Title:: [[The Mahé Circle]] Authors:: [[Georges Simenon]] Tags:: #fiction Read:: [[2026-02-18]] Instagram :: https://www.instagram.com/p/DU6kPYmjgdW/ ## Editions - Edition:: [[Penguin Classics]], 2014 - Original Copyright:: 1946 - Pages:: 150 ## Purchase * Bookshop.org:: https://bookshop.org/a/94437/9781250425874 ## Annotations Been going through a Baader-Meinhof thing with Simenon of late. He kept popping up in things I was reading (Am I imagining Nin reading one of his novels in between trysts with Henry Miller?), and the references always made him seem appealing, like a high-brow beach read.  The Mahé Circle fits the bill, even categorized as one of his roman durs (hard novels, nbd). What makes this one “dur” is the psychological realism and the quiet oppression of the familiar and mundane. What stands out is the breeziness of the harshness, and I think we all could use a little more breeziness with our harshness these days.  Translated by Siân Reynolds.