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A review by laurenbdavis
The Train by Georges Simenon
5.0
Most people are familiar with Georges Simenon as the creator of Commissaire Maigret, but the man wrote over 400 novels. The Train was first published in 1961, re-issued here by Melville House Publishing as part of their "Neverlink Library" (which I encourage all serious readers to explore). It is arguably one of the most accomplished of his work. And that's saying something.
Set in France, in this novel we meet Marcel Feron, an Everyman, an ordinary man, even perhaps a bit of a bland person, in the midst of extraordinary times -- the outbreak of war, just as the Germans are invading. Marcel's mother disappeared when he was young, after being labelled a collaborator during WWI. His father returned from the war broken and alcoholic. Marcel himself has suffered TB as a young man and never expected to live a normal life, with wife and children, but has managed to create just such a life, and now his wife is pregnant with their second child.
As word spreads that the Germans are advancing, Marcel takes his wife and daughter and abandons his home and his radio repair shop. He is not, however, surprised this is happening. Ever since the alarming events of his childhood, he felt such a destiny was awaiting him, and so he settles into a strange calm. It's a testament to Simenon's writing -- the 1st person narration is the perfect choice -- that we are drawn so far into Marcel's reality, and never question his state of mind.
On the refuge train he is separated from his wife and child, but meets a tragic-looking girl in a black dress. With her, and in this aberrant parenthetic span of time, Marcel finds passion. The book might have no more than an albeit satisfying psychological study of an ordinary man in wartime, but the end of the book is so shattering (I shan't give it away), that it transforms the work into something deeply thought-provoking, not to mention unsettling -- a trait of Simenon's work.
Recommended.
Set in France, in this novel we meet Marcel Feron, an Everyman, an ordinary man, even perhaps a bit of a bland person, in the midst of extraordinary times -- the outbreak of war, just as the Germans are invading. Marcel's mother disappeared when he was young, after being labelled a collaborator during WWI. His father returned from the war broken and alcoholic. Marcel himself has suffered TB as a young man and never expected to live a normal life, with wife and children, but has managed to create just such a life, and now his wife is pregnant with their second child.
As word spreads that the Germans are advancing, Marcel takes his wife and daughter and abandons his home and his radio repair shop. He is not, however, surprised this is happening. Ever since the alarming events of his childhood, he felt such a destiny was awaiting him, and so he settles into a strange calm. It's a testament to Simenon's writing -- the 1st person narration is the perfect choice -- that we are drawn so far into Marcel's reality, and never question his state of mind.
On the refuge train he is separated from his wife and child, but meets a tragic-looking girl in a black dress. With her, and in this aberrant parenthetic span of time, Marcel finds passion. The book might have no more than an albeit satisfying psychological study of an ordinary man in wartime, but the end of the book is so shattering (I shan't give it away), that it transforms the work into something deeply thought-provoking, not to mention unsettling -- a trait of Simenon's work.
Recommended.