Georges Simenon

I reread Georges Simenons' "Sunday" recently. Simenon is a remarkable author. He transcends 'Frenchness' (actually he was Belgian) to universal appeal. There are some explorations that can be done along this line of thought. There are not that many European authors that I like (Albert Camus and Umberto Eco stand out, even then only some of their books). I don't know if this is because I'm too rooted in my Anglo-american reading background, or because the authors are not universal. It would be interesting to know how the reverse works -- do European readers take more easily to English (or other like Indian, South American) writing ?


Back to Simenon. His writing is completely about human nature. There is an endless creativity in his writings and an infinite variety of situations and responses. His Inspector Maigret series tends to be lighter and and more about creative murder situations :-). They can be a lot of fun, in the "Light reading for the serious reader" category. His other books, like the ones in the photograph, can be quite dark.

Definitely someone to try if you are on the literary trip.

Some stuff about Simenon

PS: Salon has an interesting article that gives you some feel of how the literary scene in France works