The Move, a 1967 Simenon romans durs (psychological, non-Margret novel) about a family having moved from their Paris flat in Rue des Frances-Bourgeois (pictured above) to one of the many recently constructed multistory apartment buildings on the outskirts of the city.
The Move follows the customary Simenon strict point-of-view format, where it's as if we're right next to the main character, taking in unfolding events as he or she (nearly always a he) experiences them. In this case, we follow Emile Jovis who has moved his wife Blanche and thirteen-year-old son Alain to their new, sterile suburban space they will now call home.
But, hey, these are the 1960s where new counts as a value in and of itself. Emile thinks new apartment, new life; finally, a place that's brand-new, completely clean, a place where he and his family will be free of the grime of prior tenants' disappointments, anxieties, unhappiness and illnesses, not to mention all those dirty old people hanging around on their front steps and outside the shops back in the Rue des Frances-Bourgeois.
Simenon folds in the backstory for both Emile (son of strict schoolteacher father and meek mother) and Blanche (orphan raised by her aunt) and also sketches Emile's daily round as one of the valued staff in a family-owned Paris travel agency. All this to set the framework for the shock awaiting Emile.
Oh, yes, the shock. It happens on the very first night in their new bedroom: Blanche, as per usual, instantly falls into a solid sleep with her faint rhythmic hum but Emile remains awake and can hear the next door neighbors through the paper thin wall. And what Emile hears prompts him to press his ear against the wall and keep alert during their second night in their new apartment, exactly where we find Emile on the opening pages of The Move.
Emile's diligence pays off. On the third night, Emile overhears more snatches of tantalizing conversation and what must be unmentionable sexual stunts and acrobatics. There's even talk of a night club, the Carillon, and (ooh la la) the strippers. Emile hears several names - Alexa, Irène, Little Louis, León - along with mention of a Mercedes-Benz and fifteen thousand francs.
So intriguing. Are his neighbors running a car theft ring? How does it all fit together with what he overheard on the first night? There was a man (Emile eventually learns his name is Jean Farran) and, my God, a raving woman. “She was no longer a woman in the normal sense, such as one meets in the street. She was an unleashed wild animal, an animal with the gift of speech bursting into the most terrible words.”
The morning following the third night, Emile catches sight of the man who must be Jean Ferran on the outside terrace. Ferran is tall, thick, muscular and tanned and wears nothing but a pair of shorts. Oh, what a specimen!
Emile wonders how Ferran and the others are involved with that Carillon night club. Emile can hardly contain his curiosity; he's propelled to pay a visit to the Carillon. And what happens when Emile does swing into action...for Simenon to tell.
What are we to make of The Move? Simenon offers the following 'By Way of a Preface' - “Certain critics, rare it is true, certain foreign publishers used to fine big books, really thick ones, have reproached me for only writing short novels. This one (The Move) is particularly short. I could have diluted it. I would have considered myself, if I had acted in that way, guilty of cheating my readers and myself.”
My sense is Simenon has taken pains to let a reader of The Move fill in the gaps. Again, we're only privy to what's happening by way of Emile. We'd be reading a much different novel if Simenon used multiple narrators (what I refer to as rotating first-person) - that is, if, say, The Move was also told from Jean Farran's perspective and maybe even rotating to Alexa and then to Irène. If we had four narrators, we'd be reading one of those big, thick books, for sure. But no, Simenon sticks with his strict single protagonist point-of-view. In other words, Simenon has written another classic Simenon, a short novel that can be read in a few hours. Thanks, Georges!
Novelist Georges Simenon, 1903-1989
"Practically every word was an insult to Jovis, to his upbringing, to his principles. To begin with, he would have preferred not to hear. Also he was afraid that his wife would wake up and hear....It was not possible. He refused to believe it. These people used the crudest, most graphic words and took a malicious pleasure in commenting on each one of their movements, especially the women." -- Georges Simenon, The Move
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