lunedì 21 novembre 2016

SIMENON SIMENON. COLLABORATOR OR ANTAGONIST/3

Some after-the-war opinions on Simenon’s two hats 

SIMENON SIMENON. COLLABORATEUR OU ANTAGONISTE/3 
Quelques opinions d'après-guerre sur ces deux casquettes de Simenon 
SIMENON SIMENON. COLLABORAZIONISTA O ANTAGONISTA/3
Qualche opinione del dopo-guerra su queste due facce di Simenon



18 months into WWII, while Simenon was donating money to destitute military families, sending his books to prisoners of war, and donating many for wartime charity sales, he wrote his mother: “For my part, I have confidence in the [German] offensive, and I hope the English will not hold out much longer.” If not the words of a potential collaborator, they sound at least like those of a sympathizer. 
Although Paris was liberated in August 1944, fighting in France continued into the early months of 1945. Charles de Gaulle announced the end of World War II in France on May 8, 1945, 18 days after Simenon was cleared of the collaboration charges against him. However, he was destined to dance on coals heating the controversy for years and years to come.
For example, on the first day of her 2002 murder trial, Dr. Geneviève Simenon testified that her great-uncle Georges had collaborated during the war and she had the documents to prove it. (To my knowledge, they were never produced.) More recently, Patrick Roegiers - inaccurately and inappropriately, according to his critics - fanned the almost extinguished coals in his 2014 book, L’autre Simenon. That the work is a novel suggests a defense.
My take on the collabo matter at this point, just over halfway through Pierre Assouline’s biography Simenon, is that Simenon did not cooperate traitorously with the enemy, rather he profited nicely from the wartime situation.
But what do the experts think? For starters, Assouline states that Simenon was “neither really collaborative nor completely resistant, even if he flirted successively with both tendencies between the start and the end of the Occupation.” His opinion seems to be that “Simenon remained Simenon: an opportunist above all.” 
And the following is what Mr. Google, my good friend, told me: 
Fenton Bresler (1983)Two reviewers of his biography seem to concur that, although Bresler apparently referred to Simenon’s “tunnel vision” regarding the realities of the war, he “avoided the subject of collaboration.” 
Patrick Marnham (1992):  one reviewer’s summary says, Simenon weathered World WarIInicely in his rural home, performing some minimal civic functions which were later (and probably not quite justifiably) construed as collaboration with the Vichy regime.” Another indicates, “The novel explores the fine line artists sometimes trod when it came to collaboration with the Nazis. 
Michel Carly (2005): after his published investigation in response to Assouline’s “certain ambiguity, he comments, If I had found tangible proof of collaboration with the enemy, I would certainly have published it. But the investigation testimonies clearly show that ‘Simenon the collaborator’ simply never existed.” 
Stephen Knight (2012): in a Simenon book forward, he states, “It is much more likely that, as Maigret does in the novels, Simenon kept his head down, did the right thing at close quarters, and, like many French, waited for the storm to pass…. and so could be picked on afterwards by enemies. 

David P Simmons

domenica 20 novembre 2016


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SIMENON SIMENON. WITHOUT AMERICA, NO MAIGRET?
There is not only America of 2016, November 9th

SIMENON SIMENON. SENZA L'AMERICA,  NIENTE MAIGRET ?
Non c'è che l'America del 9 novembre 2016...
SIMENON SIMENON. SANS L'AMERIQUE, PAS DE MAIGRET ?
Il n'y a pas que l'Amérique du 9 novembre 2016…


The assertion seems bold, but the question may be asked: would Maigret exist without America? ...
First, without the discovery of America by the Europeans, they wouldn’t have known tobacco. Without tobacco, no pipe, and could you imagine Maigret without his pipe? Without the puffs of smoke that feed his ruminations, Maigret wouldn’t be what he is… Without this little tube that is like an extension of the character, Maigret would be incomplete. Maigret's pipe is the essential symbol of the chief inspector, even more indispensable for him than his overcoat or his hat.
Second, if Simenon had not left for America, maybe he wouldn’t have kept on writing his hero's adventures. After the nineteen novels of the Fayard period, for which Simenon had created a character he considered as a necessary auxiliary to his literary ascent, and after the Gallimard intermission, you would think that Simenon didn't need Maigret anymore, and that he would get along without him, whatever could happen…
If Simenon hadn’t left Europe, maybe he had stayed at Gallimard, and he could have become a sole "romans durs" writer, and completely dropped the detective novels. But the novelist did head out for America, and, in the same time that he was crossing the line, a kind of nostalgia was gradually emerging… Having forgotten war time France, there only remained great memories of the '30's, the crazy Montparnasse, the little streets in Montmartre, the strings of lights on the Champs-Elysées, and the smell of calvados in the bistros… And there was an essential character to be put in this setting: chief inspector Maigret, the perfect symbol of Paris world… Thus, as Lacassin wrote: "the distance will make the reconciliation easier between the author and a character he was holding off." And it's true that, as time goes by, Simenon will get closer to Maigret, giving him his own questionings about mankind, letting him feel the same sensations as his, endowing him with his own memories… And for that, it took Simenon to leave for exile in distant America. Without the American episode, Maigret would perhaps have been only the hero of about twenty pre-war novels… (by Simenon Simenon)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------QUAI DES ORFEVRES, LA SECONDA (O LA PRIMA?) CASA DI MAIGRET?
Quante ore passa il commissario nel palazzo di giustizia?

