Just finished reading Three Bedroom in Manhattan by Georges Simenon. This short, cinematic novel tells the story of a failed actor and the woman he meets on a whim one night in a diner. They immediately form a turbulent union which Simenon conveys in a casual style befitting an author who spawned over 500 works in his lifetime.
Maybe this isn’t one of his seminal works. To be honest, I’d be surprised if it was. Three Bedrooms in Manhattan is so laissez-faire that it’s actually very boring. All that would be alright if the novel wasn’t quite so comfortable in its blasé delivery of serious domestic abuse. Ultimately, it was a little bit too cinema noir for me, a little bit too suave for its own good. For a short novel, I found it hard to wade through.
No matter how stylish the prose was, the character nor the plot was interesting enough to motivate me. My first experience with Simenon was sadly not what I expected but I can rest safe in the knowledge that there’s hundreds more out there for me to try.
SHOTS FIRED.
2/5
