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Dirty Snow

by Georges Simenon, Marc Romano (Translator), William T. Vollmann (Introduction)

3.96 of 5 stars 3.96 · rating details · 669 ratings · 106 reviews

Nineteen-year-old Frank Friedmaier lives in a country under occupation. Most people struggle to get by; Frank takes it easy in his mother's whorehouse, which caters to members of the occupying forces. But Frank is restless. He is a pimp, a thug, a petty thief, and, as Dirty Snow opens, he has just killed his first man. Through the unrelenting darkness and cold of an endles...more

Paperback, New York Review Books Classics, 272 pages

Published August 31st 2003 by NYRB Classics (first published 1951)

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Sep 06, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: misery-loves-company, nyrb

Simenon's ecstatically bleak Dirty Snow teeters on the fulcrum between four and five starness and only just barely comes to rest on the four star side. A lot of hand wringing and soul searching went into this rating (or at least two minutes' worth), but in the end I concluded that the only quality Dirty Snow lacks is that ineffable something-or-other that makes a novel grab you by the balls and shout, 'I'm a five star book, damn it! Hearken to my greatness!' The first thing I want to say about D...more Simenon's ecstatically bleak Dirty Snow teeters on the fulcrum between four and five starness and only just barely comes to rest on the four star side. A lot of hand wringing and soul searching went into this rating (or at least two minutes' worth), but in the end I concluded that the only quality Dirty Snow lacks is that ineffable something-or-other that makes a novel grab you by the balls and shout, 'I'm a five star book, damn it! Hearken to my greatness!' The first thing I want to say about Dirty Snow is actually something about two other books—namely Sartre's Nausea and Camus' The Stranger, both of which you can safely chuck on the book burning pyre because Dirty Snow is the definitive fictional rendering of existentialism. Unlike its more celebrated forebears, Simenon's work is actually alive—not just some nakedly abstract concept onto which character and plot are clumsily affixed. The protagonist Frank is a nineteen-year-old asshole in a presumably German-occupied country during World War II. (The location is appropriately indistinct. Like everything else, it's pointless.) Frank has no real friends and doesn't give a shit about anybody—not his fretful mother Lotte who runs a brothel out of their apartment, not Sissy the girl next door who's infatuated with him, and not Kromer his partner in crime. Not even himself. Entirely lacking in purpose, Frank thieves and murders without moral compunction; but his crimes are less profit-motivated or purely sadistic than they are strange, floundering assertions of self in an arbitrary and morally convoluted world. The last fifty to seventy-five pages of the book are a total downer, to the extent that the whole fucked-up punitive system of the occupation forces is basically a stand-in for life in general. We try to make sense of it all or to feel important or relevant in some small, stupid way, but hey... guess what? [Spoiler!] We're all a big ol' steamin' pile of nothin'. Good night. You've been a lovely audience!(less)

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Mar 05, 2012 Manny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone interested in the human condition

Recommended to Manny by: notgettingenough

Shelves: french, older-men-younger-women, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

- Ladies and gentlemen, watch carefully. Here's Frank, a young punk who lives in his mother's brothel in occupied France. He lies, drinks, steals, does black market business with the German officers, commits murder just for fun. Yes, feel free to touch him, he fucks his mother's girls every night while treating them like shit and is also trying to seduce the 16 year old virgin who lives across the hall.

Are you still watching... you may check that there is nothing up my sleeve... and now, using o...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Ginny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: romanzi, belgio, noir

Frank, il protagonista di questo noir psicologico, è un ragazzo di diciannove anni che per avviarsi “alla vita” e per emergere dall’anonimato di una squallida esistenza in un ambiente degradato, sceglie la via del delitto.
Come se avesse frapposto uno schermo invalicabile tra le proprie emozioni e ciò che lo circonda, tanto il rito iniziatico dell’omicidio, quanto la serie di crimini gratuiti che commette in seguito, sembrano non scalfire minimamente la sua freddezza e il suo cinismo.
Simenon af...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Ken rated it 5 of 5 stars

