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The Man Who Watched Trains Go By
Kees Popinga is an average man, a solid citizen who might enjoy a game of chess in the evening. But one night, this model husband and devoted father discovers his boss is bankrupt and that his own carefully tended life is in ruins. Before, he had watched impassively as the trains swept by; now he catches the first one out of town and soon commits murder before the night is out. How reliable is even the most reliable man's identity?
Georges Simenon (1903-1989) was born in Liege, Belgium. He went to work as a reporter at the age of fifteen and in 1923 moved to Paris, where under various pseudonyms he became a highly successful and prolific author of pulp fiction while leading a dazzling social life. In the early 1930s, Simenon emerged as a writer under his own name, gaining renown for his detective stories featuring Inspector Maigret. He also began to write his psychological novels, or romans durs - books in which he displays a sympathetic awareness of the emotional and spiritual pain underlying the routines of daily life. Having written nearly two hundred books under his own name and become the best-selling author in the world, Simenon retired as a novelist in 1973, devoting himself instead to dictating memoirs that filled thousands of pages.
Georges Simenon (1903-1989) was born in Liege, Belgium. He went to work as a reporter at the age of fifteen and in 1923 moved to Paris, where under various pseudonyms he became a highly successful and prolific author of pulp fiction while leading a dazzling social life. In the early 1930s, Simenon emerged as a writer under his own name, gaining renown for his detective stories featuring Inspector Maigret. He also began to write his psychological novels, or romans durs - books in which he displays a sympathetic awareness of the emotional and spiritual pain underlying the routines of daily life. Having written nearly two hundred books under his own name and become the best-selling author in the world, Simenon retired as a novelist in 1973, devoting himself instead to dictating memoirs that filled thousands of pages.
203 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1938
About the author
Georges Simenon
1,945 books1,969 followersGeorges Joseph Christian Simenon (1903 – 1989) was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret.
Although he never resided in Belgium after 1922, he remained a Belgian citizen throughout his life.
Simenon was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. His oeuvre includes nearly 200 novels, over 150 novellas, several autobiographical works, numerous articles, and scores of pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. Altogether, about 550 million copies of his works have been printed.
He is best known, however, for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret. The first novel in the series, Pietr-le-Letton, appeared in 1931; the last one, Maigret et M. Charles, was published in 1972. The Maigret novels were translated into all major languages and several of them were turned into films and radio plays. Two television series (1960-63 and 1992-93) have been made in Great Britain.
During his "American" period, Simenon reached the height of his creative powers, and several novels of those years were inspired by the context in which they were written (Trois chambres à Manhattan (1946), Maigret à New York (1947), Maigret se fâche (1947)).
Simenon also wrote a large number of "psychological novels", such as La neige était sale (1948) or Le fils (1957), as well as several autobiographical works, in particular Je me souviens (1945), Pedigree (1948), Mémoires intimes (1981).
In 1966, Simenon was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.
In 2005 he was nominated for the title of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian). In the Flemish version he ended 77th place. In the Walloon version he ended 10th place.
Although he never resided in Belgium after 1922, he remained a Belgian citizen throughout his life.
Simenon was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. His oeuvre includes nearly 200 novels, over 150 novellas, several autobiographical works, numerous articles, and scores of pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. Altogether, about 550 million copies of his works have been printed.
He is best known, however, for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret. The first novel in the series, Pietr-le-Letton, appeared in 1931; the last one, Maigret et M. Charles, was published in 1972. The Maigret novels were translated into all major languages and several of them were turned into films and radio plays. Two television series (1960-63 and 1992-93) have been made in Great Britain.
During his "American" period, Simenon reached the height of his creative powers, and several novels of those years were inspired by the context in which they were written (Trois chambres à Manhattan (1946), Maigret à New York (1947), Maigret se fâche (1947)).
Simenon also wrote a large number of "psychological novels", such as La neige était sale (1948) or Le fils (1957), as well as several autobiographical works, in particular Je me souviens (1945), Pedigree (1948), Mémoires intimes (1981).
In 1966, Simenon was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.
In 2005 he was nominated for the title of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian). In the Flemish version he ended 77th place. In the Walloon version he ended 10th place.
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April 21, 2018
This captivating page-turner is not a Detective Maigret novel but one Simenon termed roman durs, meaning uncomfortable or hard on the reader. With The Man Who Watched Trains Go By, each chapter begins with a brief epigraph, for example, the epigraph for Chapter 1 reads “In which Julius de Coster the Younger gets drunk at the Little-Saint George, and the impossible suddenly breaches the dykes of everyday life.”
Here's my choice of epigram for the book itself: "The Case of Kees Popinga, or how upon hearing shocking revelations, a well-to-do bourgeois bean counter goes completely berserk."
The first pages provide the setup: One icy December evening in the northern Dutch city of Groningen, forty-year-old family man Kees Popinga walks down to the dock to check on a cargo delivery he scheduled himself in his capacity as head clerk of an esteemed shipping firm. The enraged ship’s captain blasts him because the shipment did not arrived. Nonplussed, Kees strolls by a nearby pub only to see through the window, to his amazement, his boss, Julius de Coster, drinking at a table.
Julius waves for him to come in, and, between swigs of brandy, breezily tells Kees in so many words that he, Mr. Pop-in-ga, is Popinga the Poopstick, prime stooge, a ninny so blind he couldn’t see how he, Julius de Coster, has been embezzling, stealing and cheating for years, not to mention having extramarital sex with former employee Pamela, an attractive young lady everyone in the company, including Kees Popinga, dreamed of going to bed with.
Furthermore, Julius goes on, since he made a bad investment in sugar, the company is now bankrupt and not only will Popinga lose his job but also his life savings, thus his house and all other personal properties. Lowering his voice, Julius also informs Mr. Pop-in-ga that this is the very night he, the well-respected Julius de Coster, will be faking his own suicide and fleeing the country.
Poor Mr. Popinga! Nothing like having your well-ordered, comfortable Dutch bourgeois world come crashing down in a heap of rubble. And how, we may ask, does our staid, conservative shipping clerk react to this disaster? The next morning, he makes his first radical decision: to stay under the covers in bed.
What! Not go to the office, Kees? Mrs. Popinga is shocked, to say the least. Oh, yes, new world, new man. We read: “The important thing was that he felt completely at ease. This was the real him. Yes – this is how he should have acted all along.”
So, for the first time in his adult life Kees Popinga has a taste of tranquility and joy, a state free from agitation and constant worrying, what he recognizes as “the real him” – and for good reason: many the spiritual and philosophical tradition maintaining such a combination of tranquility and joy is, in fact, our birthright, our true nature. As existential psychologist R.D. Laing observed: “Our 'normal' 'adjusted' state is too often the abdication of ecstasy, the betrayal of our true potentialities.”
And then we read: “Kees had always dreamed of being something other than Kees Popinga. That explained why he was so completely the way he was – so completely Kees Popinga – and why he even overdid it. Because he knew that if he gave even an inch, nothing would stop him again.”
In other words, it’s all or nothing.- once the thin shell of rigid identity is even slightly cracked, the entire edifice breaks down. It’s as if, in his own clerkish way, Kees Popinga grasps R.D. Laing’s insight: “The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious, of being out of one’s mind, is the condition of the normal man. Society highly values its normal man.”
Kees Popinga finally rouses himself from bed, shaves, showers, dresses and, without telling his wife of his plans, leaves his house and family forever, having resolved to also leave behind his identity as a "normal man."
What follows when he travels to Amsterdam to have sex with Pamela (Julius de Coster bragged about how he set the luscious Pamela up in a particularly posh hotel) and then on to Paris is a truly odd series of events, a story Luc Sante in his Introduction to this New York Review Books (NYRB) edition calls both galling and comic.
This Georges Simenon novel is a penetrating exploration into the psychology of personal identity. How far can Kees Popinga the bean counter free himself from his habit of counting beans (the former shipping clerk continually, almost obsessively, makes entries in a small red leather notebook he happens to find in his jacket pocket)? And how far will the consequences of his actions (for starters, he quite unintentionally kills Pamela) launch him into madness? If you are up for a quizzical existential tale by turns humorous and infuriating, this is your book.
Georges Simenon in Paris. Frequently, the author would observe people on the street, pick out an interesting face, usually a man, and imagine him dealing with an unexpected event that would strip him of all comfortable social clothing and push him to the limit.
November 5, 2021
ILLUSIONE
Claude Rains è il protagonista Kees Popinga.
Se ricordo bene questo è stato il mio primo Simenon. Qui è cominciato il percorso di lettura che è proseguito per almeno altri venticinque titoli.
E fu subito amore. Mi piacque, mi colpì.
E lo regalai a mio padre per condividere il piacere.
A lui invece rimase indigesto.
Ho continuato a volergli bene. Credo.
Il film del 1952 è una produzione inglese, ma diretto da Harold French dal cognome poco inglese, e girato parte in francese e parte in inglese.
Kees Popinga è il prototipo del borghese della classe media che Simenon predilige mettere in scena: il paradigma del tran tran piccolo borghese, con regole abitudini orari rigidi, lavoro a tempo pieno presso una compagnia di spedizioni navali, moglie e due figli. Routine sicura, consolidata, specchiata.
Poi, però, a Simenon piace sconvolgere l’esistenza di questi uomini re del grigio, del torpore esistenziale. E nel caso di Kees, lo sconvolgimento è agitato più che miscelato: quando apprende dal suo datore di lavoro che la ditta sta per fallire, Kees decide di fare una gita a trovare l’amante del padrone. Cerca una forma di vendetta per il posto di lavoro perso? Perché il boss ha fatto bancarotta fraudolenta? In ogni caso, la donna non ci sta, e Kees finisce con l’ucciderla.
