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A review by briandice
Dirty Snow by Georges Simenon
5.0
In his afterword to this novel, William T. Vollmann opines "As technology and corporatism impel us more and more to treat one another like things, loyalty and decency approach irrelevance, except between intimates, and sometimes even then." Dirty Snow is certainly a book that compels a reader to feel much the same as WTV does about what happens to the human soul in the trash compactor crush of Money and Civilization - but there are many books that tell this story. So why read this one?
Simenon's particular genius is giving us a protagonist loathsome yet relatable and portrayed with a subtlety that belies his horrific actions. Frank is like the rest of us - his need to count, to be known / recognized isn't anything new. Simenon puts us in the mind of a creature that - by the end of the story - we find real discomfort in just how human a monster can be. The snow falls where it wants, when it wants, whether mankind wishes it or no. In the end all we can do is make it filthy.
Simenon's particular genius is giving us a protagonist loathsome yet relatable and portrayed with a subtlety that belies his horrific actions. Frank is like the rest of us - his need to count, to be known / recognized isn't anything new. Simenon puts us in the mind of a creature that - by the end of the story - we find real discomfort in just how human a monster can be. The snow falls where it wants, when it wants, whether mankind wishes it or no. In the end all we can do is make it filthy.