The story and setting of Françoise Mallet-Joris’ House of Lies might have come straight out of a Simenon novel. The narrative concerns a wealthy brewer, Klaes van Baarnheim and his disagreeable, scheming relatives. Unbeknown to van Baarnheim, he has not long to live and his extended family bicker over the fate of his fortune and … Continue reading House of Lies / Françoise Mallet-Joris
Author: Graeme Macrae Burnet
Uncle Charles
The original title of Uncle Charles is Oncle Charles s’est enfermé – Uncle Charles has locked himself in - and this is exactly what happens at the beginning of the novel: Charles Dupeux returns from work, goes upstairs and barricades himself in the attic. Downstairs, his wife, Laurence, and his three daughters take their evening … Continue reading Uncle Charles
The Unfortunates / B.S. Johnson
On the inside lid of the box which contains the unbound chapters of BS Johnson’s The Unfortunates is the following note: If readers prefer not to accept the random order in which they receive the novel, they may re-arrange the sections into any other random order before reading. So what do you do? You are … Continue reading The Unfortunates / B.S. Johnson
The Reckoning
Jules Malétras is a thoroughly unpleasant man. He is a wealthy, retired businessman, tight-fisted and contemptuous of those around him. In the opening chapter of The Reckoning, he strangles his young mistress, Lulu, because she refuses to undress for him. It is not that he particularly desires to see her naked; rather, he is angered … Continue reading The Reckoning
The Family Lie
As his son lies in bed with diphtheria, a Paris doctor, Edouard Malempin, struggles to remember the details of his own childhood, jotting down his recollections in a school exercise book. Again and again, Malempin reminds us of the unreliable nature of his memory: ‘I’m not sure’; ‘I don’t remember’; ‘There what I remember ends’; … Continue reading The Family Lie
Red Lights
Steve Hogan and his wife, Nancy, leave New York on Labor Day to drive to Maine to collect their children from summer camp. Steve feels himself ‘going into the tunnel’, an expression he uses privately to describe his desire to go on a drinking binge. Steve suffers from feelings of inadequacy due to the fact … Continue reading Red Lights
The Murderer
Han Kuperus is a respectable doctor in the provincial Dutch town of Sneek. He has received an anonymous note informing him that his wife is having an affair with his friend, Schutter, and, in the opening chapter, he returns early from his weekly trip to Amsterdam and shoots the couple dead on a canal path … Continue reading The Murderer
An American Romance / Hans Koningsberger
I picked up a copy of Hans Koningsberger’s An American Romance in a second-hand bookshop purely on the strength of its cover. I had never heard of Hans Koningsberger. I read the book, liked it and googled the author. He was born in Amsterdam in 1921and moved to the USA in 1951, later shortening his … Continue reading An American Romance / Hans Koningsberger
The Others
There are no happy families in Simenon. The Others concerns one such family, the provincial bourgeois Huets, whose tensions and grudges are thrown into relief by the suicide of the wealthy patriarch of the clan, Uncle Antoine. The novel is narrated, loosely in the form of a diary, by Antoine’s nephew, Blaise, a dissatisfied art … Continue reading The Others
The Glass Cage
Émile Virieu, 44, is a proof-reader for a Paris printing firm. He works in a glass cage in the centre of the office, cut off from his colleagues. He is married to an unattractive translator, Jeanne, with whom he shares some companionship, but neither a bed nor conversation. Virieu’s life follows a strict routine – … Continue reading The Glass Cage
Graeme Macrae Burnet 