Addio status, addio sicurezza e normalità, bye bye abitudini quotidiane, vita come un fiume tranquillo: Kees abbandona la famiglia, la natia Olanda, e scappa a Parigi inseguito dalla polizia.
Qui entra in un girone infernale, finendo col frequentare prostitute e feccia criminale. Attinge alla sua passione e conoscenza del gioco degli scacchi per avviare una partita con la polizia francese e il commissario che guida le indagini. Si mette a correggere i giornali che fanno di lui un ritratto che reputa sbagliato: come se volesse finalmente costruirsi l’identità che ritiene più adatta a se stesso. Assapora una tardiva libertà sfrenata: che però subisce grossi limiti dal doversi nascondere e fuggire.
A questo punto crede che l’unica soluzione e via di fuga sia eliminare il superfluo, spogliarsi di abitudini, luoghi sicuri e surplus. Solo che Kees si prende alla lettera, e conclude il suo percorso andandosene in giro per la campagna francese completamente nudo.
Pubblicato nel 1938, Simenon aveva trentacinque anni e già una solida produzione alle spalle, sia di romanzi duri che racconti che avventure di Simenon. Eppure, a me, forse perché è stato il mio primo incontro con lo scrittore francese, è un romanzo con un sapore a parte, con una vena estrema che mi pare di non aver più ritrovato nelle pagine di Simenon.
Quello che invece ho ritrovato in ogni altra lettura simenoniana è altrettanto scavo di personalità, altrettanta sottigliezza psicologica.
Il film uscì sia con lo stesso titolo del romanzo sia come “Paris Express”. In Italia invece sotto il titolo di “Illusione”.
Claude Rains è il protagonista Kees Popinga.
Se ricordo bene questo è stato il mio primo Simenon. Qui è cominciato il percorso di lettura che è proseguito per almeno altri venticinque titoli.
E fu subito amore. Mi piacque, mi colpì.
E lo regalai a mio padre per condividere il piacere.
A lui invece rimase indigesto.
Ho continuato a volergli bene. Credo.
Il film del 1952 è una produzione inglese, ma diretto da Harold French dal cognome poco inglese, e girato parte in francese e parte in inglese.
Kees Popinga è il prototipo del borghese della classe media che Simenon predilige mettere in scena: il paradigma del tran tran piccolo borghese, con regole abitudini orari rigidi, lavoro a tempo pieno presso una compagnia di spedizioni navali, moglie e due figli. Routine sicura, consolidata, specchiata.
Poi, però, a Simenon piace sconvolgere l’esistenza di questi uomini re del grigio, del torpore esistenziale. E nel caso di Kees, lo sconvolgimento è agitato più che miscelato: quando apprende dal suo datore di lavoro che la ditta sta per fallire, Kees decide di fare una gita a trovare l’amante del padrone. Cerca una forma di vendetta per il posto di lavoro perso? Perché il boss ha fatto bancarotta fraudolenta? In ogni caso, la donna non ci sta, e Kees finisce con l’ucciderla.
Addio status, addio sicurezza e normalità, bye bye abitudini quotidiane, vita come un fiume tranquillo: Kees abbandona la famiglia, la natia Olanda, e scappa a Parigi inseguito dalla polizia.
Qui entra in un girone infernale, finendo col frequentare prostitute e feccia criminale. Attinge alla sua passione e conoscenza del gioco degli scacchi per avviare una partita con la polizia francese e il commissario che guida le indagini. Si mette a correggere i giornali che fanno di lui un ritratto che reputa sbagliato: come se volesse finalmente costruirsi l’identità che ritiene più adatta a se stesso. Assapora una tardiva libertà sfrenata: che però subisce grossi limiti dal doversi nascondere e fuggire.
A questo punto crede che l’unica soluzione e via di fuga sia eliminare il superfluo, spogliarsi di abitudini, luoghi sicuri e surplus. Solo che Kees si prende alla lettera, e conclude il suo percorso andandosene in giro per la campagna francese completamente nudo.
Pubblicato nel 1938, Simenon aveva trentacinque anni e già una solida produzione alle spalle, sia di romanzi duri che racconti che avventure di Simenon. Eppure, a me, forse perché è stato il mio primo incontro con lo scrittore francese, è un romanzo con un sapore a parte, con una vena estrema che mi pare di non aver più ritrovato nelle pagine di Simenon.
Quello che invece ho ritrovato in ogni altra lettura simenoniana è altrettanto scavo di personalità, altrettanta sottigliezza psicologica.
Il film uscì sia con lo stesso titolo del romanzo sia come “Paris Express”. In Italia invece sotto il titolo di “Illusione”.
July 20, 2023
Empiezo a pensar que tuve la mala suerte de comenzar a leer Simenon con la que ya sospecho es su mejor obra, La nieve estaba sucia, una vara de medir que pienso me está perjudicando sus otras lecturas.
Aquí podría escribir prácticamente lo mismo que ya comenté en mi reseña de La casa del canal: un planteamiento de lo más atractivo que, sin embargo, no me ha provocado la inquietud, el desasosiego, que desde que leí la obra citada busco siempre en el autor. Afortunadamente, Simenon nunca aburre, su no-estilo hace muy fácil la lectura y los argumentos son siempre interesantes. El argumento de esta lo es y mucho.
Hay quién dice que la novela relata un descenso a la locura, algo hay de ello pero no sería mi forma de describirla. Mucho menos lo haría como el caso de alguien que de pronto descubre su verdadero yo y se dedica a dar rienda suelta a sus instintos tanto tiempo frustrados, como también he leído por ahí. El libro es la reacción de un narcisista de libro, Kees Popinga, al hundimiento del frágil mundo que se había construido a su alrededor.
Popinga es un infeliz que se cree superior, preocupado por dar siempre una imagen de perfección, de seguridad en sí mismo, y que, sin embargo, en esos momentos en los que ve pasar un tren siente una “emoción furtiva, casi vergonzosa, que lo perturba”, una pesadumbre provocada por una irreprimible y no asumida sensación de fracaso, de no haber sabido, él que lo sabía todo, subirse al tren que por su “gran valía” le correspondía por derecho. Un fracaso que intenta ocultar bajo un espeso manto de orgullo por todo lo conseguido…
“Para no decir eso, para no pensarlo, miraba la estufa repitiéndose que era la más bella estufa de Holanda, y observaba a «mamá» convenciéndose de que era una hermosa mujer, y decidía que su hija tenía unos ojos soñadores”…pero que enfrentado a la realidad tras la confesión de su jefe, después de la humillación a la que este le somete, herido en su ego, se resquebraja completamente y huye en un intento desesperado por rehacer la imagen que tenía de sí mismo por un camino agresivo. Así, convencido de su inteligencia, de sus capacidades, sin tener en cuenta el daño que sin duda causaría a los suyos, se embarca en una carrera sin control que solo tiene sentido para sí mismo y en la que solo él es capaz de creer, hasta el último momento, que puede salir airoso.
“Durante cuarenta años me he aburrido. Durante cuarenta años miré la vida a la manera del pobrecillo que pega la nariz a los cristales del escaparate de una pastelería mientras mira cómo los otros se comen los pasteles.“Al menos, este es el libro que yo he leído, aunque bien es posible que tenga razón el protagonista de esta historia cuando, en la frase que cierra la novela, dice: “No existe la verdad, ¿no le parece?”
July 13, 2020
Cool as a cucumber, Dutchman Kees Popinga wonders around Paris with plenty of cash. Drinking, smoking, playing chess, entertaining women, seemingly without a care in the world, sounds great!. Oh, I forgot to mention the police are on his tail, as he is wanted for being the 'Amsterdam sex maniac', Kess himself sees this tag as a bit of an insult, that makes him mad (which he clearly is) believing he is nothing of the sort. Although he is a killer, you wouldn't think it.
Leaving his family behind after the company he works for goes down the pan, he heads from the Netherlands to France completely at random and fueled by dark impulses, but always remaining calm and relaxed, unaware of being dragged ever lower due to his resilience and absolute confidence in his ability to outwit the French police, which he is good at for a time, however, when his downward spiral is set in motion from the moment he wakes up earlier in the story, there is no going back.
The psychological portrait of a criminal on the run and his descent into insanity is the core of the novel. Next time an overconfident criminal starts sending letters to the press, I will be thinking of Popinga. It was Like being informed of the mind games behind the press releases and psychological profiling from today, Police methods haven’t really changed much since 1938 after this was was published. The character of Popinga is a bizarre spectacle and was riveting spending time in his company, chilling yes, but he never seemed threatening or reckless, and carried on with his new lease of life trying to be as normal as possible, while other people woven into the novel felt rather flat, and seemed to welcome unwanted trouble. Simenon generally devoted only about a week and a half to writing a novel (in-between getting his leg over with one of 10,000 girlfriends) a practice that, again, was good for his bank account and bad for his reputation. Will certainly read more of him.
Leaving his family behind after the company he works for goes down the pan, he heads from the Netherlands to France completely at random and fueled by dark impulses, but always remaining calm and relaxed, unaware of being dragged ever lower due to his resilience and absolute confidence in his ability to outwit the French police, which he is good at for a time, however, when his downward spiral is set in motion from the moment he wakes up earlier in the story, there is no going back.