The subtitle of Dirty Snow should have been, Take That Camus! While not a specific counter-punch to Camus’ L’Étranger, Simenon’s dark story of a murderer with no regrets shares a similar bent, neither pulling any punches with the reader. Maybe that is why the book, along with Simenon’s The Widow, which was published in the 40s as well, is so often compared to Camus first masterwork. While L’Étranger is infused with Camus’ humanistic worldview and the influences of his Algerian upbringing, Dirty...more The subtitle of Dirty Snow should have been, Take That Camus! While not a specific counter-punch to Camus’ L’Étranger, Simenon’s dark story of a murderer with no regrets shares a similar bent, neither pulling any punches with the reader. Maybe that is why the book, along with Simenon’s The Widow, which was published in the 40s as well, is so often compared to Camus first masterwork. While L’Étranger is infused with Camus’ humanistic worldview and the influences of his Algerian upbringing, Dirty Snow one-ups the score with Simenon’s cold remove and stripping of existential underpinnings. There is no philosophy to be had here — the world is an ugly place and that’s the short of it.

To call Dirty Snow bleak would be an understatement. It makes Simenon’s own The Man Who Watched Trains Go By read like a Sophie Kinsella novel. You leave this book covered in a disgusting film of human degradation (and yet somehow, all credit to Simenon, eagerly along for the ride). This is a testament to Simenon’s skill at trapping us in the head of man we detest, unable to look away as he drags us through one vile act to the next. There is no letup. We are never given leave of his gaze, never allowed a moment to gasp for clean air. And when the tables are finally turned on this horrible creature, we see the downfall through the antagonist’s eyes, causing our perception of him to change.

Set in an unnamed country occupied by an unnamed aggressor post an unspecific war, the book introduces us to one Frank Friedmaier, a young man who would like nothing more than to make his mark by murdering one of his fellow human beings. And down the toilet of human emotions we go. Frank is in some ways the definitive Simenon antagonist and we’re stuck with him, because there is no protagonist for readers to cheer on. A thug and a petty thief, he is cold, self-centered, childish, and hell-bent on being the black hole in the lives of anyone he comes into contact with. From the moment in the opening chapter where he jams a blade into an officer from the occupying forces, there is no turning back. Having lost his “virginity,” Frank is unleashed. His ego inflates, leading to more emotionless acts of cruelty that he inflicts on anyone in his path.

Simenon’ genius — and what ultimately sets Dirty Snow above L’Étranger in my eyes — comes in the final third of the novel. It was only a matter of time before Frank butted heads with the occupying forces. And here we discover who the true bad guys are. That scumbag Frank, who we’ve grown to hate in the first 2/3 of the book, now seems small compared to these oppressors and what they do to their captives on a daily basis. Simenon is almost responding directly to Camus: sure, anyone can be a murderer, but there is always a bigger thug with a larger stick waiting in the wings. Having been written in the time of Gulags and Nazi camps, Simenon reminds us that there is murder and then there is Murder.

A slight spoiler warning here: At the end of the book, there is a weird note, which William T. Vollman points out in his afterword (and somewhat defends). While some may take this as a poor attempt at a silver lining, I think one could see another reading of it: Frank is out of his head. What he sees is not there, having been pushed to the limits by his aggressors, and knowing full well what fate awaits him. In those final moments, he is dreaming of the only positive future he can conjure. Whereas Meursault found happiness in the indifference of the world, Herr Friedmaier finds no such solace.

Pair with: Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light 2 by Earth – The perfect bleak soundtrack to Simenon’s stark, snow-bound nowhere Eastern-bloc country in occupied territory.(less)

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Dec 15, 2010 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Such a vile fucking book that by the end, notwithstanding Vollman's excellent afterward that allows a bit of introspective breathing, you feel like staying indoors quietly soaking in a tub of rubbing alcohol. Or drinking it. Simenon created with Frank F. a stunning portrayal of whatever kind of human Frank F. is supposed to be. Dirty Snow is about as dark as they get.

