THE MAN ON THE BENCH IN THE BARN

by Georges Simenon ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 25, 1970

This is one of Simenon's life studies in men and women mapping the tedium of little lives--the grey days and the white nights--interrupted by one kind of obsession or another. This time that of Donald, a lawyer of negligible attraction and success, as compared to his old friend Ray. Ray had married a woman of great allure, Mona, while Donald's Isabel is very plain. Ray disappears in a blizzard, and by default Donald feels responsible for his death. Often he is haunted and taunted by his cowardice during the night he spent on the bench in the barn; later he is tantalized by Mona with whom he has an affair; finally he begins to hate Isabel since she represents the ""wet-blanketing of his life"" and. . . . Simenon clocks this once again with soundless precision and there's a delayed fuse lurking behind the simplest statement.

Pub Date: March 25, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt, Brace & World

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1970

Categories: FICTION