The psychological portrait of a criminal on the run and his descent into insanity is the core of the novel. Next time an overconfident criminal starts sending letters to the press, I will be thinking of Popinga. It was Like being informed of the mind games behind the press releases and psychological profiling from today, Police methods haven’t really changed much since 1938 after this was was published. The character of Popinga is a bizarre spectacle and was riveting spending time in his company, chilling yes, but he never seemed threatening or reckless, and carried on with his new lease of life trying to be as normal as possible, while other people woven into the novel felt rather flat, and seemed to welcome unwanted trouble. Simenon generally devoted only about a week and a half to writing a novel (in-between getting his leg over with one of 10,000 girlfriends) a practice that, again, was good for his bank account and bad for his reputation. Will certainly read more of him.
May 31, 2023
Too long caught up in the daily routine of his life as a Dutch petty-bourgeois, the good father of the family Popinga has just been fired free from the job; he intends to take an example of his former boss, have a mistress like the beautiful Pamela. Still, he twists the blow like a duck.
Became a fugitive, Popinga jumps on a train—an excellent thriller without his famous Simenon character Maigret. The point of the investigation is that it is enough to follow the character who changes identity and skin. Of cow! The man who loved watching the trains pass scrolls at full speed.
Became a fugitive, Popinga jumps on a train—an excellent thriller without his famous Simenon character Maigret. The point of the investigation is that it is enough to follow the character who changes identity and skin. Of cow! The man who loved watching the trains pass scrolls at full speed.
November 24, 2021
It was time for another Simenon roman dur! I found this one once again quite different from the tales of the other romans durs. Cees Popinga, bookkeeper and living a stifling bourgeois life in Groningen in the north of Holland, quite accidently discovers one evening that he will loose his job the next day and, consequently, his comfortable income and possessions. At the spur of the moment he decides to radically break with his life and pursue a life he had no clear idea of that he had always wished to lead. He decided that from now on he would be a free man and do whatever would please him. He leaves Groningen the following day, not informing anyone of his departure, and pursues a path of ruthless self-interest by becoming an overconfident criminal in Paris. Interesting story as only Simenon can come up with in such a short tale. I must confess that I have liked a number of his other romans durs better, but this is certainly a strange tale which developed in an increasingly uncomfortable way. Perhaps I should not have read it in Dutch, even though the protagonist is a Dutchman, as the translation felt a bit awkward and outdated and that is not the Simenon we know!
August 11, 2020
Quando gli eventi ci travolgono all’improvviso, è difficile decifrarne i segni.
E’ solo dopo, ripensandoci con calma che possiamo cogliere significati che (solo ora!) ci appaiano lampanti.
Così Kees Popinga, una sera di dicembre, chiudendo la porta della sua villa e lasciando il tepore dato dalla costosa stufa, non avrebbe mai creduto di lasciarsi alle spalle tutto, compreso se stesso.
Una vita scientemente costruita sul benessere; una routine quotidiana confortante nel suo ripetersi.
Siamo a Groninga, in Olanda, dove il protagonista è impiegato di primo livello e procuratore di una compagnia mercantile.
Ed è proprio incontrando il suo capo, Julius de Coster, intento ad ubriacarsi in un bar, che, quella sera, le cose cambiano per sempre...
Simenon torna a descriverci le ossessioni di uomini comuni, apparentemente concentrati a costruirsi solide esistenze borghesi fatte di proprietà e scelte scontate.
Ed ecco che la sua penna muove pian piano queste figure immobili; le sposta stuzzicandole fino a far cadere come castelli di carta quelle si credevano solide mura.
Un roman dur appassionante che, come sempre, si legge in soffio ma non sparisce così facilmente.
” Se, insomma, avesse cercato in se stesso, in tutta coscienza, qualcosa che lo predisponesse a un burrascoso avvenire, sicuramente non avrebbe pensato a quella certa emozione furtiva, quasi vergognosa, che lo turbava vedendo passare un treno, un treno della notte soprattutto, dalle tendine calate sul mistero dei viaggiatori.”
E’ solo dopo, ripensandoci con calma che possiamo cogliere significati che (solo ora!) ci appaiano lampanti.
Così Kees Popinga, una sera di dicembre, chiudendo la porta della sua villa e lasciando il tepore dato dalla costosa stufa, non avrebbe mai creduto di lasciarsi alle spalle tutto, compreso se stesso.
Una vita scientemente costruita sul benessere; una routine quotidiana confortante nel suo ripetersi.
Siamo a Groninga, in Olanda, dove il protagonista è impiegato di primo livello e procuratore di una compagnia mercantile.
Ed è proprio incontrando il suo capo, Julius de Coster, intento ad ubriacarsi in un bar, che, quella sera, le cose cambiano per sempre...
Simenon torna a descriverci le ossessioni di uomini comuni, apparentemente concentrati a costruirsi solide esistenze borghesi fatte di proprietà e scelte scontate.
Ed ecco che la sua penna muove pian piano queste figure immobili; le sposta stuzzicandole fino a far cadere come castelli di carta quelle si credevano solide mura.
Un roman dur appassionante che, come sempre, si legge in soffio ma non sparisce così facilmente.
” Se, insomma, avesse cercato in se stesso, in tutta coscienza, qualcosa che lo predisponesse a un burrascoso avvenire, sicuramente non avrebbe pensato a quella certa emozione furtiva, quasi vergognosa, che lo turbava vedendo passare un treno, un treno della notte soprattutto, dalle tendine calate sul mistero dei viaggiatori.”
April 10, 2018
Kees Popinga, the main character of The man who watched the trains go by, is an exemplary husband and caring father of two teenage children. When we meet him for the first time he could serve as a shining example of a man. He avoids bars like the plague, he opposes bravely to physical desires and does it so successfully that he never had gone to a public house. He works in the firm of Julius de Coster where he earns quite a good money that allows him to look after his family. Mr Popinga lives in a large villa and is a member of the chess club which accumulates local social scene. He spends his evenings in the warmth of hearth and home, smoking cigars and leading trivial conversations with Mrs. Popinga. It seems that nothing is able to disturb that idyllic if slightly dull picture.
Meanwhile, one cold winter evening unexpectedly but radically changes life of our protagonist, who due to some words of his employer breaks up with his current life, commits a crime and by the night train goes to Paris. There we can accompany him in his oneiric wanderings through the streets of the city, where he tries to hide from the police.
Georges Simenon creates a study of a man who brought to the brink decides to cross the line. Popinga under the influence of a single impulse becomes the individual not associated with anyone or anything, with no idea, object, place, man. He has nothing to offer in the role he had played the whole life, model husband and daddy. The former Mr. Popinga had just run out of steam.
He is like an empty vessel from which previous life just drained and now Mr Popinga has to pour it in something other to shape himself anew. However, it turns out that by freeing himself from the chains of one scheme, he easily falls into the next one. From a decent though dull citizen and respected man, tormented by everyday routine becomes a pervert from Amsterdam, hunted by the entire French police.
Following Popinga’s case we can see that everyone even seemingly the most ordinary and colorless man is the epitome of a mystery. And that apparently trivial event can activate, silently indwelling in our souls, forces.
July 26, 2019
This was diverting, though not my favorite of the six or so Simenons I have read so far, all on the New York Review Books imprint. Kees Popinga, a buttoned down manager of a ships chandlery in Holland, goes on a bit of a rampage after his boss tells him that he has run the business into the ground. This is the same business, the watchword for rectitude and probity in the little port town in which it operates, into which Kees has invested every cent of his savings. Kees subsequently (inadvertently?) kills a hooker by the name of Pamela whom he has lusted after for years when, bereft of his illusions, she laughs at him. Then he goes to Paris and becomes a subject for the tabloids ("Sex Fiend") as he remains at large for several weeks. However, once the newspapers lose interest and relegate his story to inner pages, he starts to write letters to the editor in which he pathetically tries to keep the thrill alive; his ostensible motive being to explain himself since they "have him all wrong." The book is troubled early on, in my view, by some hardboiled-sounding dialog, generally something the titles I've read are free of. I felt it was very good but lacking in action, and by contrast, too heavy on the ruminations of its protagonist, mostly rendered as free indirect speech. My favorite NYRB Simenons so far have been Dirty Snow and The Strangers in the House. The latter being, in my opinion, dazzling on a sentence by sentence basis. Recommended with reservations.
September 21, 2019
Kees Popinga is a chief clerk for a shipping company. Wife and two kids. A heavily-mortgaged home. A solid Dutch burgher. He takes a walk one night and spies his boss drunk in a dive bar. The boss confesses massive fraud and explains that Popinga's cushy life will soon be unraveling.
I've read Simenon before ( Red Lights) and been unimpressed. But this one grabbed me when Popinga returned home from his impromptu meeting with his boss and his wife notices something is wrong with him:
"You're white as a sheet. You didn't have any problems with Ocean III, did you?"
"Me? Not at all."
"Aren't you going to tell me what's wrong?"
"Okay, I'll tell you. What's wrong is, I want you to leave me the fuck alone!"
Popinga's life changes, dramatically from that demarcating conversation.
What follows though is not just a man-leaves-wife-and-goes-on-adventure-to-find-himself yarn. A darkness reveals itself soon after Popinga steps on a train. A murder follows. And we are not totally revolted. He says:
I'm not crazy. I'm, not a sex fiend. I just decided, at the age of forty, to live as I please, without bothering about the law or convention.
No, we are not totally revolted.
I've read Simenon before ( Red Lights) and been unimpressed. But this one grabbed me when Popinga returned home from his impromptu meeting with his boss and his wife notices something is wrong with him:
"You're white as a sheet. You didn't have any problems with Ocean III, did you?"