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Apr 12, 2012 Kwoomac rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, noir, complicated-protagonist, reviewed, social-commentary, translated-to-english, wwii

Wow. An incredible journey that takes the main character Frank from self-destruction to redemption. Frank, is an 18 year old, in an occupied country during WWII. He lives with his mother in a whorehouse and spends his time with thuggish losers. He's angry and without direction and so starts on a course that leads to his inevitable demise. He carelessly commits crimes and throws around money and seems to want to get caught.

He finally is caught and is brought to a school being used as a prison. Th...more

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Jan 08, 2013 J. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: simenon, noir-environs

This is a rare kind of Simenon, one that has two distinct parts that really never merge. The first is concerned with the noirish aspects of life under occupation during wartime, and the desperate and random acts of aggression that occur in that extreme situation. This is the dangerous, active and worldly part of Dirty Snow, that sets the narrative hooks which keep the reader involved for the second part.

The second part is a blurry descent into hallucination, cruelty and misunderstood motive, a p...more

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Dec 17, 2010 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Alan by: notgettingenough

Shelves: novels, read-in-2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. chilled me to the bone. It's amazing that the book I read before this (Main Street) was published in the same century, in fact only 20 odd years apart, for they are so entirely different. Main Street was about the possible effects, or the difficulties of 'civilising' a 'backwoods' community, charming and sad at the same time, the (First World) war a distant backdrop. Although beneath the surface racism lurks, everyone is moral, more or less as they see it. Here the (2nd world) war is very presen...more chilled me to the bone. It's amazing that the book I read before this (Main Street) was published in the same century, in fact only 20 odd years apart, for they are so entirely different. Main Street was about the possible effects, or the difficulties of 'civilising' a 'backwoods' community, charming and sad at the same time, the (First World) war a distant backdrop. Although beneath the surface racism lurks, everyone is moral, more or less as they see it. Here the (2nd world) war is very present - we are in occupied France - and everyone's life has been degraded, and morals are luxuries. The hero, Frank, is a nihilistic teenager who decides - on the first page - to kill someone, to see what it would be like. He lives with his mother, (but was brought up by a foster mother) who is a kind of whorehouse madam, dealing with the occupiers. Frank will sleep with the girls that come and go, but has an obsession with the father and daughter who live across the hall, an obsession he doesn't quite understand, and he allows the daughter, Sissy, who 'loves' him to think that he might be her boyfriend, taking her to the pictures etc, flashing the money and 'green card' that he has obtained from robbery, violence and intimidation. Halfway through he is jailed and the novel turns to a cat-and-mouse police procedural that is told entirely from Frank's p.o.v. and is excellent about the sensations of prison, the food, the view from his cell, his growing beard and the way he sleeps, sniffing his underarm to tell he's still him. Fucking brilliant stuff. Especially the way his mind works, his weird sense, not of 'honour' but of not giving anything away, of being 'hard'. The prison stuff reminded me a little of 'Hard rain Falling' although they are otherwise very different.

I'm at work and wasn't going to write this review until later when I can get some quotes together, but I just finished it on the train this morning and had to write something down about how the book had got straight into me like some mainlined drug. I will add, possibly change this review later..

later

I'm just repeating myself here, but let's face it, this is what i really like in a book, although books can thrill in other ways - the moments that you feel you are there, you are him, when for instance caught up in the heightened minutiae of prison life and everything the taste of the 'soup', the sound of prisoners being marched off to be shot, the feel of his knocked out teeth, the position of a desk in the interrogation room, the cigars smoked by the interrogator, the woman he glimpses in an flat across from the jail (a converted school), his various obsessions and strategies for keeping sane, all that enters you through the force or the elegance of the writing.

Hats doffed on every page. Gripping, sad and stinging, eye-opening, and all rings true.

I've just done my top ten books of 2010, but will have to add this to make it my top 12.

