Review: The Widow (1942) by Georges Simenon

Don't pick up Simenon's The Widow expecting a page-turneing thriller of a noir story. Quite the opposite, I would go so far as to call it pure literary noir, noir at its most elemental. The opening lines evoke in me the feeling of classic film noir lighting though that is certainly something I'm imposing and not Simenon's intent. I can see the black and white scene in my mind and get a feeling of foreshadowing.

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A man walking. One man, on a stretch of road three miles long cut slantwise every ten yards by the shadow of a tree trunk, striding unhurriedly from one shadow to the next.

Jean Passerat-Monnoyeur has just been released from prison where he served time for murder. Boarding a bus of women returning from market, he and Tati, the widow Couderc,  make eye contact, a silent but certain connection is made, and the inevitable is set in motion. Without a word being exchanged between them, Jean gets off he bus when Tati does and offers to help her carry her packages to the farm.

He is soon employed to assist with the farm work and moves into a room in the attic. Tati is soon established as a strong willed, plain spoken, and thoroughly domineering personality. She isn't unpleasant but she wants the farm run efficiently expects the work done with no slacking off. She isn't attractive being dumpy and with a hairy mole which becomes a frequent focus of Jean's attention. Also living at the farm is Tati's deaf and, perhaps or perhaps not, slow witted father-in-law old Couderc. Even as Tati takes Jean into her bed she matter-of-factly lets him know that she uses sex to keep the old man in line so he won't throw her out.

Tati is in constant conflict with the old man's two daughters, one of whom lives within sight of the farm. The daughters want the old man away from Tati's influence and Tati out of the house. The local daughter, Francoise, has her own daughter, Felicie, a single mother who Tati calls the slut. Tati feels that Felicie is the real danger to her relationship with old Couderc.

Life on the farm settles into a routine with Jean proving a compliant worker. But under his passive and obliging outward appearance, Jean's destiny is calling.

We learn that, when a youth, an impressionable Jean was essentially destroyed by a sadistic teacher and he gave up, deciding that nothing mattered anymore and his life became aimless. His obsession with a women lead to the murder from which he narrowly escaped execution. Soon Felicie is all he can think of and Felicie reciprocates, sort of. This doesn't escape Tati's notice and she fears that Jean will leave her.

Jean experiences an unwelcome flood of memories and with them the recognition that what he did once, he will do again. If he hadn't committed murder, he would have done something else and he is powerless to stop,. He is doomed to live a cycle that will .. start all over again! And then again, and again! He had had enough.

The Widow is an unusual example of noir. A large part of it is taken up with a detailed view of farm life in a small French town. And Jean moves through his new life placidly, seemingly content to spend his days doing nothing else. But like the woman in his past, Felicie awakes the feeling of inevitability in Jean and moves toward his destiny and ultimately relief from himself.

Jean has a nihilistic and fatalistic outlook on life marking him as a classic noir protagonist. I enjoyed the way Simenon built the story which, at times, made you feel that everything could turn out okay for everyone. But that was never likely.

Here are two blog reviews that I enjoy and recommend you visit. 

The review on The NoirWhale blog breaks down the elements that blog author Chad de Lisle feels makes this a noir novel: Noir Crime Fiction | The Widow by Georges Simenon at The NoirWhale

His Futile Preoccupations is another favorite review site I visit, It provides more background  on Simenon and The Widow. The Widow by Georges Simenon at His Futile Preoccupations