From the Bookshelf of Around the World in 80 Books…

The Strangers in the House

Georges Simenon,

P.D. James (Introduction)

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Oct 13, 2023 Tony rated it did not like it

Shelves: translated-fiction, novels, project-fit, setting-france

This non-Maigret novel by the hyper-prolific Belgian author might as well be one -- given that its protagonist is another middle-aged, misanthropic alcoholic. He's a lawyer in the town of Moulins (almost in the dead center of France), part of the local gentry, from a prominent family, living in a huge house, barely working. But he's spent the past 18 years in self-exile -- his wife ran away with another man, and ever since, he's been holed up with his wine, books, and cigarettes, largely ignorin This non-Maigret novel by the hyper-prolific Belgian author might as well be one -- given that its protagonist is another middle-aged, misanthropic alcoholic. He's a lawyer in the town of Moulins (almost in the dead center of France), part of the local gentry, from a prominent family, living in a huge house, barely working. But he's spent the past 18 years in self-exile -- his wife ran away with another man, and ever since, he's been holed up with his wine, books, and cigarettes, largely ignoring his daughter.
One night he is disturbed by a gunshot, and comes to discover an unknown man has been killed in the other wing of the house. Apparently this is all connected to his daughter and her circle of teenage friends, who have been using the house as a kind of clubhouse without his knowledge. When her boyfriend is accused of murder, the lawyer is roused from his stupor to defend the boy for no other reason than he can just tell he's innocent...

That's kind of about it in terms of plot -- the book plods along, describing the psychological interiority of the lawyer as he tries to rouse himself from his decades of dissipation. The reader comes to know the circle of teenagers, their relative social standings, and what passes for the seedy underbelly of a provincial town. Others seem to find a lot more psychological depth to this than I was able to locate, and I just didn't buy many of the motivations. The final courtroom confrontation is a particularly cliché construction in which the murderer is badgered by the lawyer into breaking down and confessing.

But the most troubling aspect of the book comes in the final twenty pages, where the story deploys a clear anti-Semitic message in the denouement. This can be no accident given that Simenon wrote the book just as Nazi Germany was sweeping across Europe (occupying France right when the book was published, although the war or current politics are never alluded to in the book), and that as a young journalist in the 1920s, he wrote some pretty nasty "Jewish peril" articles in Belgian newspapers. I'm surprised not to see this aspect of the novel more widely mentioned in other reviews. ...more

Like · see review

Feb 05, 2018 Idit marked it as to-read

Mar 06, 2018 Terri marked it as own

Shelves: french-fiction, writer-georges-simenon

Apr 23, 2023 Lizzy Siddal (Lizzy’s Literary Life) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2023, in-2023, purchases-2023

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions

Photos Videos

Send invite Members Polls