(less)

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Jun 23, 2012 Maria Grazia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: noir-francese

Non sono un'amante di Maigret, e per fortuna Simenon non è solo Maigret, come dimostra questo bellissimo libro completamente psicologico. In un anonimo paese nordeuropeo, invaso da un esercito di occupazione probabilmente nazista, si dipanano i destini di uomini e donne, che precipitano sempre più in basso. Su tutti svetta Frank, giovanissimo ragazzo di strada, figlio di una tenutaria di bordello, apparentemente privo di anima.
Eppure sarà l'unico che si riscatterà, incontrando l'amore e la morte...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Esdaile rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: french, french-novel, religiously-committed

Ce roman n'était pas de tout ce que j'ai attendu, je même pensa qu'il s'agirai de'une histoire de Maigret et un peu dans le genre d'Agatha Christie! Je pense que les pluspart des commentaires que j'aurais peu faire sont fait, pourtant en anglais! Je suis très supris que les commentaires ici sont en anglais et même que l'histoire soit traduit.

En somme C'est un roman comme fait pour le cinéma noire, c'est le portrait du mal, d'un homme vraiment mal et me faire penser à Jean Genet, à Sartre, à Drie...more

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Oct 28, 2012 [P] rated it 5 of 5 stars

Frank, the principle character in Dirty Snow, is the kind of guy HBO would commission a documentary about. In it he'd be sporting an orange onesie and would be about to be fried. You see, he's a rotter of monumental proportions. Murderer? Check. Rapist? Check. Violent bully? Check. Pimp? Check. Of course, these days, what with 50 Shades selling like unpleasant tasting hotcakes, misogynistic psychos are in vogue so one imagines that he'd get a fair few adoring letters from the ladies too.

The fair...more

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Apr 16, 2012 Nino Frewat rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-mystery, french-fiction

To read Simenon in his native language; to grasp his world, to indulge in every word he carefully selects, to capture his elusive characters is, without a doubt, to be privileged.

The story is narrated by an omni-present narrator from the point-of-view of its anti- (or is it modern?) hero, Frank Friedmaier.
Even though Simenon is one of the most respected crime writers, his plots are rarely constructed in the traditional crime or detective novel method. There are no shrewd detectives, no elaborate...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Tuck rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: noir

is frank friedmaier the darkest character ever created in fiction? could be (though this dude alex in stamm's "7 years" is pretty vile Seven Years though also, we sort of know WHY alex is a douche while with frank, there is just a big blank). set in wwii occupied city, we don;t know where exactly, nor by whom, but DO know the occupation has succeeded in turning each and every soul into a brutal monster. there has been much talk about what simenon was trying to accomplish with this novel, but one...more

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Feb 23, 2012 James Thane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Frank Friedmaier is not quite twenty years old. World War II is raging but for some reason that is never specified, Frank is a civilian and not a soldier. His country, apparently France, has been occupied by enemy forces. Most of the citizens are barely scraping by, but Frank lives in his mother's small whorehouse which caters principally to officers of the occupation army. Frank, his mother and the mother's whores have ample food and other necessities. Mainly, they have ample coal to stay warm...more Frank Friedmaier is not quite twenty years old. World War II is raging but for some reason that is never specified, Frank is a civilian and not a soldier. His country, apparently France, has been occupied by enemy forces. Most of the citizens are barely scraping by, but Frank lives in his mother's small whorehouse which caters principally to officers of the occupation army. Frank, his mother and the mother's whores have ample food and other necessities. Mainly, they have ample coal to stay warm through a bitterly cold winter. Needless to say, most of their neighbors hate them, but the neighbors are powerless to do anything about this situation since Frank's mother is obviously protected by the authorities.

Frank is totally self-absorbed and is determined to make a name for himself. He runs with a rough crowd and as the book opens, he kills a man just for the thrill of it. Frank is also insensitive to the women in his life, his mother included, and constantly takes advantage of the young women in his mother's "employ," totally heedless of any thoughts or feelings that the women might have. Frank is particularly insensitive to a young female neighbor who, for some inexplicable reason, has a crush on him.

