mercoledì 24 febbraio 2016

SIMENON SIMENON. THE CREAM OF THE CROP



Similar thoughts on the best story about Maigret and the big novel by Simenon. 

SIMENON SIMENON. LA CREME DE LA CREME
Des réflexions similaires sur la meilleure histoire de Maigret et le grand roman de Simenon. 

SIMENON SIMENON. IL MEGLIO DEL MEGLIO
Riflessioni sulle analogie tra le migliore storie di Maigret e i romans durs di Simenon


As I worked my way through the full series of Maigret works, friends and acquaintances would often ask me to suggest the best story to read as an introduction to the man and his methods. I couldn’t come up with a good answer and still don’t have one. I eventually concluded my problem stemmed from the fact that I don’t think any one individual work is outstanding. Rather, the series is outstanding. It’s impressive the way Simenon maintains consistency throughout, especially since he has to keep a lot of balls up in the air for a long, long time. Of course, there are inaccuracies. The confusion about the Maigret apartments in Paris (Boulevard Richard-Lenoir and Place des Vosges) and the switching of brandies (plum and raspberry) are two examples. Whether deliberate or unconscious, these twists add to the fun of reading the stories, for one can play detective, too.
Curiously, my recent concept parallels Simenon’s earlier vision of his “big” novel. When introducing an ongoing series of 100 print interviews, Eric Maisel, PhD, paraphrases Simenon as follows:
‘Georges Simenon, the Belgian novelist who wrote the Inspector Maigret mystery series and five hundred novels altogether, penned very short novels. When asked when he would finally write his “big” novel, Simenon explained that his “big” novel was the mosaic of his small novels. His “big” novel already existed: you just had to accept its form.’
This citation appears on his blog site, Mad in America, in a 25.01.2016 article The Future of Mental Health Interview Series (L'Avenir de santé mentale, une série d'interviews) with the following link: 
http://www.madinamerica.com/2016/01/the-future-of-mental-health-interview-series/
David P Simmons

2 commenti:

  1. C'est dans un interview accordé à Carvel Collins pour une série d'entretiens intitulée The Art of Fiction qu'apparaît la formulation de Simenon: "Je n'écrirai jamais un grand roman. Mon grand roman est la mosaïque de tous mes petits romans." On peut trouver le texte de cet interview ici: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5020/the-art-of-fiction-no-9-georges-simenon.

    RispondiElimina
  2. l intervista in italia usci' in un libro intitolato "intervista con georges simenon"con introduzione di bruno gambarotta
    lo trovate qui http://www.minimumfax.com/libri/scheda_libro/301

    RispondiElimina

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