Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Carit Andersen, 1967.
Description
The story of a woman who rebels against the emptiness of her marriage. Translated by Louise Varese. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.
User reviews
LibraryThing member LolaWalser
The only mystery in this book is how is it possible for a man to destroy a human being--here, his own wife--without even noticing. Until, that is, she attempts to kill him.
François Donge, a self-made businessman but still very much the son of a rude peasant, married hapless 17-year-old Bébé
For some bizarre reason he assumes from the start that Bébé accepts because her towering ambition is simply to be married (only coincidentally to him personally), and not because she loves him--rustics like François apparently don't know love exists.
But he does know sex, and that his young wife can't satisfy him because she's too inept and cold (NB: a 17-year-old virgin), as he concludes already on their wedding night. Thus they begin their life together on false premises and unsatisfactorily even from the point of view of a purely physical relationship. While François busies himself with his expanding businesses, exciting travel and numerous sexual adventures, Bébé sinks into almost total social isolation and listlessness. Not even the birth of a son, conceived only after she humbly asks for a child, helps to make them a real family. The boy and his mother, both delicate beings, exist apart from the father bursting with energy but with none to bestow on them.
François' reminiscences after the murder attempt bring back the many touching gestures when Bébé tried to get closer to him, to make them know each other, none of which he understood or bothered about at the time. On the contrary, his behaviour comes into relief as monstrously callous and cruel--and the man wasn't even going for that!
I think that's what Simenon was most interested in showing here--how blind people (notably men) can be to the suffering of others (notably women). We certainly get this message, but I wouldn't call this a successful novel.
While I found Bébé's character and fate sadly plausible, I wasn't convinced by François' change of heart when he realised how mistakenly he judged everything about her from the beginning. I'm not sure an authentic persona of that type could make that realisation in the first place. It doesn't seem possible that anyone who behaved all his life with utter selfishness and disregard for others (it's not just Bébé but all women he treats as if they were subhuman), who's never been in love and scoffs at the idea of love, who apparently doesn't love even his son (and feels compelled to accept him as his own only because the boy has the telltale "Donge nose"), would all of a sudden find himself yearning for his wife and regretting the life they might have had.
It would appear that this "change of heart" was forced more by the narrative structure, Simenon needing a knowing narrator to reconstruct the tale and slowly disperse the enigma around Bébé. Given its intimate nature, what details he chose to illustrate the marital alienation, he had no choice but to use François.
There were parts when I was wondering whether Simenon was being satanically satirical. Not sure how much of a sense of humour he had...
François Donge, a self-made businessman but still very much the son of a rude peasant, married hapless 17-year-old Bébé
Show More
d'Onneville with no greater conviction than that a serious man must eventually get a wife and start a family, and as his brother Félix was marrying one of two sisters, why not marry the other one himself.For some bizarre reason he assumes from the start that Bébé accepts because her towering ambition is simply to be married (only coincidentally to him personally), and not because she loves him--rustics like François apparently don't know love exists.
But he does know sex, and that his young wife can't satisfy him because she's too inept and cold (NB: a 17-year-old virgin), as he concludes already on their wedding night. Thus they begin their life together on false premises and unsatisfactorily even from the point of view of a purely physical relationship. While François busies himself with his expanding businesses, exciting travel and numerous sexual adventures, Bébé sinks into almost total social isolation and listlessness. Not even the birth of a son, conceived only after she humbly asks for a child, helps to make them a real family. The boy and his mother, both delicate beings, exist apart from the father bursting with energy but with none to bestow on them.
François' reminiscences after the murder attempt bring back the many touching gestures when Bébé tried to get closer to him, to make them know each other, none of which he understood or bothered about at the time. On the contrary, his behaviour comes into relief as monstrously callous and cruel--and the man wasn't even going for that!
I think that's what Simenon was most interested in showing here--how blind people (notably men) can be to the suffering of others (notably women). We certainly get this message, but I wouldn't call this a successful novel.
While I found Bébé's character and fate sadly plausible, I wasn't convinced by François' change of heart when he realised how mistakenly he judged everything about her from the beginning. I'm not sure an authentic persona of that type could make that realisation in the first place. It doesn't seem possible that anyone who behaved all his life with utter selfishness and disregard for others (it's not just Bébé but all women he treats as if they were subhuman), who's never been in love and scoffs at the idea of love, who apparently doesn't love even his son (and feels compelled to accept him as his own only because the boy has the telltale "Donge nose"), would all of a sudden find himself yearning for his wife and regretting the life they might have had.
It would appear that this "change of heart" was forced more by the narrative structure, Simenon needing a knowing narrator to reconstruct the tale and slowly disperse the enigma around Bébé. Given its intimate nature, what details he chose to illustrate the marital alienation, he had no choice but to use François.
There were parts when I was wondering whether Simenon was being satanically satirical. Not sure how much of a sense of humour he had...
Show Less
LibraryThing member antao
The Donge brothers are entrepreneurs of the unsophisticated sort. Their many businesses involve tanning, pig farming, and cheese making. They marry two sisters and both couples seem, on the surface at least, happy. François and Bébé never fight or even disagree, but one Sunday she slips arsenic
Rereading is fraught with what-was-I-thinking potential. When I've reread something that didn't live up to the memory, I retain the initial rating. Sentimentality? Maybe. Mostly, it just seems fair.
I loved “La Verite sur Bebe Donge” - it reminded me of Mauriac’s “Therese Desqueyroux”, which is more widely known as a twentieth-century classic. Covers similar themes.
Show More
into his coffee and calmly awaits the results. François survives, but his life is in pieces. The enigmatic Bébé, the egocentric François, his loyal brother, his delicate son, his gossipy sister-in-law, and his enormous mother-in-law are all wonderfully drawn in Simenon's distinctive manner. Simenon's theme here is a familiar one of his, the absolute failure of people to understand each other. As the story proceeds, Francois is revealed as a self-absorbed lowlife who treated his wife appallingly, engaged in repeated infidelities and neglected their child. Had the abused spouse reached the end of her tether? Does Simenon ultimately reveal the truth about Bébé? I recommend it highly; it’s another splendid “Romans Durs” from the great man.Rereading is fraught with what-was-I-thinking potential. When I've reread something that didn't live up to the memory, I retain the initial rating. Sentimentality? Maybe. Mostly, it just seems fair.
I loved “La Verite sur Bebe Donge” - it reminded me of Mauriac’s “Therese Desqueyroux”, which is more widely known as a twentieth-century classic. Covers similar themes.
Show Less
Language
Original language
French
Physical description
184 p.; 22.2 cm
Local notes
Omslag: Ikke angivet
Omslaget viser forfatternavn og titel med hvidt på en baggrund af et sort gitter
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra fransk "La Vérité sur Bébé Donge" af Carl Blechingberg
Omslaget viser forfatternavn og titel med hvidt på en baggrund af et sort gitter
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra fransk "La Vérité sur Bébé Donge" af Carl Blechingberg
Similar in this library
Series
Pages
184
DDC/MDS
| 843.912 |