Dirty Snow is a novel that contains a great deal of criminal activity but it is not a crime novel in the traditional sense. Rather, it is an exploration of character. We never really know for sure the forces that have combined to make Frank the young man that he has become. Was it the war? Was it the fact that he grew up the fatherless son of a woman who exploited other women? Was it the other low-lifes with whom he associated or some combination thereof?

Whatever the case, it's interesting in a sick sort of way to watch the progress of Frank's life through the period covered by the book. It's like watching a dreadful accident taking place in slow motion right in front of your eyes. It's not remotely pretty, but you can't look away. George Simenon has sketched some memorable characters and placed them in a well-conceived universe. The end of the book dragged a bit for me, but the first two-thirds of it will linger in my memory for a long time to come.(less)

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Feb 01, 2011 Unbridled rated it 5 of 5 stars

Having read one Inspector Maigret book, I did not understand how favorably Simenon measures next to any other writer of the 20th century. Almost 200 books is a state of authorship that leads to mixed results, but as a writer, Simenon's never a bore - he's a chronicler, an entertainer, a shifter, a grave digger, an adventurer, a truth seeker, a cruel-cruel eye - a craftsman's craftsman. Dirty Snow is not a Maigret money maker, not a commercial novel, but one of Simenon's 'literary' works; and wha...more

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Mar 28, 2012 knig rated it 5 of 5 stars

Eighteen year old Frank precipitates a Faustian (self) deconstruction in 1940s Nazi occupied France through a series of emotionless and cold blooded crimes: just because he can.

Allegations of the dehumanizing meta-force of war on the psyche have been made elsewhere: I do not concur. The Occupation provides a blurred panorama of props only for unleashing of the Furies: the protagonist was always going to be the apotheosis of a nature over nurture existenz. Any and all allusions to ‘Officers’ or...more Eighteen year old Frank precipitates a Faustian (self) deconstruction in 1940s Nazi occupied France through a series of emotionless and cold blooded crimes: just because he can.

Allegations of the dehumanizing meta-force of war on the psyche have been made elsewhere: I do not concur. The Occupation provides a blurred panorama of props only for unleashing of the Furies: the protagonist was always going to be the apotheosis of a nature over nurture existenz. Any and all allusions to ‘Officers’ or the occupation forces remains nebulous and ephemeral: Frank’s story ferments in a narratorial silo in that respect. For example, when he is arrested and detained on undetermined charges, the ensuing dream sequence quality of the denouement is unencumbered with details: who are these officers? Where exactly is he being held? What about the other prisoners? No answers are forthcoming, because Simenon isn’t asking these questions: his main preoccupation is with existential quandaries.

Which are, to me: what happens when you’ve reached the point when you’re done with life? The point where you realise you’ve achieved all you’re going to achieve, and you’re too weary to start a new field, when food is no longer succulent and the colour spectrum reflects only sepia and night and day are interchangeable quantities and emotions only come in one dimension: mono, and contact with other humans is unendurable. Do you wait patiently for your appointment at pearly gates or jump the queue?

Frank is a queue jumper (although it seems incongruous for one so young). Brazenly flaunting his crimes until his inevitable capture, his one obsession throughout seems to be a desire to connect with an enigmatic man called Holst. Vollman, in his astute afterword, seems to imply a homoerotic component to this. I do not concur, again. The Frank-Holst juxtaposition is something else entirely. The two men are polar opposites: Frank is a dissipated, uneducated, ennui-ed, aimless machinator, who has reached the limits of his potentiality and subconsciously realises this. Holst is erudite, righteous, and unflinching in the face of hardship: optimistic, perhaps. What of it, then? I don’t know. Why did the Taliban destroy the Buddhas of Bamiyan? Why did the Inquisitors burn books? Why did Aesop write ‘Sour Grapes’?

For some people, the realisation of unattainability is unacceptable. Better to destroy the potentiality of defeat rather than risk attaining it.