"Me? Not at all."
"Aren't you going to tell me what's wrong?"
"Okay, I'll tell you. What's wrong is, I want you to leave me the fuck alone!"
Popinga's life changes, dramatically from that demarcating conversation.
What follows though is not just a man-leaves-wife-and-goes-on-adventure-to-find-himself yarn. A darkness reveals itself soon after Popinga steps on a train. A murder follows. And we are not totally revolted. He says:
I'm not crazy. I'm, not a sex fiend. I just decided, at the age of forty, to live as I please, without bothering about the law or convention.
No, we are not totally revolted.
November 29, 2021
Αυτό είναι λογοτεχνία !!!
January 27, 2020
Very good book!
The first chapter was excellent, drawing the reader in immediately, making the reader aware that something big was going to happen in the future for Kees Popinga: “At that moment the die was cast…From now on, every second had more to it than all of the seconds of his past put together, and each of his acts has as much importance as those of any of the public men whose most trivial doings are featured by the Press.”
So the reader is informed by Simenon in the first chapter of who Kees Popinga is, the comfortable life he had at that time, and then what happened on a particular night. The way he reacts to it is most interesting, and forms the rest of the novel. Before he goes to sleep that night, he is one man and after he wakes up the next morning he is transformed into a different man. From that day forward, he views his wife and his daughter and son with contempt (apparently deep down he has harbored these feelings for some time but his humdrum, busy yet comfortable life has prevented them from emerging to the forefront of this mind). He engages in an act which again as a newcomer to Simenon’s oeuvre was surprising to me. From now on as I continue to poke into Simenon’s works, and I most decidedly will, perhaps I will be less and less surprised!
For the most part the book held my attention. I found it difficult to put down and so, since today was a Sunday, I attended to a few humdrum events in my life but read it in the space of several hours. I found the character of Kees Popinga to not be necessarily chilling but certainly a bit off his rocker. His intelligence and how he carries himself in all sorts of different situations manages to keep himself doing reasonably well, all things considered given that the French and Dutch police are searching for him.
Simenon at least in this book writes with dark humor (I think I might have chuckled at one point). I did not perceive that style of dark humor with the three other books I have read by him, ‘The Iron Staircase’, ‘The Glass Cage’, and ‘The Snow was Dirty’ (Dirty Snow).
One thing that occurred repeatedly throughout the book was that he was reading descriptions of his actions or his personality in newspapers as “paranoiac.” What I thought was dark humor is that he told us, the readers, that he wished he knew what “paranoiac” meant!
Some sentences that struck me as I read…
(It was Christmas Eve) …He had got over his sentimental mood. He no longer had any wish to hear the carol belched from the wireless (radio)…
(He writes in to a newspaper while he is on the lam, describing how he feels about family…and what daughter wouldn’t want to be described this way to the general public by her loving father?): “There is a legend that my daughter has brains because she speaks so seldom; but I know the true reason, which is that she has nothing to say. Also she is a snob…”
Regarding the title of his book, there are several references to trains and it seems to me he has had feelings when he hears the whistle of a train or sees the night train rushing by that he longs to be on that train…escaping from his life and living some other life:
“That feeling about trains, for instance. Of course he had long outgrown the boyish glamour of the steam-engine. Yet there was something that had an appeal for him in trains, especially in night-trains, which always put vague, queerly improper notions into his head – though he would have been hard put to define them. Also, he had an impression that those who leave by night-trains leave for ever…”
“What wonder if he had a curious thrill whenever he heard the whistle of a passing train, three hundred yards from his house!”
He takes a dim view of his fellow inhabitants of Holland: “The more he examined the man beside him, the more naïve he found him, even naiver than a Dutchman.”
And near the end of the book: “So this was the psychiatrist who’d classified him as a ‘paranoiac’, whatever that meant."
The first chapter was excellent, drawing the reader in immediately, making the reader aware that something big was going to happen in the future for Kees Popinga: “At that moment the die was cast…From now on, every second had more to it than all of the seconds of his past put together, and each of his acts has as much importance as those of any of the public men whose most trivial doings are featured by the Press.”
So the reader is informed by Simenon in the first chapter of who Kees Popinga is, the comfortable life he had at that time, and then what happened on a particular night. The way he reacts to it is most interesting, and forms the rest of the novel. Before he goes to sleep that night, he is one man and after he wakes up the next morning he is transformed into a different man. From that day forward, he views his wife and his daughter and son with contempt (apparently deep down he has harbored these feelings for some time but his humdrum, busy yet comfortable life has prevented them from emerging to the forefront of this mind). He engages in an act which again as a newcomer to Simenon’s oeuvre was surprising to me. From now on as I continue to poke into Simenon’s works, and I most decidedly will, perhaps I will be less and less surprised!
For the most part the book held my attention. I found it difficult to put down and so, since today was a Sunday, I attended to a few humdrum events in my life but read it in the space of several hours. I found the character of Kees Popinga to not be necessarily chilling but certainly a bit off his rocker. His intelligence and how he carries himself in all sorts of different situations manages to keep himself doing reasonably well, all things considered given that the French and Dutch police are searching for him.
Simenon at least in this book writes with dark humor (I think I might have chuckled at one point). I did not perceive that style of dark humor with the three other books I have read by him, ‘The Iron Staircase’, ‘The Glass Cage’, and ‘The Snow was Dirty’ (Dirty Snow).
One thing that occurred repeatedly throughout the book was that he was reading descriptions of his actions or his personality in newspapers as “paranoiac.” What I thought was dark humor is that he told us, the readers, that he wished he knew what “paranoiac” meant!
Some sentences that struck me as I read…
(It was Christmas Eve) …He had got over his sentimental mood. He no longer had any wish to hear the carol belched from the wireless (radio)…
(He writes in to a newspaper while he is on the lam, describing how he feels about family…and what daughter wouldn’t want to be described this way to the general public by her loving father?): “There is a legend that my daughter has brains because she speaks so seldom; but I know the true reason, which is that she has nothing to say. Also she is a snob…”
Regarding the title of his book, there are several references to trains and it seems to me he has had feelings when he hears the whistle of a train or sees the night train rushing by that he longs to be on that train…escaping from his life and living some other life:
“That feeling about trains, for instance. Of course he had long outgrown the boyish glamour of the steam-engine. Yet there was something that had an appeal for him in trains, especially in night-trains, which always put vague, queerly improper notions into his head – though he would have been hard put to define them. Also, he had an impression that those who leave by night-trains leave for ever…”
“What wonder if he had a curious thrill whenever he heard the whistle of a passing train, three hundred yards from his house!”
He takes a dim view of his fellow inhabitants of Holland: “The more he examined the man beside him, the more naïve he found him, even naiver than a Dutchman.”
And near the end of the book: “So this was the psychiatrist who’d classified him as a ‘paranoiac’, whatever that meant."
June 25, 2023
Não me empolgou muito aquele que me parece ser o livro mais célebre de Georges Simenon, pelo menos em Portugal. “O Homem que Via Passar os Comboios” não é a obra contemplativa que eu esperava, mas, ao invés, caracteriza-se pela acção e pelas reviravoltas protagonizadas por um homem que nas primeiras páginas parece um Dr. Jekyll mas depressa, para grande espanto meu, se revela um Mr. Hyde.
Quando é avisado pelo seu patrão que a empresa para onde trabalha está falida, Kees Popinga larga a pele de homem respeitável e de bom chefe de família, tenta realizar os seus sonhos mais recalcados e acaba em Paris, apelidado de “O Louco da Holanda” pelos jornais, acossado pela polícia e enredado no submundo.
Podia permitir-se tudo! Podia ser tudo o que queria, agora que renunciara a ser a todo o custo, para toda a gente, Kees Popinga, procurador! E pensar que tivera durante tanto tempo um trabalho dos diabos para que a personagem fosse perfeita, para que, aos olhos dos mais exigentes, não houvesse um só pormenor escandaloso!
Quando é avisado pelo seu patrão que a empresa para onde trabalha está falida, Kees Popinga larga a pele de homem respeitável e de bom chefe de família, tenta realizar os seus sonhos mais recalcados e acaba em Paris, apelidado de “O Louco da Holanda” pelos jornais, acossado pela polícia e enredado no submundo.
Podia permitir-se tudo! Podia ser tudo o que queria, agora que renunciara a ser a todo o custo, para toda a gente, Kees Popinga, procurador! E pensar que tivera durante tanto tempo um trabalho dos diabos para que a personagem fosse perfeita, para que, aos olhos dos mais exigentes, não houvesse um só pormenor escandaloso!
July 10, 2017
O homem que via passar os comboios tem uma vida maravilhosa: um bom emprego; dois, bem comportados, filhos adolescentes; uma esposa da "melhor qualidade" - como o imponente fogão que dá calor à casa. Após o jantar, dormita, ouve rádio e observa a "mamã" a colar cromos num álbum.
Um acontecimento inesperado, relacionado com o trabalho, liberta-o. Kees Popinga abandona a "vida boa" para realizar os seus desejos. Deixa mortos e feridos pelo caminho, claro, pois quando se vira a mesa abruptamente a loiça fica toda escaqueirada e a mesa sem conserto.
Um acontecimento inesperado, relacionado com o trabalho, liberta-o. Kees Popinga abandona a "vida boa" para realizar os seus desejos. Deixa mortos e feridos pelo caminho, claro, pois quando se vira a mesa abruptamente a loiça fica toda escaqueirada e a mesa sem conserto.
