Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Mount TBR #10

I read this book for Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2019.

French title: Les Innocents
First Published: 1972
Englished: Eileen Ellenbogen, 1972

The Innocents – Georges Simenon

Married, with two teenaged children, steady income from a creative work, comfy apartment in Paris a long way from country origins, George Célerin believes he’s got it made. But the sudden death of his wife Annette in a traffic accident gets Célerin to examining his life, his marriage, his relationships with other people. And we know in Simenon’s existential thrillers that the process of examining a hitherto unexamined life reveals disagreeable truths.

Célerin realizes that he missed red flags. In bed, Annette is frigid. When they are married Annette tells him “We’ll always be good friends.” In contrast with universal custom in France, after the birth of their first, she continues to work as a social worker with the poor, old, and afflicted. And Annette is killed on rue Washington, a street where the poor, old, and afflicted do not live.

Like I said, our protagonist was warned but he was besotted with love, affection, and trust and protected by other innocents who didn’t want his innocence disillusioned and naively assumed their secret would never get out.

Like the other psychological thrillers, Simenon writes a short, simple, efficient little novel, raw and straightforward. In this novel, an ordinary man's disturbing confrontation with his own evasion of responsibility begins when his confidence in a spouse and their marriage is shaken up. Simenon argues that unless we can preserve our ignorant, silly shelter of innocence with work and love or the usual distractions, we will inevitably find contentment to be fragile and tranquility transient. Simenon reminds us that we are mortal; that the Fate can strike at random when we expect it the least; that we don’t control our health or our property or other drivers; that we are, all of us, alone.

Until, at least, the dog drops her leash in our lap.


Click on the year published to go to the review.
·         The Nightclub  / L'âne rouge (1932)
·         Tropic Moon / Coup de Lune (1933). English should have been Moonstruck!
·         Talatala  / Le Blanc à lunettes (1937)
·         The White Horse Inn / Le Cheval Blanc (1938)
·         The Family Lie / Malempin (1940)
·         Uncle Charles has Locked Himself in / Oncle Charles s'est enferme (1942)
·         Act of Passion / Lettre à mon juge (1946)
·         The Reckoning / Le Bilan Malétras (1948)
·         Aunt Jeanne / Tante Jeanne (1951)
·         A New Lease of Life / Une Vive Comme neuve (1951)
·         The Burial of M. Bouvet  / L'Enterrement de Monsieur Bouvet (1952)
·         Dirty Snow / La Neige était sale (1953)
·         The Magician / Antoine et Julie (1956)
·         The Premier / Le Président (1958)
·         The Grandmother / La Vieille (1959)
·         The Fate of the Malous / Le Destin des Malou (1962)
·         The Old Man Dies / La mort d’Auguste (1966)
·         The Man on the Bench in the Barn / La Main (1968)
·         The Rich Man / Le Riche Homme (1970)
·         The Disappearance of Odile / La Disparation d'Odile (1971)
·         The Glass Cage / La Cage de Verre (1973)
·         Aboard the Aquitaine / 45° à l'ombre (1979)



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