(less)

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Jan 23, 2009 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

whoa! not what i was expecting! after simenon's the widow, i assumed this similarly-premised book wouldn't amount to much, but i was totally wrong...

first and foremost, this is TOTALLY fucked up. as in proceed-with-caution level fucked up. after the first 100 pages, i was briefly tempted to abandon it on account of its vile-ness. but it uses its atrocities to its advantage. this is truly the sort of masterpiece only an asshole could write - full of accurate, hopeless observations about life at i...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Oliver Twist & Shout rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Se podría decir que hacia el tercer cuarto, quizá ya después del "golpe de los relojes", la novela sufre una pájara considerable y la amenaza de una caída en picado flota en buena parte de las hojas que siguen. No obstante, el renombrado giro final, sin duda le hace recuperar unos cuantos enteros. Es impactante pero justificado. Además, también me gusta esa falta de afectación y cursilería con la que está escrita la novela, cuyos mimbres, en manos de otro escritor más zafío, podrían haber sido u...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Charles Dee Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime

Not often can you say of a novel's protagonist that he amounts to nothing more than a human shit stain. Frank Friedmaier is a nineteen-year-old, fledgling career criminal living in an unnamed city in Nazi occupied France. In the opening scene he commits his first murder, an act he feels that like losing his virginity he needs to get out of the way. Other crimes and one repulsive act of betrayal follow, but what ties the reader to the book is Frank's abhorrent life and the convincing picture of l...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Ted rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-fiction, lit-french, fiction-of-wartimes

M’sieur, could I have a word please?
Yes, what is it?

We notice that you recently finished reading Dirty Snow. Would you care to answer a few questions about it?
Yes, I would like that. I think it might be more useful to me than you can imagine.

Well, first we have seen that you initially gave it 4 stars, then changed it to 2. Why was that?
I think my initial rating was a result of not wanting to appear dim-witted. But after a considerable amount of thought, I realized that I couldn’t give it 4 star...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Aprile rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Penetra nel profondo questa neve di Simenon. Agghiaccia. Qui non c'è l'analisi dell'uomo comune, del compagno di lavoro, del vicino di casa, del marito o della moglie - pur con le loro perfidie che portano in certi casi a situazioni estreme - ma ci si avvicina al filo dei pensieri e alle azioni di un ragazzo borderline all'inizio e outcast alla fine. L'analisi è spietata e cruda. A tratti ho provato le stesse sensazioni di quando lessi Trilogia della città di K. della Kristof che mi ha così scos...more

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Dec 28, 2008 Aaron rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: esoteric-favorites

i felt like my skull ought to have been bleeding by the time I finished this book. In many ways reminiscent of The Stranger, though far more insightful and developed, and consequently far more devastating. Considering the pace at which Simenon churned out product, it's amazing he found time to write something as fully fleshed out as Dirty Snow, a work that simply crushes the life out of anything else masquerading as "crime fiction".

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Oct 30, 2012 Ubik 2.0 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ma è un giallo? E se non lo è, ha poi importanza...?

Nella mia graduale, colpevolmente tardiva, scoperta dell'opera di Georges Simenon, continuo a domandarmi perchè mai questo autore sia così strettamente legato nell'immaginario collettivo alla definizione di scrittore di romanzi "gialli" per eccellenza. Probabilmente sarà per il suo ciclo del Commissario Maigret, perchè i romanzi "non-Maigret", cui finora mi sono dedicato, poco hanno a che fare col genere.

Prendiamo ad esempio questo "La neve er...more Ma è un giallo? E se non lo è, ha poi importanza...?

Nella mia graduale, colpevolmente tardiva, scoperta dell'opera di Georges Simenon, continuo a domandarmi perchè mai questo autore sia così strettamente legato nell'immaginario collettivo alla definizione di scrittore di romanzi "gialli" per eccellenza. Probabilmente sarà per il suo ciclo del Commissario Maigret, perchè i romanzi "non-Maigret", cui finora mi sono dedicato, poco hanno a che fare col genere.

