A typical Simenon romans durs (intense psychological novel) features a protagonist's everyday world shattered by catastrophe - murder (The Strangers in the House), death of a friend (The Hand), kidnapping (Red Lights), fatal auto accident (The Accomplices), fatal illness (The Iron Staircase).
With Aboard the Aquitaine, the famous Belgium/French author takes a different tact - rather than one life-changing event, the main character, a physician by the name of Donadieu, must deal with a string of challenges aboard an ocean liner's three week journey from the mouth of the Congo in West Africa to a port city in France.
A short novel that can be read in an afternoon, Aboard the Aquitaine is included with Talatala and Tropic Moon as part of African Trio published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. I posted separate reviews for the other two novels.
Turning to Aboard the Aquitaine, readers are treated to Simenon's signature laser sharp insights into human nature and relationships. Here's a batch of snapshots as the good Dr. Donadieu makes his rounds:
"Lachaux, an old colonial who owned a whole province in the Congo." ---------- This beefy, huge, muscular brute of a man is almost a stereotype - the poor laborer turned wealthy owner by way of a lifetime of murder (mostly of blacks), exploitation (mostly of blacks), cheating and stealing (everybody). And, almost predictably, Lachaux tries to bully everyone on the ship.
"This was not the first time they had shipped Chinese. Thousands had been taken to Pointe-Noire to work on the railroad, because the blacks could not tolerate the work." ---------- Many are the stinging social commentaries. But packing Chinese together on a ship can have dire consequences - aboard the Aquitaine, Donadieu must deal with crisis: several of those Chinese die on board. Donadieu says it was typhus but the white passengers think it could be a transmittable disease.
"The blacks on deck did not exist." ---------- Simenon write this novel in the 1970s. Even at that date, he could see Europeans still treated native Africans as if they were little more than nameless, faceless animals. Such despicable racism!!
"Captain Claude, who was meticulous, punctual, a stickler for the rules, hated nothing so much as guerrilla fighters like Lachaux." ---------- The Captain is all business and a completely honest perfectionist, just the type of person to come in conflict with the likes of bigmouth bully Lachaux.
"Yet he felt that some people were destined to suffer a catastrophe, just as others were born to live a long and peaceful life." ---------- Throughout the entire novel, by way of the doctor, Simenon ponders philosophic questions - life and death, fate and freedom.
"The crazy man said that if the children went on making so much noise he would throw them overboard." ----------- Nothing like having a passenger completely insane aboard to spice up the action. Fortunately, the Aquitaine has a padded cabin functioning as a padded cell.
"He blushed. He was acting as though he was jealous of Huret, or, rather, as though he resented the fact that Huret was not confirming his predictions by heading straight into some kind of disaster." -------------- The doctor takes a particular interest in 23-year-old Huret, an accountant returning from his post in Africa to France, a man with wife and sick baby on board, a man in a heap of debt.
"If this goes on," she said calmly, "I'm going to ask you to give me some Veronal."
"What would you want it for?"
"To kill myself with."
--------------------- So says Huret's wife. The doctor must deal with his patients aboard with tenderness and compassion.
"What was upsetting him was Madame Dassonville's standing apart from the others." ---------- This lady is another stereotype aboard an ocean liner: the wealthy, snooty European who would like to believe she is in Paris not a ship, someone who treats all officers, even the Captain, as her personal servants.
"Donadieu got up and did his ten times around the deck, striding along by himself, and then went down to his cabin, slowly washed, and took the little pot of opium from his cupboard, along with the pipe, the oil lamp, and the needles." ---------- Simenon wants us to appreciate all facets of the doctor's life on the 3-week voyage.
Pick up African Trio and read all 3 Simenon novels. So worth your time.
Georges Simenon - 1903-1989
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