie
meet on the boat returning to Brussels.
November in Northern Europe is wet, blustery, leafless
and dismal. Elie comes down with flu and allows himself to be mothered and then
bossed around by his mistress Sylvie. Sylvie relieves him of a chunk of cash in
order to buy her mother, father, and sister in Charleroi some presents.
Inappropriate gifts and incongruous reactions to such gifts are a theme in this
little novel.
Sylvie’s father works crazy hours but gets steady pay
from the railway. Still, the wolf is never far from the door so Sylvie’s mother
takes in lodgers, mainly apprentices and poor foreign students from Poland,
Romania, and Russia. Simenon evokes a dreary lodging house with absolute
assurance because his mother took in lodgers during Simenon’s childhood. One
wonders if like the young Gant in Look
Homeward Angel, young Simenon couldn’t stand strangers in the house all the
time.
Anyway, though he has no history of dysfunctional family,
abuse or crime, violent or otherwise, Elie commits a brutal murder for money on
a train. Sylvie has him hole up in her
mother’s pension. Elie pays more than the other boarders so Sylvie's mother
likes him, while the other boarders are jealous that he gets more and better
food than they do. Sylvie’s sister, with the natural suspicion of a kid sister,
quickly senses something is up with Elie and Sylvie.
Elie‘s taking refuge boarding house is the lion’s share
of the book and the atmosphere is the main attraction. Simenon describes sights
and sounds and smells with his usual detached economy. On the boarders putting
on the feed bag: “Like an orchestra tuning up, there began a confused, steadily
increasing noise, the rattle of knives and forks on plates, the chink of
glasses.”
Ridden by anxiety at being caught and guillotined and exhausted
by depression that saps his energy, Elie never leaves the lodging. Sylvie’s
mother is torn between wanting him out of the house because he is semi-hysterical
and not paying rent and wanting to protect him because what’s left of her
material instincts is being stirred. I suppose. The reason is not really made clear.
And lack of clarity is the problem. We don’t detect a plausible
explanation was to why Elie turned into a cold-blooded killer. He didn’t have
any existential ructions that would send him over the edge. He even seemed used
to travel, which sometimes strikes angst into the inexperienced. Nor do we have
good motivation as to why Sylvie’s mother wants to mother him. He helps her in
the kitchen. He gives her a sense of the wider world with his travel stories. Not
enough motivation. One wonders if this major flaw kept the novel from being
translated for 50 years.
So this is worth reading for the atmosphere, but more
time and care with characterization and plotting would have been in order. In
his early career, Simenon was writing like crazy, so some projects were written
too damn fast.
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