Prendiamo ad esempio questo "La neve era sporca": nelle sue pagine vi sono in effetti due omicidi, ma nè l'autore nè il lettore si pongono le domande: Chi è stato? Perchè? In che modo? in quanto tutto si svolge per così dire davanti ai nostri occhi e l'enigma semmai riguarda ciò che è nella mente contorta del protagonista e non certo le sue azioni delittuose.

Qualcosa del genere capitava anche nello straordinario "L'uomo che guardava passare i treni", cui per certi versi questo romanzo si avvicina, sebbene il malinconico protagonista Kees Popinga ispirasse una sorta di comprensione e compassione tanto quanto il Frank di "La neve..." appare invece un personaggio discretamente antipatico, anche se molto attuale.

Molto attuale perchè (come nella nostra peggior cronaca nera...) le sue azioni criminali non derivano dalla spinta di pulsioni irrefrenabili bensì dalla più totale mancanza di freni inibitori e inoltre danaro e oggetti di lusso paiono finalizzati non al proprio piacere quanto alla loro natura di simboli del lusso, ancor più significativo se si è circondati da un mondo di miseria dove anche una palata di carbone per la stufa può essere oggetto di invidia.

Comunque sia, La neve era sporca sconcerta per il continuo mutare di prospettiva tanto da fare assumere improvvisamente importanza, nella mente di Frank e nell'economia del romanzo, a comparse che diventano personaggi come nella prima parte Holst, il tranviere che ogni giorno va al lavoro con la sua gavetta, o addirittura, nei capitoli finali, una donna, appena visibile in una finestra al di là del tetto di un carcere, che si dedica ogni giorno alle faccende domestiche e di cui non sapremo mai neppure il nome.

Questo straniamento finisce con l'essere la cifra principale del libro accompagnando il destino del protagonista nel suo procedere autodistruttivo, nell'atteggiamento sprezzante e nella contorta percezione di un sè stesso oscillante fra fugaci sensi di colpa e autogiustificazione.(less)

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Sep 19, 2012 Sandra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

E’ il secondo Simenon che leggo, il secondo senza Maigret.
Mentre lo leggevo non ho potuto fare a meno di pensare quanto sia magistrale Simenon nello scavare nelle pieghe dell’animo umano, sporco come la neve che ricopre il paesaggio vago ed indeterminato che fa sfondo alla storia, un paese soggetto ad occupazione straniera, realizzando uno studio introspettivo del protagonista di una tale profondità che ti senti risucchiato nella sua mente. Frank è ancora un ragazzo, ha diciannove anni, ha alle...more E’ il secondo Simenon che leggo, il secondo senza Maigret.
Mentre lo leggevo non ho potuto fare a meno di pensare quanto sia magistrale Simenon nello scavare nelle pieghe dell’animo umano, sporco come la neve che ricopre il paesaggio vago ed indeterminato che fa sfondo alla storia, un paese soggetto ad occupazione straniera, realizzando uno studio introspettivo del protagonista di una tale profondità che ti senti risucchiato nella sua mente. Frank è ancora un ragazzo, ha diciannove anni, ha alle spalle un’infanzia difficile, è figlio di una prostituta tenutaria di una casa d’appuntamenti, che l’ha abbandonato da piccolo con una balia, garantendogli esclusivamente il denaro e il benessere. Questa serie di circostanze ha influenzato la sua personalità: Frank è impermeabile ai sentimenti, indifferente ai valori della vita, ha fede esclusivamente in sé stesso; egli è un provocatore del Destino, che non si è mai accorto di lui, ed allora escogita la soluzione: per sentirsi vivo, per gridare al mondo la sua esistenza decide di uccidere a caso una persona. Questo è il fulminante inizio del libro, e in un crescendo Simenon porta l’abiezione di Frank a livelli ancora più elevati. Una mente spietata, lucida nella sua indifferenza al bene e al male, quella di Frank, mi ha ricordato Stavrogin de “i demoni”.
Soprattutto nella parte finale lo scavo nei pensieri di Frank è profondo e coinvolge il lettore, che è lì, dentro di lui. Il tutto con la scrittura essenziale ed elegante di Simenon.
In questo buio, in questa sporcizia che tutto ricopre e abbrutisce, c’è una piccola luce nel finale, un barlume di coscienza sembra illuminarlo, e quando ho terminato la lettura, ho pensato: “non è mai troppo tardi”.
Il caso ha voluto che abbia appena iniziato la lettura di “omicidi americani” e il primo omicidio riportato nel libro è l’assassinio di un ragazzino di 14 anni avvenuto a Chicago nel 1924 da parte di due rampolli dell’alta borghesia americana. Ebbene, i due, scoperti e rei confessi, hanno dichiarato di aver ucciso il ragazzo solo perché per primo si era presentato sulla loro strada nel giorno in cui avevano deciso di compiere l’omicidio: avevano architettato tutto, con un piano perfetto nei minimi particolari. Dovevano uccidere “per un esperimento scientifico”, le possibili vittime erano tre ragazzi loro vicini di casa, il Destino ha deciso per il quattordicenne. Leggendo questo fatto realmente accaduto, come non pensare a Simenon ? E alla natura dell’uomo sempre uguale? (less)

