“The Ladies of Concarneau” by Georges Simenon: book review

Georges Simenon, after careful preparation work, wrote his novels in eleven days. I wish I were good enough to use the same number of lines to present this book to you, but I’m not, and I’m afraid I’ll need a few more.

“The Misses Concarneau” by Georges Simenon

This masterpiece by Simenon is full of humidity and saltiness. A humidity that condenses on the windows of this small Breton community turns into drops and begins to slide on the inclined plane of Time. A saltiness that corrodes, but at the same time crystallizes, relationships that cannot escape the tyranny of Destiny. But also, and above all, the unforgettable figure of Jules Guérec, a man-child, skilled in imposing his will on the sea, but completely incapable of escaping the storms unleashed by the three sisters who act as his mother.

A short novel, which draws its extraordinary narrative strength precisely from the measure. Not a word too many to make the reader the spectator of a drama that stitches together feelings of guilt and illusory loves, both ineffective in opposing Fate, the true protagonist of the novel. Almost an evil Deus ex machina, which from the first pages, rather than the last, descends onto the scene and imprisons the protagonists in the grip of their gray existential masks.

One of the Belgian master’s most bitter novels, one of the most unforgettable.

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“The young ladies of Concarneau” by Georges Simenon, Adelphi Edizioni. Riccardo’s books