Major Yammerton: Simenon biography

Georges Simenon: Maigrets and the Romans Durs - Lucille Frackman Becker

This is a short biography of the prolific author and a critical overview of his detective novels and existential noir thrillers. Call me a credentialist, but I don’t read biographies of literary figures unless the biographer has authority. And it's clear Becker does have the credentials. She was professor of French literature at Drew University (New Jersey) and she worked to found the Simenon Collection there.

Readers that would like this biography would be fans of the remarkable character Inspector Maigret, the Parisian homicide detective who starred in about 75 mystery novels and hundreds of movies and television episodes. Despite Simenon's appalling literary output – almost 200 penny-dreadfuls as apprentice work and almost 400 novels with his name on them – Simenon is considered a great 20^th century writer and never caught heat for his prolificness, unlike Dickens, Thackeray, or Trollope.

Becker says, “The cultural importance of Simenon's oeuvre derives not from its success in terms of financial ratings or of records established, but from its success in conveying to the reader insights into the human condition.” In this short biography, she is tactful in covering the subject’s mother issues and resulting misogyny. She also provides a judicious examination of the subject in occupied France and his cautious decision to leave France in 1945 and live in the US for almost 10 years.

In clear language that is easily understood by a lay reader, she examines both the Maigret stories and stories of people living lives of quiet desperation. She makes the excellent point that what distinguishes the two genres is that the conclusions of Maigret novels offer the reader the hope of peace in a stable world while those of the psychological novels offer, well, sighs of resignation in a universe indifferent when it’s not being hostile.

I’d recommend this authoritative and readable biography.

The Roman Durs

Simenon’s romans durs (hard novels) often begin or end with a crime but are not mysteries. They are concise, clinical examinations of human beings who’ve left temperate responses to life in the rear view mirror, driven by the shock of aging, altered circumstances or irrational responses to more or less normal occurrences.

In the 1980s, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich released a boatload of romans durs in English. But at the time US culture wasn’t into home truths (Walkman, moonwalking, Magnum PI, Rubik’s Cube, neon, Chariots of Fire, big hair, preppies, aerobics, sleepwalking president, etc.). The books were quickly remaindered, ending up in discount stores like Edward R. Hamilton.

Times change. I daresay thinking people might get a charge out of existential thrillers in our days, in the shadow of the pandemic, endless senseless violence, and sanctimonious bastards strangling liberty and safety.

Click on the year published to go to the review of the existential noir pulp.

· The Nightclub / L'âne rouge (1932)

· Tropic Moon / Coup de Lune (1933)

· The Lodger / Le locataire (1934)

· Aboard the Aquitaine / 45° à l'ombre (1936)

· Talatala / Le Blanc à lunettes (1937)

· Donadieu’s Will / Le Testament Donadieu (1937)

· The White Horse Inn / Le Cheval Blanc (1938)

· The Family Lie / Malempin (1940)

· The Delivery (1941)

· Uncle Charles has Locked Himself in / Oncle Charles s'est enferme (1942)

· The Truth About Bebe Donge / La Vérité sur Bébé Donge (1942)