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Jan 06, 2009 Troy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nyrb-books, black-bile

Keeping up with the dark books of 2008, I read a few books by Georges Simenon, a prolific author who wrote an inhuman amount of books (something like 400). For years he's been known for his detective stories staring his Inspector Maigret, which are supposedly masters of the kind. But he's also had an underground reputation for a series of noirs he called "romans durs" (literally, hard novels) of which Dirty Snow is the best one that I've read.

Dirty Snow follows a young violent thug who kills -...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Erik Grotz rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

I love Simenon and fell in love with his writing when my Grandmother introduced me to one of his many Maigret mysteries when I was a teenager. Since then, I've discovered the depths of his other (non-series) writings and feel much more intrigued and amazed by them. This book is one of the best so far. This is solid noir, dark and mysterious as the inhabitants of the cafes in an occupied city. The protagonist is as far from a hero as you could mention, and yet you feel drawn to follow his every m...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Tim Freeman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: crime-fiction

this is about as "noir" as you can get with actually falling into a black hole. No hardboiled heart of gold standard issue Sam Spade types need apply for the lead role in this offering by the French master Simenon. Only the meanest ray of light ever peeks through the suffocating cloak painted by the author. Sparse characters, almost just brief pencil sketches, but skillfully done with enough detail to know who they are but leaving much for us to fill in and to guess at. Its not even clear where...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Michael Flick rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: worst

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 16, 2010 Mighelon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook

Frank ha diciannove anni e vive con sua madre, che gestisce una casa di appuntamenti. Non ha mai avuto paura di nessuno e, ad un certo punto, sente il bisogno di uccidere, solo per una sfida con se stesso. Quando ha individuato la vittima, e la sta aspettando appostato sulla neve, incontra un suo vicino, l'unica persona che lo incuriosisce. La sfida diventa a questo punto con lui.. Il vicino lo ha visto, verrà a sapere dell'omicidio e intuirà cosa è successo, ma Frank sa che non parlerà. Sarà so...more

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Apr 12, 2012 M Thompson rated it 4 of 5 stars

I forward everyone's attention to David's review, as I believe he nailed it. "Ecstatically bleak" is precisely right.

A word of advice to all those approaching this book for the first time, especially those, such as myself, who may not read much hard-boiled noir. Stick it through the thuggish and hammy, eye-rollingly misogynistic opening pages. It does indeed start off in a stale, bit-rate James Cagney kind of way, before becoming something much deeper and bleaker and blacker. Yes. Hard to shake...more

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About Georges Simenon

Simenon was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. His oeuvre includes nearly 200 novels, over 150 novellas, several autobiographical works, numerous articles, and scores of pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. Altogether, about 550 million copies of his works have been printed.

He is best known, however, for his 75...more

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