"... Só dependia dele tornar-se outra coisa, mas então seria preciso ter começado mais cedo, e principalmente de outra maneira..."
July 27, 2019
Adorei a ideia que norteia este livro, embora, por vezes, temesse que descambasse num mero policial. Kees Popinga, um homem respeitado, cumpridor, bom marido e bom pai, reage mal à notícia da falência da empresa onde trabalha. Pensando que está tudo perdido e julgando poder viver agora sem amarras, como sempre quis, abandona tudo e desencadeia uma espiral de violência em que mede forças com a polícia. Mas, afinal, quem diz a verdade sobre Popinga e sobre os acontecimentos que protagoniza? Serão os jornalistas, serão os alienistas, será a sua própria mulher? Qual é a verdade? Chegaremos algum dia a saber qual é?
November 11, 2021
A Georges Simenon va riconosciuto il pregio di essere un grande ritrattista d'anime, e questo romanzo ne è la riconferma: in maniera sapiente riesce a immergere il lettore nelle atmosfere che dipinge, la sua scrittura è concisa ma efficace, le emozioni non si immaginano, si sentono.
In questo caso, il ritratto spietato della medio borghesia olandese, spunta misero e banale dal suo protagonista: quel Kees Popinga assertivo lavoratore, padre di famiglia, membro di una collettività dove si sente realizzato perché possiede una bella casa, una famiglia nei canoni e un lavoro di responsabilità.
" Fino ad allora, soddisfazioni di quel genere avevano fatto tutta la vita di Kees Popinga, soddisfazioni reali, poiché a ogni buon conto nessuno può asserire che un oggetto di prima qualità non sia di prima qualità, che una casa ben costruita non sia una casa ben costruita, né che i salumi in vendita da Oosting non siano i migliori di tutta Groninga."
Verità incontrovertibili, che Popinga si racconta nel corso della sua vita, con il preciso intento di nascondere la profonda insoddisfazione della condizione che si è scelto.
E poi un giorno, a quarant'anni, il destino decide al posto suo: il suo castello di carte crolla, suo malgrado, la vita fin lì conosciuta e vissuta scompare, e Popinga si sgretola, si scolora, come un acquarello sotto la pioggia; le sue certezze si sciolgono e lasciano intravedere un' indole bislacca.
Comincia un nuovo corso della sua esistenza, dove, la trasformazione, diviene man mano sempre più eccessiva e grottesca.
L'innesco di questa nuova prospettiva appare inesorabilmente senza ritorno: l'essere Popinga, nella sua desolante umanità, muta e si trasforma continuamente, fino ad un epilogo tristemente annunciato, nonché alla sua dichiarazione finale che apre un mondo di stupefacente retorica.
Una lettura intensa e serrata, per riflettere sulla psicologia umana e sulle sfaccettature dell'uomo della porta accanto.
" Questa volta fu un vero treno della notte, come quelli che visitavano i sogni di Popinga, un treno con vagoni letto, tendine calate sui vetri degli scompartimenti, luci abbassate e viaggiatori che parlavano in diverse lingue [...]"
In questo caso, il ritratto spietato della medio borghesia olandese, spunta misero e banale dal suo protagonista: quel Kees Popinga assertivo lavoratore, padre di famiglia, membro di una collettività dove si sente realizzato perché possiede una bella casa, una famiglia nei canoni e un lavoro di responsabilità.
" Fino ad allora, soddisfazioni di quel genere avevano fatto tutta la vita di Kees Popinga, soddisfazioni reali, poiché a ogni buon conto nessuno può asserire che un oggetto di prima qualità non sia di prima qualità, che una casa ben costruita non sia una casa ben costruita, né che i salumi in vendita da Oosting non siano i migliori di tutta Groninga."
Verità incontrovertibili, che Popinga si racconta nel corso della sua vita, con il preciso intento di nascondere la profonda insoddisfazione della condizione che si è scelto.
E poi un giorno, a quarant'anni, il destino decide al posto suo: il suo castello di carte crolla, suo malgrado, la vita fin lì conosciuta e vissuta scompare, e Popinga si sgretola, si scolora, come un acquarello sotto la pioggia; le sue certezze si sciolgono e lasciano intravedere un' indole bislacca.
Comincia un nuovo corso della sua esistenza, dove, la trasformazione, diviene man mano sempre più eccessiva e grottesca.
L'innesco di questa nuova prospettiva appare inesorabilmente senza ritorno: l'essere Popinga, nella sua desolante umanità, muta e si trasforma continuamente, fino ad un epilogo tristemente annunciato, nonché alla sua dichiarazione finale che apre un mondo di stupefacente retorica.
Una lettura intensa e serrata, per riflettere sulla psicologia umana e sulle sfaccettature dell'uomo della porta accanto.
" Questa volta fu un vero treno della notte, come quelli che visitavano i sogni di Popinga, un treno con vagoni letto, tendine calate sui vetri degli scompartimenti, luci abbassate e viaggiatori che parlavano in diverse lingue [...]"
September 20, 2012
Il mio approccio con Simenon è stato positivo.
Ho apprezzato il suo stile asciutto ed elegante.
Il protagonista del romanzo è l'Inetto che si ribella, decide di vivere come vuole lui, senza curarsi delle leggi e delle convenzioni, considerato dalla gente come un pazzo.
Quello che ci ho visto sono i temi del romanzo novecentesco, in special modo pirandelliano ("uno, nessuno e centomila", o "il fu Mattia Pascal"), il contrasto tra ciò che si pensa di essere e ciò che gli altri pensano di noi.
Il romanzo finisce con un interrogativo "non c'è una verità, ne conviene?" che lascia aperta la strada alle nostre riflessioni.
Simenon per me è stata una piacevole scoperta.
Ho apprezzato il suo stile asciutto ed elegante.
Il protagonista del romanzo è l'Inetto che si ribella, decide di vivere come vuole lui, senza curarsi delle leggi e delle convenzioni, considerato dalla gente come un pazzo.
Quello che ci ho visto sono i temi del romanzo novecentesco, in special modo pirandelliano ("uno, nessuno e centomila", o "il fu Mattia Pascal"), il contrasto tra ciò che si pensa di essere e ciò che gli altri pensano di noi.
Il romanzo finisce con un interrogativo "non c'è una verità, ne conviene?" che lascia aperta la strada alle nostre riflessioni.
Simenon per me è stata una piacevole scoperta.
January 22, 2020
Que livrinho tão surpreendente. Não estava realmente à espera de gostar tanto quanto gostei.
Conhecia anteriormente o autor Georges Simenon pelo seu icónico personagem Maigret, figura central de tantos dos seus policiais. Julguei ir-me afastar do registo policial neste livro o que não foi totalmente verdade. Este é um romance também de fiçcão criminal, mas por outro lado acaba por ser algo mais.
Trata-se de uma história estranha e até um pouco bizarra sobre um homem, de nome Kees Popinga. Um homem aparentemente simples, bem sucedido e de comportamento irrepreensível, mas que a certa altura surpreende tudo e todos.
Se antes e exteriormente Popinga era um homem "normal", um acontecimento disruptor acaba por fazer transbordar da mente para o real, o que anteriormente era apenas fantasia, com consequências trágicas.
Gostei mesmo bastante e recomendo esta leitura.
Conhecia anteriormente o autor Georges Simenon pelo seu icónico personagem Maigret, figura central de tantos dos seus policiais. Julguei ir-me afastar do registo policial neste livro o que não foi totalmente verdade. Este é um romance também de fiçcão criminal, mas por outro lado acaba por ser algo mais.
Trata-se de uma história estranha e até um pouco bizarra sobre um homem, de nome Kees Popinga. Um homem aparentemente simples, bem sucedido e de comportamento irrepreensível, mas que a certa altura surpreende tudo e todos.
Se antes e exteriormente Popinga era um homem "normal", um acontecimento disruptor acaba por fazer transbordar da mente para o real, o que anteriormente era apenas fantasia, com consequências trágicas.
Gostei mesmo bastante e recomendo esta leitura.
April 14, 2011
While discussing Black Swan with friends the other day, I realized this novel has a similarity or two with Darren Aronofsky movies. Remember those movies ( Requiem for a Dream, Pi, The Wrestler, Black Swan ) where we have one or more characters going on with their lives when somehow things begin spiraling out of control. And how!. The Man Who Watched Trains Go By has a similar premise, except the transition in the protagonist's life is relatively more sudden. He steps around a corner from where there is no turning back.
Kees Popinga, the protagonist, has always done what is expected of him by the society, his family and his employer. He has built a stable and seemingly content life for himself. However, while trying too hard to be perfect, he has lost himself somewhere, forgotten who he really was and how he really wishes to live. He is tired and bored of being himself. He is bogged down by the monotony of his life, though he doesn't yet realize as much. One fateful night, his predictable life takes an unexpected turn and Popinga breaks down. He is now no longer the man who always used to watch trains go by while staying put, but hops on a train himself to start afresh and live on his own terms. And the reader accompanies him on his existential journey.
Simenon writes well. He never goes too deep into Popinga's psychology, but lets us understand his psyche by telling a lot of the story from Popinga's point-of-view. Popinga gets himself into a cat-and-mouse game with the police. He goes about playing this game objectively, thinking and planning out every move he makes. While Popinga takes pride in being so clear-headed and smart, the reader can only feel sorry for the poor fellow's foolishness. Whatever you feel about his actions, you can't help feeling pity for him. You want to grab him by the shoulders and shake some sense into his head. Like those times when you find yourself yelling at someone on your TV screen.