QUAI DES ORFEVRES, LA DEUXIEME (OU LA PREMIERE ?) MAISON DE MAIGRET ?
Combien d'heures le commissaire passe-t-il au Palais de Justice ?
THE QUAI DES ORFEVRES, MAIGRET’S SECOND (OR FIRST?) HOUSE?
How many hours does the Chief Inspector spend at the Palais de Justice?

Quante volte Simenon mette in scena Maigret nel suo ufficio o nelle stanza di Quai des Orfèvres, e quante ce lo presenta a casa sua al 132 di boulevard Richard Lenoir?
La risposta è facile. Lo vediamo molto più spesso a palazzo di giustizia che nella propria abitazione. Qualcuno direbbe che è ovvio, lo scrittore racconta le indagini del commissario, e di conseguenza il suo posto di lavoro, che non la casa dei coniugi Maigret. Ma a pensarci bene la domanda giusta sarebbe: la sua famiglia è M.me Louise, o la compagnia di ispettori che lavorano con lui? Di Quai des Orfèvres sappiamo quasi tutto. Di boulevard Richard Lenoir sappiamo ben poco, non conosciamo i vicini, non ci pare che lì sotto casa ci sia un bar, una brasserie o un bistrot dove il commissario si fermi qualche volta a bere un...blanc, un calvados, una birra... Sappiamo che non c'è l'ascensore, perché M.me Maigret di solito sente il passo pesante del marito salire gli scalini e lo previene nell'aprire la porta. Ma insomma i dettagli che Simenon ci fornisce in un caso e nell'altro sono ben diversi. Certo ci sono dei casi che Maigret malato, dirige da casa sua o meglio dal suo letto, sotto le amorevoli cure della moglie. Ma i momenti in cui vediamo il commissario a casa sua sono la mattina quando si sveglia, la sera quando rincasa e cena insieme alla moglie e qualche volte la domenica. Ma la sua vita, le sue emozioni, i suoi momenti positivi e quelli negativi, le sue arrabbiature, il rapporto con i suoi ispettori, hanno come quinta le mure di Quai des Orfèvres. (by Simenon Simenon)
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L'ENIGME DE MAIGRET

L'ENIGMA DI MAIGRET
Un piccolo gioco per i maigrettofili 
THE MAIGRET RIDDLE
A little game for the Maigret fans



Enigme no 11
Pour dormir, Maigret porte, selon les romans, une chemise de nuit ou un pyjama. On peut imaginer que c'est une des choses que Mme Maigret lui met dans sa valise lorsqu'il doit faire un court voyage dans le cadre d'une enquête. Mais il lui est arrivé, pris par les événements, de ne pas avoir eu le temps d'emporter cette valise. C'est pourquoi, dans un certain roman, il devra dormir à l'hôtel en se couchant, sinon tout nu, du moins en caleçon: "Il avait laissé sa fenêtre ouverte parce qu'il avait chaud. Mais, comme il n'avait emporté aucun bagage et qu'il était couché sans pyjama, il se retrouva transi". De quel roman s'agit-il, et où se trouve Maigret ? Un petit indice: le commissaire est à la poursuite d'une suspecte… A vous de chercher ! La réponse la semaine prochaine dans ce magazine…

Solution of the riddle No. 10
The novel Maigret et l'homme du banc (Maigret and the man on the bench) resumes the same theme as in On ne tue pas les pauvres types (Death of a nobody): a man (Thouret in the novel, Tremblet in the short story) is leading a double life, without his wife knowing about it, and both have a second home, where they keep canaries.
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