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or L’horloger d’Everton – published 1954

translated from the French by Norman Denny (1957)

More than a dozen of Simenon’s novels are set in the US, written during the ten years he spent there when he was in his 40s. Since a youngster, he had always wanted to visit and live there. Initially he headed for Quebec, where the language was less of an issue, and wrote [book:Three Bedrooms in Manhattan|139055], perhaps the most famous of his romans durs.
After a Maigret, ([book:Inspector Maigret in New York’s Underworld|13132652]) he wrote a book not yet translated into English, [book:La Jument- Perdue|2351759].

He divorced his then wife, and with better English, moved first to Maine, and then to Connecticut, embarking on a series of novels that what were to be know as les romans Américains, of which this is one of the later ones.

This is a character study of a man, Dave Galloway, a father of a 16 year old boy, in distress, looking back over his life to see if there is anything he could have done differently. Protagonists wracked by guilt is something of a favourite of Simenon. His son, Ben, has fallen in love with a younger girl, one of the first girls he has properly met, and the two of the elope in the father’s car, to get married in Chicago. The car soon breaks down, and Ben commandeers another vehicle, shooting the driver, and continues the journey. As the police chase begins, he is soon headlines of the news.
Simenon writes particularly well about guilt, and this is one of the best examples of his work, though surprisingly long out of print in the UK. Galloway blames himself, that he grew up without a father, that his marriage broke down when the boy was a toddler. The press just make it worse; “how could a father not know he was raising a monster?”.
“Do you know your son well, Mr. Galloway?” the police ask..

It was adapted as a film in 1974, L’Horloger de Saint-Paul starring Philippe Noiret and directed by Bertrand Tavernier.

From his American collection, 12 translations published over a ten year period, Simenon deserves recognition as one of the best American novelists of his generation, and yet, many of them lie sleeping, out of print, waiting for rediscovery, and perhaps even an exciting fresh translation.

And of course, for a brave publisher, there are those, such as that I mentioned above, and the likes of, [book:Un nouveau dans la ville|140693], which still await an English translation..