Simenon also sprinkles the plot with suspense which adds another interesting dimension to the story.
There are sure to be many Popingas in the world around us who are wearied of their stressful lives and wish to breathe free.
July 26, 2017
Για την ακρίβεια 2.5 αστεράκια. Μου άρεσε πολύ λίγο. Δεν μπόρεσα να μπω στο κλίμα. Ελπίζω να μην είναι όλα έτσι. Όσα έχω διαβάσει με επιθεωρητή Μαιγκρέ μου άρεσαν πολύ.
December 7, 2014
Those who leave by night- trains leave for ever
- Kees Popinga from
The Man Who Watched The Trains Go By
Kees Popinga is a dull man who lives in a well-ordered existence, where everything including his wife is admirably above-board, "one might have said of her..that she was the ' best make' of Dutch wife;" his house the "best planned;" his neighborhood in the "healthiest and most attractive part in Groningen." He is Simenon's psychologically marginal archetype - "a middle-aged man, after years of conformity to the standards of society, who flees his milieu." *
Popinga's habit of watching night trains affords him a glimpse of another life, of adventures which he often only dream about - a yearning for escape.
After his employer, Julius de Coster, confesses to have defrauded his firm to the level of immediate liquidation, Popinga realizes that, not only will he lose his job, but he'll be penniless, for he had invested all his savings in the firm. De Coster's deception and impertinent, harsh put-downs spur Popinga to seek a way out from facing responsibility. At the age of 40, he chooses to do as he pleases -no restraints, no laws or rigid conventions. A chance to escape from the routine of life is grabbed, freeing himself from the nets of domesticity and duty, fleeing the judgments, the daily desultory remarks and opinions from "cocksured ignoramuses who think they know everything."
He enters a new, sinister world, flexing for the first time, a wiliness that is uncharacteristic yet seems natural to him. His adventures lead him to felonious encounters in the world of prostitutes, pimps, auto thieves, murder and madness. Now an elusive criminal, he feels a sense of pride and a thrill at being called the 'Thug of Amsterdam', enjoying his anonymous movements amongst the police, taunting and teasing the "cocksure Superintendent" in a suspenseful, psychological game of 'checkmate me if you can.' On a semiconscious level, he seems to want to prove that he is cleverer or more resourceful than them all.
Popinga's need for escape, his desire to do as he pleases, to exercise his free will and the resulting destructive actions eventually take their toll. Guilt-ridden, he looses control, begins to fall apart and progressively descends into insanity at a stealthily subtle pace that showcases the brilliance of this author.
When finally in the asylum, Popinga decides to write the 'Truth about the Kees Popinga Case,' to convince himself that his experiences were not insignificant, he produces only blank pages. The 'truth' that evades him is that, in reality, he achieved nothing by his running away.
The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By is part of Simenon's extensive romans durs psychological-noire oeuvre - hard novels that consistently portray an estranged, modern antihero always fleeing, who lacks lucidity and is moved by forces he's too weak to control; a man who lacks positive values and ambitions. The violent actions of his characters are "tragic consequences of life, that for many men and women, are unendurable." *
For Kees Popinga, the inability to take responsibility, his lack of ambition and the monotonous, drudgery of the life he led proved his inevitable downfall.
I've read a few of Simenon's works - Act of Passion, The Train, The Strangers in the House, Pietr the Latvian- have enjoyed the psychological insight and narrative style of these novels, and I'm sure I'll be busy for years to come feasting on them all. That's my ambition.
* Lucille F. Becker, Georges Simenon. New York, Twayne, 1999
- Kees Popinga from
The Man Who Watched The Trains Go By
Kees Popinga is a dull man who lives in a well-ordered existence, where everything including his wife is admirably above-board, "one might have said of her..that she was the ' best make' of Dutch wife;" his house the "best planned;" his neighborhood in the "healthiest and most attractive part in Groningen." He is Simenon's psychologically marginal archetype - "a middle-aged man, after years of conformity to the standards of society, who flees his milieu." *
Popinga's habit of watching night trains affords him a glimpse of another life, of adventures which he often only dream about - a yearning for escape.
"There was something that had an appeal for him in trains, especially in night- trains, which always put queer, vaguely improper notions into his head- though he would have been hard put to it to define them. Also he had an impression that those who leave by night- trains leave for ever - an impression heightened the previous night by his glimpse of those Italians piled into their carriage like emigrants."
After his employer, Julius de Coster, confesses to have defrauded his firm to the level of immediate liquidation, Popinga realizes that, not only will he lose his job, but he'll be penniless, for he had invested all his savings in the firm. De Coster's deception and impertinent, harsh put-downs spur Popinga to seek a way out from facing responsibility. At the age of 40, he chooses to do as he pleases -no restraints, no laws or rigid conventions. A chance to escape from the routine of life is grabbed, freeing himself from the nets of domesticity and duty, fleeing the judgments, the daily desultory remarks and opinions from "cocksured ignoramuses who think they know everything."
He enters a new, sinister world, flexing for the first time, a wiliness that is uncharacteristic yet seems natural to him. His adventures lead him to felonious encounters in the world of prostitutes, pimps, auto thieves, murder and madness. Now an elusive criminal, he feels a sense of pride and a thrill at being called the 'Thug of Amsterdam', enjoying his anonymous movements amongst the police, taunting and teasing the "cocksure Superintendent" in a suspenseful, psychological game of 'checkmate me if you can.' On a semiconscious level, he seems to want to prove that he is cleverer or more resourceful than them all.
Popinga's need for escape, his desire to do as he pleases, to exercise his free will and the resulting destructive actions eventually take their toll. Guilt-ridden, he looses control, begins to fall apart and progressively descends into insanity at a stealthily subtle pace that showcases the brilliance of this author.
When finally in the asylum, Popinga decides to write the 'Truth about the Kees Popinga Case,' to convince himself that his experiences were not insignificant, he produces only blank pages. The 'truth' that evades him is that, in reality, he achieved nothing by his running away.
The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By is part of Simenon's extensive romans durs psychological-noire oeuvre - hard novels that consistently portray an estranged, modern antihero always fleeing, who lacks lucidity and is moved by forces he's too weak to control; a man who lacks positive values and ambitions. The violent actions of his characters are "tragic consequences of life, that for many men and women, are unendurable." *
For Kees Popinga, the inability to take responsibility, his lack of ambition and the monotonous, drudgery of the life he led proved his inevitable downfall.
I've read a few of Simenon's works - Act of Passion, The Train, The Strangers in the House, Pietr the Latvian- have enjoyed the psychological insight and narrative style of these novels, and I'm sure I'll be busy for years to come feasting on them all. That's my ambition.
* Lucille F. Becker, Georges Simenon. New York, Twayne, 1999
August 10, 2023
Before I left Tokyo in the mid-'90s, I had a farewell lunch with an older Japanese English teacher whose desk was next to mine in the teachers' room. At one point during lunch, he opened up about himself in a way that he never had in the entire 10 years I knew him while living in Japan. He said one thing that stood out from everything else: when he was either a teenager or in his early 20s, his character changed almost in a flash... on August 15, 1945, when Emperor Hirohito not only announced Japan's surrender but - with that announcement - indirectly admitted that he was not the living god his people believed him to be.
My colleague was noticeably firm about this confession - because he said he took it as a betrayal of everything he had been raised to believe. ~and that, from that time on, he felt differently (in polar-opposite fashion) about his country and its people.
I thought about this man as I read Simenon's novel, and that's mainly why the premise worked well for me. In the first chapter, its protagonist (Kees Popinga) has his life pulled out from under him when he gets a stunning piece of information re: the company he works for. As a result, he becomes a different person - more of an extreme, of course, than the gentleman I knew, but the process was essentially the same. It's more common that an individual can be caused to change toward one person or a group of people - but it's not unlikely, after all, for someone (even at a total surprise to himself) to wipe away his former self in order to operate from a new set of rules.
I enjoyed Simenon's 'Dirty Snow' more than this novel (in the sense that its setting and atmosphere were more of direct interest to me). 'The Man Who Watched Trains Go By' is much more in keeping with Simenon's reputation as a writer of commercial crime stories, which hold less interest for me. Nevertheless, I recognize Simenon's considerable skill here, as he pulls us (seemingly effortlessly) into the complexity of Popinga's mind and escorts us through the detailed progression of a mind that gradually becomes more and more delusional.
My colleague was noticeably firm about this confession - because he said he took it as a betrayal of everything he had been raised to believe. ~and that, from that time on, he felt differently (in polar-opposite fashion) about his country and its people.
I thought about this man as I read Simenon's novel, and that's mainly why the premise worked well for me. In the first chapter, its protagonist (Kees Popinga) has his life pulled out from under him when he gets a stunning piece of information re: the company he works for. As a result, he becomes a different person - more of an extreme, of course, than the gentleman I knew, but the process was essentially the same. It's more common that an individual can be caused to change toward one person or a group of people - but it's not unlikely, after all, for someone (even at a total surprise to himself) to wipe away his former self in order to operate from a new set of rules.
I enjoyed Simenon's 'Dirty Snow' more than this novel (in the sense that its setting and atmosphere were more of direct interest to me). 'The Man Who Watched Trains Go By' is much more in keeping with Simenon's reputation as a writer of commercial crime stories, which hold less interest for me. Nevertheless, I recognize Simenon's considerable skill here, as he pulls us (seemingly effortlessly) into the complexity of Popinga's mind and escorts us through the detailed progression of a mind that gradually becomes more and more delusional.
