Customer Reviews

Maigret at the Gai-Moulin

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You can compare my review to the other one on this book. OUr views are not the same.

I found this book, which I read in French while living in California, to be a delight. It takes place in Liege, in the country of Simenon's birth, long before most of the novels. And part of the suspense (for it is a suspense murder mystery) is waiting for Maigret to appear.

Eventually the large figure in his dark winter overcoat enters the story, well supplied with his pipe(s) and tobacco, his mind racing over possibilities. And we are not disappointed, even after reading countless later stories. Not only does Simenon give us a satisfactory ending, but we have a splendid picture of an almost "old world" Liege and the kind of people who lived and worked in it.

No, definitely not just a "holiday book", this. Rather, a book for all seasons. Give it a try and you will agree.

Atmosphere is stranger than in others Maigret's novels. But it's also very good novel. If you have read "Pedigree" (Simenon's childhood autobiography) you can make interesting parallels between one of the two young boys and Simenon himself. It seems to say to us that the line between criminals and the other humans isn't very large ...

Georges Simenon sends his intrepid Parisian detective Maigret to Liege, Belgium in this nifty little crime novel of murder, larceny and international intrigue. A Greek national of mysterious background is murdered after spending an evening in a seedy Liege nightclub. Two adolescent boys become involved when their own attempts to raid the boite's cash register go awry. Inspector Maigret has meanwhile entered the scene, identified as an unknown, "broad-shouldered" stranger by everyone that the Belgian police pull in to question about the Greek's murder. As always, Maigret suspects that the basest of human motives is at the bottom of the seemingly complicated murder, and ultimately solves the first crime while uncovering a second, larger one.

"Maigret at the Gai-Moulin" is a neat little package of a story that visits some of Simenon's favorite themes: human foibles, abuses of wealth and power, and the social and economic gaps between the monied and working classes. This is a fine read in the Harcourt series of Georges Simenon reprints that go all the way back to the 1930s. These books are usually witty, evocative of the place and period and right-on successors to the writings of Emile Zola and others that preceded Simenon. Recommended.

Two boys (Chabot 16, Delfosse 18) are out drinking at the Gai-Moulin nightclub. They are chummy with Adèle, a hostess paid to dance with customers, which makes them feel like men about town. But they can't really afford to be as dissipated as they wish, even though Delfosse is a rich kid, so they decide to hide out after closing and steal the money in the till.

Their plans are upset when they see a corpse in the dark. Now the almost-thieves have to worry about being implicated in murder.

The plot is unusual in that we don't see Maigret for well into the book, which is set in Liege. Instead we observe the Belgian police at work.

There are crimes upon crimes to occupy Maigret when he finally shows his hand. The Belgian inspector, of course, hardly knows what to make of his phlegmatic French compatriot!

Long neglected and at the bottom of the barrel in sales here on Amazon, this gem takes place in Liege, Belgium presumably in 1931, the year it was written. Two teenaged boys, anxious to dip into the till of the Gai-Moulin nightclub where they waste away their time, hide in the basement until the place empties out. After working up their courage to commit their first criminal act, they creep upstairs, light a match to see where they're going, and find a dead body sprawled across the floor. They panic and run off. From this intriguing beginning, the story unwinds with a typical cast of Simenon characters and seeming contradictions.

I first quibbled with the translator, Geoffrey Sainsbury, as I thought the writing lacked the usual pop I've grown accustomed to. Word choice for a translator is key to either adding life to the prose or making the story flat. But this translation is the only one out there, and eventually the prose and pace picked up and drew me in thoroughly. Another slight difficulty for me was the non-appearance of Maigret until well past the middle of the book. We find out later that he's been there all along, hiding not just from the police, but from us too. Without Maigret, this work is merely good and gives us delicious European flavor and atmosphere as well as those ever-interesting characters.

From what I've read of Simenon thus far, his view of pre-WWII European social class structure comes across loud and clear: upper class folks are bored, corrupt, and blundering. They are contrasted to salt of the earth types, hard-working people scraping together a living, and the middle class, all of whom are knocked around by the elite. Maigret (Simenon) is the master weaver in these stories who understands the common threads with which European society is sewn and, standing apart, can analyze people's motives, morality, and lives. He himself seems to be of the middle class, as this brief description of his life at his apartment on Boulevard Richard-Lenoir reveals: "...Maigret was looking through his mail. 'Anything interesting?' asked Madame Maigret as she vigorously shook a rug out the window." Simenon plants all kinds of characters and events in the "rug" he weaves, and then vigorously shakes them out, cleaning his concoction nicely for us. All very entertaining.

Highly recommended for a literary evening by the fire.

I read this book while I was on my vacation and I think it is exactly that sort of book :a vacation one. It is ok.