DESTINATIONS

by Georges Simenon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 11, 1955

Again the double novelette volume, the first, The Hitchhiker, with an American scene, and the second, The Burial of Mr. Bouvet, with a contemporary French, each in contrast with the other. For the terrible traffic toll of the Labor Day Weekend intensifies Steve's drinking, his resentment towards his wife, Nancy, and the push to get their children at camp in Maine -- all of which causes Nancy to leave him, while he is in a bar, and head for camp by herself. Drunker and drunker, Steve picks up a passenger, is abandoned by him, discovers his wife has never reached camp and finds her in a hospital where she has been taken after she has been raped. The relationship between them is resolved when the crime is pinned, by both of them, on his hitchhiker. The other tells of the results that Mr. Bouvet's sudden death turn up, through those who recognize his picture in the Paris paper, the successive facts in his life, from his rebellion at home, to his so-called marriage, his going native in the Congo, his life with his mistress and as a World War II spy -- along with the variety of identities that accompanied his careers. All this from labyrinthian police work preceding the actual funeral. Simenon subjects recognizably handled.

Pub Date: Aug. 11, 1955

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1955

Categories: FICTION