3 best books by Georges Simenon

One of the authors that best fits the definition of a writer par excellence is Georges Simenon. The collection of stories that this author was treasuring through his journeys with journalistic intent resulted in a fruitful production, a work extended over 200 novels, counting some editions under pseudonym.

It can be said that this Belgian author born in 1903, and died in 1989, dedicated a large part of his life to that narrative set that encompassed the detective novel and other types of fiction with greater transcendental weight from an intimacy enshrined with older people's narratives. claims.

Like any detective novel writer, Georges created his main character, the protagonist who would go through so many proposed cases that always met the expectations of his avid readers. The character in question was called Commissioner Maigret, Jules Maigret. His investigations spanned more than 70 novels and quite a few short stories. So we find a character at the height of Hercule Poirot, from Agatha Christie, at least in terms of his extended literary performance, despite the fact that his role was closer to that of a Pepe Carvalho, of Manuel Vazquez Montalban. Undoubtedly a benchmark of the crime novel for many other future authors as stated by himself John Banville (aka Benjamin Black).

3 Recommended Novels by Georges Simenon

The innocent look

We start with a novel not at all police, to mislead the staff 😛 When an author like Simenon discovers himself capable of writing things other than what his recognition dictates, he ends up insisting on carrying out a novel project in which he leaves his soul. In this novel Simenon left his soul and great sensitivity.

The character of Louis Cuchas, the youngest of a series of several siblings, and raised among the shortcomings of a humble family, is discovering the world around him. In a way, a man made by himself from the earliest childhood is a treasure if he manages to direct that discovery towards a sublimated expression such as art. Louis Cuchas ends up being a painter, his ability to represent the world from his emotions and his brushes amazes everyone.

Discovering Louis is to reconcile with that same child that you were, relearning everything that was forgotten in the most authentic moment of our lives: childhood.

The innocent look

The effect of the moon

Simenon's traveling spirit always brought him new perspectives to tell surprising cases in exotic locations. In this novel we travel to Gabon. Its capital, Libreville, still maintains those intense ties with French colonialism ... to the point that Joseph Timar, as a white European type, resembles a character with certain rights over and above the inhabitants themselves. Adèle, the owner of the Hotel Central where Joseph is staying, ends up captivating him and leads him on a journey through deep Gabon.

On that particular journey into the unknown, Joseph succumbs to the effect of the moon, an affectation that resembles a deep delusion. Everything that happens on that trip ends up acquiring a sinister tone where victims and absolutely amoral events accumulate. The problem for Joseph is that, in his situation, he will have severe difficulties discerning the truth.

The effect of the moon

The canelo dog

Within the very extensive production around the curator Maigret, many novels can be considered as brilliant. In my opinion, this is his best work, an investigation that at times acquires surrealist overtones. An assassination attempt on a great personality from the town of Concarneau, in French Brittany.

With the arrival of Maigret, the facts are precipitated, it seems as if the criminal was waiting for him to rush into his macabre action. Concarneau hides something. Among the streets of this small town, Maigret senses some secret that escapes him.

If a simple brown dog can guide you to that necessary point of light, welcome. A novel that contains certain notes of the most current crime novel, with sex, drugs and underworlds that at times emerge into reality, like gloomy clues to hell.

The canelo dog

Other recommended books by George Simenon…

belle's death

The peaceful life of Spencer Ashby, a school teacher in a small town in the state of New York, comes crashing down the morning that Belle Sherman―daughter of a friend of his wife whom the couple had been hosting for some time―is found. dead in her house.

Being declared the main suspect in the investigation, this naive, shy and somewhat self-conscious man knows firsthand the humiliation of police interrogations while being ostracized by his colleagues and the hostility of his neighbors. And it is that, as much as Ashby proclaims his innocence, everyone believes that he is the murderer; even his wife begins to doubt him. How long will it take for him to collapse under the weight of such suspicion? What is a person capable of when he feels completely cornered?

Three bedrooms in Manhattan

When they meet by chance one night in a Manhattan bar, Kay and Franck are two souls adrift. He, an actor who is close to fifty and whose glory days are far away, tries to forget his wife, who has abandoned him for a younger man. She, who has just lost the room she shared with a friend, has nowhere to spend the night...

Will their immediate mutual attraction be enough to make them forget the wounds of life? Jealous of Kay's past, afraid of losing her, as insecure of her as he is of himself, Franck is about to spoil the new opportunity that her love seems to offer him. In Three Rooms in Manhattan, Simenon enters the heart of the big city on the trail of these two vagabonds who cling, oblivious to space and time, to an amour fou.

Three bedrooms in Manhattan

The green shutters

Safeguarding windows and privacy in equal measure, shutters used to be seen more frequently earlier. Metaphors of that same world of doors inward where one can open or close them depending on whether one wants to expose them to the world or close at the slightest glimpse of light coming from outside. This story compares that longing for some colorful green shutters to always keep open, once everyone finds their necessary peace of windows inward.

When Émile Maugin, a famous veteran actor, discovers that a heart problem seriously threatens his health, he decides to reflect on his life. Arrogant, brusque, and cynical, yet at heart generous, he reigns as a tyrant over the small group of devoted subjects who surround him, including Alice, his very young second wife.

The fear of death, however, looms over him inevitably and leads him to dream of making an old aspiration of his first wife come true: to live in a house with green shutters, a symbol of material success but also of the peaceful security that always exists. has eluded it. Will he be able to recognize the happiness within his reach before it's too late?

the green shutters
5/5 - (4 votes)

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