The Widower

By Georges Simenon

Book Overview

A husband returns home from work as usual and is shocked to discover that his devoted wife has killed herself This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0028TVPL4
• Release Date: January 1965
• Publisher: Penguin,
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

"Was that what Jeanne had understood?"

I am a particular fan of detective fiction. Part of this has its roots in the "all you need is a girl and a gun" approach to story telling that I like very much. Part of this is that the detective story is such an excellent way to explore the world around the characters. The middle class can be effectively examined, with the eye of the detective serving as the proxy for the reader. These often amount to "everyone has a story" kind of books. The recurring character is often relatively broken-- qualified to participate as investigator, but not as a integrated participant in the drama of everyday life. European crime fiction (and here I mean more the continent than the UK) is often very nice, serving as an exploration of the procedural bureaucracy of small town Europe. There is generally a focus on changes in tradition and the generation gap. The crimes are more likely to be stoic and petty as opposed to serial killers and other high drama. Simenon and his Maigret series has long been my favorite example of this kind of book. Luckily for me, Simenon was amazingly prolific as an author. He published over 200 novels, more than 70 of which featured Maigret. The Widower is not a Maigret novel, is not even really detective fiction. It is one of his so-called psychological novels. I have read one other of this type by him, The girl with a squint. With both of these books I have the same reaction: well-written, but slight. In The Widower, we actually have a kind of detective story. A man who thinks that he knows his wife struggles to understand what prompted her suicide and the apparently uncharacteristic behavior around her suicide. As the book unfolds, Simenon explores the question of how much we are ever able to be to another person. Can you save anyone? Can you understand anyone? Can you know anyone? Can you be blamed in this kind of tragedy? Quite rightly, no clear answers are offered. The book is covered in a cloud of misunderstandings, awkwardness and loneliness. The pacing of the book feels more like a Novella than a novel. Although the shorter length works well in the Maigret detective stories, I could not help but feel that The Widower could have used a little more heft. On the other hand, I could not say for sure what Simenon would have added. The translation by Robert Baldick was not obtrusive. I suspect that the book is difficult to find now. I bought it used in the middle of the midwest US somewhere. It is worth picking up if you find it-- particularly if you already are familiar with Simenon as a writer.