La Tête D’Un Homme was my introduction to Georges Simenon and his very own Hercule Poirot – Jules Maigret. The extracts at the end of this Lecture Facile version of the book claim that Simenon had already written 200 novels and about 1000 short stories by the time he was 26 years old. That averages to 80 pages a day. Sounds like way too tall a claim to me, but if it has to be believed, I’d say his practice is most visible in the structure of his novel and the skill of his storytelling.
As is common in murder mysteries of the time, I found that the book went a bit in circles and had quite a few loose ends and unnecessary plotlines. The final reveal was somehow both surprising and expected. What I mean is that the ending was only surprising because not enough evidence had been revealed to the reader for them to come to the conclusion on their own or for them to have been satisfactorily deceived. So much necessary information was not revealed to us that the killer could very much have been anyone and the story would have still worked. That’s what made the ending (or any ending really) pretty predictable.
Yet, I would say that Simenon’s ability to maintain tension is excellent. Despite its drawbacks, the book kept me hooked till the very end. Simenon writes each scene as if he were writing a movie – the characters and their movements are captured as if they were happening right there on our mind screens. The only thing missing was dramatic Bollywood 80s music in the background of fight scenes, jailbreaks, and chase sequences.
The tag on this book says its French level is B2, but I thought it was significantly easier, perhaps even a B1.1. I almost did not check the dictionary at all on this one, and I caught myself forgetting I was reading in French.
This is a good read as long as you don’t overthink the plot and the reveal.
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C’était seulement après avoir lu le roman entier que j’ai été informée à la célébrité de cette série des romans et du personnage de Jules Maigret. Appelé juste Maigret dans ce roman, le commissaire est très populaire dans le domaine de « pulp fiction. » Les extraits à la fin du livre font une déclaration que Georges Simenon avait déjà écrit presque 200 romans et 1000 contes et nouvelles avant qu’il ait eu 26 and.
Je ne sais pas que cette affirmation soit vraie ou non – ça semble trop gros à croire – mais je pense que cette pratique de Simenon est évidente dans ce roman. Le roman a une structure très commune dans des roman de ce genre et cette époque – une structure circulaire qui a beaucoup de détails à régler. À la fin du roman je me sens qu’il n’y avait pas assez d’évidence pour que Maigret ait conclu qui était l’assassin.
Pourtant, c’est peut-être grâce à la pratique de Simenon d’écrire beaucoup (et trop) qu’il a la bonne compétence de créer et entretenir la suspense.
De plus, cette édition du livre est dans la forme facile, modifié au niveau B2. J’ai pensé qu’il était un peu plus facile que ce niveau-là. Il était assez facile de lire, même si je suis au niveau B1.
Enfin, je voudrais dire que ce roman soit assez amusant si vous ne pensez pas trop aux détails.