Rating: 3/5
Review:
A disappointing collection
I like Maigret very much, but I found this collection rather unsatisfactory.
For me, Maigret doesn’t lend himself to the short story form. The novels are commendably brief, but they have the scope for Simenon to do what he does best: to build both an enveloping atmosphere and sense of place, and to paint some shrewd character portraits. The mysteries themselves are well done, but they aren’t the main point of the novels; in a short story that’s pretty well all we get, of course, and their tricky-puzzle-and-almost-instant-brilliant-solution structure left me rather cold.
These new translations aren’t bad, but they aren’t as lucid as most of those in this series and overall I found the collection disappointing. I am currently gradually reading the whole Maigret canon from the beginning with great pleasure, but I can’t really recommend this.
For me, Maigret doesn’t lend himself to the short story form. The novels are commendably brief, but they have the scope for Simenon to do what he does best: to build both an enveloping atmosphere and sense of place, and to paint some shrewd character portraits. The mysteries themselves are well done, but they aren’t the main point of the novels; in a short story that’s pretty well all we get, of course, and their tricky-puzzle-and-almost-instant-brilliant-solution structure left me rather cold.
These new translations aren’t bad, but they aren’t as lucid as most of those in this series and overall I found the collection disappointing. I am currently gradually reading the whole Maigret canon from the beginning with great pleasure, but I can’t really recommend this.
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