Read
March 28, 2021Lesa maestà
Devo fare una confessione: non avevo mai letto niente di Simenon.
Complice un ricovero ospedaliero, qualche anno fa, decisi di portare quest'agile volumetto con me.
All'inizio mi piaceva anche, ma con le dimissioni dall'ospedale, dal quale ogni volta la protagonista tragica che è in me crede sempre che non riuscirà ad uscire viva, mi scordai di proseguire nella lettura.
O meglio, abbandonai, senza grandi rimpianti, Popinga in un garage francese nel quale si era andato a nascondere.
Probabilmente cercherò di rileggerlo.
O forse andrò oltre e Simenon mi conquisterà con qualcos'altro* :-)
[*] Cosa che poi ha fatto, naturalmente.
Devo fare una confessione: non avevo mai letto niente di Simenon.
Complice un ricovero ospedaliero, qualche anno fa, decisi di portare quest'agile volumetto con me.
All'inizio mi piaceva anche, ma con le dimissioni dall'ospedale, dal quale ogni volta la protagonista tragica che è in me crede sempre che non riuscirà ad uscire viva, mi scordai di proseguire nella lettura.
O meglio, abbandonai, senza grandi rimpianti, Popinga in un garage francese nel quale si era andato a nascondere.
Probabilmente cercherò di rileggerlo.
O forse andrò oltre e Simenon mi conquisterà con qualcos'altro* :-)
[*] Cosa che poi ha fatto, naturalmente.
July 31, 2023
Kees Popinga
Nell'incipit c’è il brivido e la vertigine dei momenti immediatamente precedenti gli eventi che sconvolgeranno per sempre una vita, quando ancora c’é inconsapevolezza della scissione tra un prima e un dopo.
Il prima di Kees Popinga, un nome che non si dimentica, è una banalissima vita borghese nella provincia olandese, lavoro di prestigio e ben remunerato, bella villetta, barchetta, una moglie noiosa, due figli poco stimati, la serata fissa al club degli scacchi.
Il dopo è il viaggio nel mistero, quel mistero a cui Popinga evidentemente anelava, seguendo quella sua “emozione furtiva, quasi vergognosa, che lo turbava vedendo passare un treno, un treno della notte soprattutto, dalle tendine calate sul mistero dei viaggiatori.”
Il mistero parte da un’azienda che si è rivelata fallimentare, insegue passioni sopite, passa per un delitto, e gira e termina per i vicoli, i bar e gli hotel di Parigi.
Il mistero sarà svelato? Sapremo chi è il colpevole? C’è un colpevole? Colpevole di cosa? C’è una verità? Il mistero siamo noi.
E’ il mio secondo Simenon, al primo posto tengo il primo.
1) Il clan dei Mahè
2) L’uomo che guardava passare i treni
Nell'incipit c’è il brivido e la vertigine dei momenti immediatamente precedenti gli eventi che sconvolgeranno per sempre una vita, quando ancora c’é inconsapevolezza della scissione tra un prima e un dopo.
Il prima di Kees Popinga, un nome che non si dimentica, è una banalissima vita borghese nella provincia olandese, lavoro di prestigio e ben remunerato, bella villetta, barchetta, una moglie noiosa, due figli poco stimati, la serata fissa al club degli scacchi.
Il dopo è il viaggio nel mistero, quel mistero a cui Popinga evidentemente anelava, seguendo quella sua “emozione furtiva, quasi vergognosa, che lo turbava vedendo passare un treno, un treno della notte soprattutto, dalle tendine calate sul mistero dei viaggiatori.”
Il mistero parte da un’azienda che si è rivelata fallimentare, insegue passioni sopite, passa per un delitto, e gira e termina per i vicoli, i bar e gli hotel di Parigi.
Il mistero sarà svelato? Sapremo chi è il colpevole? C’è un colpevole? Colpevole di cosa? C’è una verità? Il mistero siamo noi.
E’ il mio secondo Simenon, al primo posto tengo il primo.
1) Il clan dei Mahè
2) L’uomo che guardava passare i treni
February 25, 2024
Una meritatissima rilettura! Confesso che non lo ricordavo se non a grandi linee , essendo passato un decennio dalla prima lettura . Un grandissimo Simenon- come sempre, - coinvolgente, bravissimo nel tratteggio psicologico del protagonista, facendoti fare il tifo per lui. Un finale perfetto!
August 7, 2017
È la sera di un giorno qualunque per il protagonista del romanzo, Kees Popinga. Anche la sua vita è qualunque, e questo lo rallegra. Popinga ama i dettagli e le abitudini. Ama vivere ogni giorno come il precedente, senza mai concedersi una deviazione, per garantire un ordine corretto nel suo mondo, quello familiare e quello cittadino nella città di Groninga in Olanda; dove tutti si conoscono e dove tutti sanno immediatamente se qualsiasi cosa non va. Popinga vorrebbe dal bere di tanto in tanto in qualche birreria, ma si trattiene. Gli piacerebbe entrare in quella casa dove s’intravedono donnine che amoreggiano, ma si limita a passare e guardare. L’unica cosa che si concede è uscire ogni tanto la sera per andare a giocare a scacchi in un piccolo circolo.
È abituato a trascorrere le sue ore con perfetta regolarità. Ogni tanto ha “quella certa emozione furtiva, quasi vergognosa, che lo turbava vedendo passare un treno, un treno della notte soprattutto, dalle tendine calate sul mistero dei viaggiatori”.
A casa fa il marito e il padre perché deve. In ufficio, impiegato in una solida ditta olandese, lavora pensando che quel lavoro sia il massimo per lui. E infatti ha una posizione rispettabile, possiede una villa nel quartiere più ricco, una stufa unica, una radio costosissima, di cui va fiero.
Vive la sua normalità pensando che tutto ciò sia il massimo che la vita può concedergli, ma improvvisamente… abbandona per sempre quell’immagine di onesto, corretto, scrupoloso impiegato e buon padre di famiglia. Lo attende una nuova esistenza fatta di sangue, donne, fuga, paura, esaltazione, polizia.
“Insomma, ho continuato a essere procuratore per abitudine, marito di mia moglie e padre dei miei figli per abitudine, perché non so chi ha deciso che così doveva essere e non altrimenti.
E se io, proprio io, avessi deciso altrimenti?
Lei non può immaginare fino a che punto, una volta presa questa decisione, tutto diventi più semplice. Non occorre più occuparsi di quel che è permesso o proibito, dignitoso o meno, corretto o scorretto."
Kees Popinga è uno di quegli uomini “normali” che Simenon preferisce e che sa raccontare in modo perfetto. La sua normalità è apparente: un meccanismo che, non appena s’inceppa, diviene capace di tutto.
“Per quarant’anni mi sono annoiato. Per quarant’anni ho guardato la vita come quel poverello che col naso appiccicato alla vetrina di una pasticceria guarda gli altri mangiare i dolci”.
E proprio come un tempo è stato il più normale fra i normali, la sua deviazione dalla normalità diventa sfrenata. Entra talmente nel suo nuovo personaggio da trovare sempre nuove autogiustificazioni per il suo operato criminale.
Popinga è però un fallito e chiude la sua vita in una clinica psichiatrica dove, rassicurato dalle mura che impediscono un confronto con la realtà esterna, riesce a realizzare un mondo tutto suo.
Il romanzo è un viaggio nei meccanismi della mente e dell’animo del protagonista. Tutto gli sembra chiaro e logico, ma il pensiero del "giudizio degli altri", ossia l'ansia di non essere capito, lo perseguita.
Quante reazioni emotive possono esserci nell'essere umano davanti ad eventi che trasformano la vita. Chissà, un Popinga potrebbe essere un po' dentro tutti noi...
Bellissimo romanzo, ben scritto e coinvolgente.
È abituato a trascorrere le sue ore con perfetta regolarità. Ogni tanto ha “quella certa emozione furtiva, quasi vergognosa, che lo turbava vedendo passare un treno, un treno della notte soprattutto, dalle tendine calate sul mistero dei viaggiatori”.
A casa fa il marito e il padre perché deve. In ufficio, impiegato in una solida ditta olandese, lavora pensando che quel lavoro sia il massimo per lui. E infatti ha una posizione rispettabile, possiede una villa nel quartiere più ricco, una stufa unica, una radio costosissima, di cui va fiero.
Vive la sua normalità pensando che tutto ciò sia il massimo che la vita può concedergli, ma improvvisamente… abbandona per sempre quell’immagine di onesto, corretto, scrupoloso impiegato e buon padre di famiglia. Lo attende una nuova esistenza fatta di sangue, donne, fuga, paura, esaltazione, polizia.
“Insomma, ho continuato a essere procuratore per abitudine, marito di mia moglie e padre dei miei figli per abitudine, perché non so chi ha deciso che così doveva essere e non altrimenti.
E se io, proprio io, avessi deciso altrimenti?
Lei non può immaginare fino a che punto, una volta presa questa decisione, tutto diventi più semplice. Non occorre più occuparsi di quel che è permesso o proibito, dignitoso o meno, corretto o scorretto."
Kees Popinga è uno di quegli uomini “normali” che Simenon preferisce e che sa raccontare in modo perfetto. La sua normalità è apparente: un meccanismo che, non appena s’inceppa, diviene capace di tutto.
“Per quarant’anni mi sono annoiato. Per quarant’anni ho guardato la vita come quel poverello che col naso appiccicato alla vetrina di una pasticceria guarda gli altri mangiare i dolci”.
