ODOYA LIBRARY 171

All I can remember is he wrote 80 pages a day. He cranked out articles/stories/novels like Henry Ford did cars--that's what Simenon said. He only wrote one draft. He plopped them out like--well you know which end I mean. ( )

Bought this at the remainder tables at Chapters. When I go to the remainder tables, I discover many of my favourite authors. I am a cheap person and usually buy cheap remainder books to full-price books at a ratio of 5 to 1 or 7 to 1. The tables are filled with mass market thrillers and mystery books. Of course I have no problem with that kind of book, and I read mysteries and thrillers all the time. But when I find a book like this one on a more esoteric subject, I am happy to get off the hook of paying full price.

If you like Pierre Assouline, I definitely recommend the following link (the magazine he used to work for):
http://www.magazine-litteraire.com/

and the following book that he edited while working at that same magazine:

http://www.librarything.com/work/9628913/book/57120573

Les grands entretiens de Lire : (octobre 1975-janvier 2000)

Anyway, the subject of this review is supposed to be the biography, and I hope you can forgive me for delaying the real topic. Yes it was interesting to find out about Simenon and his family. Even though I indulge in reading about famous authors, I prefer to leave their private lives just that way, namely private. (Especially when with authors like Simenon, there were a lot of contentious issues between him and his family, and between him and the general public regarding his amazingly strong ego--not that a strong ego is wrong to have, but when it seems to hurt all of those around you, that is when it is the worst.) I think that it is better to just let the novels and other creative forms of writing speak for themselves. I do not think that knowing the personal life of the writer helps that much.
Of course, the actual number of biographies that I have read gives the lie to the above statement.
Checking the list of books in print by Pierre Assouline, I see that there is a significant number. I will seek out more and read them as time permits.

Simenon, Georges, 1903-/Novelists, Belgian > 20th century > Biography