E proprio come un tempo è stato il più normale fra i normali, la sua deviazione dalla normalità diventa sfrenata. Entra talmente nel suo nuovo personaggio da trovare sempre nuove autogiustificazioni per il suo operato criminale.
Popinga è però un fallito e chiude la sua vita in una clinica psichiatrica dove, rassicurato dalle mura che impediscono un confronto con la realtà esterna, riesce a realizzare un mondo tutto suo.
Il romanzo è un viaggio nei meccanismi della mente e dell’animo del protagonista. Tutto gli sembra chiaro e logico, ma il pensiero del "giudizio degli altri", ossia l'ansia di non essere capito, lo perseguita.
Quante reazioni emotive possono esserci nell'essere umano davanti ad eventi che trasformano la vita. Chissà, un Popinga potrebbe essere un po' dentro tutti noi...
Bellissimo romanzo, ben scritto e coinvolgente.
April 8, 2012
as to Simenon's writing Method:
"On a large yellow envelope, he would over the course of a week or two, write the names of his characters and whatever else he knew about their lives and backgrounds: their ages, where they had gone to school, their parents' professions. The envelope might additionally contain street maps of the novel's setting, although it would never say a word about the book's eventual plot. Once he was satisfied with these notes, he would enter the hermitage and knock of the book at the rate of a chapter every morning, optimally in a week or ten days. After finishing he would be drained, battered by violent psychological storms and concurrent physical symptoms. It was a bit as if he had given birth. It should be noted that he wrote books this way even when he was ostensibly on vacation."
(from the introduction by Luc Sante)
This is the first Simenon novel I've read (I think I've read five or six) where I didn't sympathize with the protagonist. Kees Popinga. You don't like him, he appalls you, but you're also increasingly amused by him, by his warped sense of society and his inflated sense of self. His sickness is this: "...As to Popinga, he had no ties--not to a person, or an ideal, or anything at all. And he could prove it too." (85).
and in his own words: "For forty years I've been bored. For forty years I looked at life like a poor boy with his nose glued to the pastry-shop window, watching other people eat cake.
Now I know that the cake belongs to the people who are willing to take it." (132).
You watch Popinga try to steal his cake and eat it too...and make a mess of things. Luc Sante writes that you close the book "and you realize that all along that you've been reading a comedy." I agree (though I think the comic aspect makes itself apparent sooner).
Different from the other Simenons I've read but just as good.
"On a large yellow envelope, he would over the course of a week or two, write the names of his characters and whatever else he knew about their lives and backgrounds: their ages, where they had gone to school, their parents' professions. The envelope might additionally contain street maps of the novel's setting, although it would never say a word about the book's eventual plot. Once he was satisfied with these notes, he would enter the hermitage and knock of the book at the rate of a chapter every morning, optimally in a week or ten days. After finishing he would be drained, battered by violent psychological storms and concurrent physical symptoms. It was a bit as if he had given birth. It should be noted that he wrote books this way even when he was ostensibly on vacation."
(from the introduction by Luc Sante)
This is the first Simenon novel I've read (I think I've read five or six) where I didn't sympathize with the protagonist. Kees Popinga. You don't like him, he appalls you, but you're also increasingly amused by him, by his warped sense of society and his inflated sense of self. His sickness is this: "...As to Popinga, he had no ties--not to a person, or an ideal, or anything at all. And he could prove it too." (85).
and in his own words: "For forty years I've been bored. For forty years I looked at life like a poor boy with his nose glued to the pastry-shop window, watching other people eat cake.
Now I know that the cake belongs to the people who are willing to take it." (132).
You watch Popinga try to steal his cake and eat it too...and make a mess of things. Luc Sante writes that you close the book "and you realize that all along that you've been reading a comedy." I agree (though I think the comic aspect makes itself apparent sooner).
Different from the other Simenons I've read but just as good.
![Profile Image for Anna [Floanne].](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1566911038i/4459724._UX200_CR0,0,200,200_.jpg)
April 4, 2016
Una volta che lo si é conosciuto, Kees Popinga è un personaggio impossibile da dimenticare. Un uomo fino ad un attimo prima apparentemente normalissimo, serio, impegnato, meticoloso, un buon padre di famiglia, da un giorno con l'altro, trascinato dagli eventi, diventa uno spietato assassino e, ricercato dalla polizia, comincia a vagare da Amsterdam a Parigi. Trrasformandosi pagina dopo pagina in un folle (o forse semplicemente cedendo a quella pazzia che da sempre si portava dentro, celata dietro una maschera di normalità), Popinga studia ogni mossa, come se stesse giocando una partita a scacchi col destino. La vicenda è a dir poco appassionate, lo stile di Simenon trascina il lettore in un crescendo di eventi ed è difficile posare il libro per fare altro. Il pensiero torna sempre a lui, a Popinga e a quella rivelazione scritta di suo pugno nero su bianco, che è forse da leggersi come il movente di quanto accaduto:
"Per quarant'anni mi sono annoiato. Per quarant'anni ho guardato la vita come quel poverello che col naso appiccicato alla vetrina di una pasticceria guarda gli altri mangiare i dolci. Adesso so che i dolci sono di coloro che si danno da fare per prenderseli."
Non il mio primo Simenon, ma indubbiamente il migliore che ho letto finora!
"Per quarant'anni mi sono annoiato. Per quarant'anni ho guardato la vita come quel poverello che col naso appiccicato alla vetrina di una pasticceria guarda gli altri mangiare i dolci. Adesso so che i dolci sono di coloro che si danno da fare per prenderseli."
Non il mio primo Simenon, ma indubbiamente il migliore che ho letto finora!
April 23, 2018
simenon'u, onun insan psikolojisini derinlikli anlatımını zaten çok severim ama bu kitabı çeviren ya da yeniden yazan sait faik olunca, hakkaten tadından yenmedi :)
sait faik çevireyim diye oturduğu kitapla uğraşırken bir bakmış sayfalar dolusu yazmış kendiliğinden, bazen da atlaya atlaya gitmiş, bunları kitabın önsözünde özdemir asaf tanıklığıyla okuyoruz. evet günümüz için çok şaşırtıcı ama eskiden agatha christie çevirileri bile biraz böyleydi, gönül suveren çevirileri genelde eksiktir, bazı yerler değiştirilmiştir, ama çok güzel çevirilerdir.
o nedenle hem simenon psikolojisi hem sait faik dili derken muhteşem bir okuma oldu benim için. sait faik'in dili zaten bilinir de kurgusu konusu farklı bir olayda o da öykülerinden daha farklı bir anlatım kurmuş. zenginliğine, letafetine şaşırmamak elde değil. türkçe kesinlikle gitgide kan kaybediyor, okuyunca bunu bir kez daha anladım.
sait faik çevireyim diye oturduğu kitapla uğraşırken bir bakmış sayfalar dolusu yazmış kendiliğinden, bazen da atlaya atlaya gitmiş, bunları kitabın önsözünde özdemir asaf tanıklığıyla okuyoruz. evet günümüz için çok şaşırtıcı ama eskiden agatha christie çevirileri bile biraz böyleydi, gönül suveren çevirileri genelde eksiktir, bazı yerler değiştirilmiştir, ama çok güzel çevirilerdir.
o nedenle hem simenon psikolojisi hem sait faik dili derken muhteşem bir okuma oldu benim için. sait faik'in dili zaten bilinir de kurgusu konusu farklı bir olayda o da öykülerinden daha farklı bir anlatım kurmuş. zenginliğine, letafetine şaşırmamak elde değil. türkçe kesinlikle gitgide kan kaybediyor, okuyunca bunu bir kez daha anladım.
November 9, 2023
Kees Popinga led a very strait-laced life. He operated within all the norms of society. He was appalled that there was a house of women where men go or that men cheated on their wives. He was proud to work and provide a nice place for his family. On the evening of the opening of the book, Kees tells his wife that he is going to check on a ship that the company was to supply that day and that planned to embark at midnight. When he arrived the captain was furious. None of the goods had arrived and, most importantly, the needed fuel had not been delivered. Kees apologized and said he would return to the offices to see what had happened.
On his way he had to pass that house of women. Next to it was a slum sort of tavern. As Kees looked in the window of the tavern he saw the boss inside. There, Kees learned that the boss had been embezzling for years, that the company would no longer operate, that everyone would be out of a job. The boss intended that night to fake his own suicide and disappear.
This was the beginning of the end for Kees. How does a man who has lived entirely according to society's norms behave? His unravelling seems to come in stages. The novel is told entirely from the viewpoint of Kees Popinga. The reader knows how he thinks and what he does.
This is the first of Simenon's roman durs, or hard novels. He wanted to be done with Maigret and spent several years writing these psychological novels. I'm happy that I have more of them on hand. I think this isn't the best of the roman durs I've read, but it is still good enough to cross the 3/4-star line.
On his way he had to pass that house of women. Next to it was a slum sort of tavern. As Kees looked in the window of the tavern he saw the boss inside. There, Kees learned that the boss had been embezzling for years, that the company would no longer operate, that everyone would be out of a job. The boss intended that night to fake his own suicide and disappear.
This was the beginning of the end for Kees. How does a man who has lived entirely according to society's norms behave? His unravelling seems to come in stages. The novel is told entirely from the viewpoint of Kees Popinga. The reader knows how he thinks and what he does.
This is the first of Simenon's roman durs, or hard novels. He wanted to be done with Maigret and spent several years writing these psychological novels. I'm happy that I have more of them on hand. I think this isn't the best of the roman durs I've read, but it is still good enough to cross the 3/4-star line.
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