The Disappearance of Odile
![]() Cover of the 1st French edition | |
Author | Georges Simenon |
---|---|
Original title | La disparition d'Odile |
Translator | Lyn Moir |
Language | French |
Set in | Lausanne, Paris |
Publisher | Club français du livre |
Publication date | 1971 |
Published in English | 1972 |
La disparition d'Odile (translated as The Disappearance of Odile, 1971) is a novel by Belgian writer Georges Simenon;[1] it is one of the author's self-described roman durs, or more literary "hard novels," to distinguish it from his romans populaires or "popular novels," which are primarily mysteries that usually feature his famous Inspector Maigret character.[2]
La disparition d'Odile was translated into English by Lyn Moir for Hamish Hamilton and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1972.[3][4]
Background and composition
The character of Odile was clearly inspired by Simenon's daughter, Marie-Jo, who suffered from manic depression, and was deeply affected by the violent quarrels that frequently flared up between her mother and father. Despite the novel's optimistic ending—a definite rarity within the author's oeuvre—Marie-Jo committed suicide two years later after a number of other unsuccessful attempts.[5][6][7][8][9]
The book was completed in Epalinges on 4 October 1970.[9]
Before appearing in book form in editions by Club français du livre [fr] and Presses de la Cité, the work was serialized in La Gazette de Lausanne [fr] over the course of forty issues, from 5 December 1970 to 23 January 1971.[9]
Plot summary
Odile Pointet is an eighteen-year-old girl from Lausanne who feels uncomfortable in her own skin. She has had many empty and meaningless love affairs, and is tired of living with her father, a successful writer who only thinks about his books, and her mother, who does nothing but drink and host bridge parties.
Odile decides to leave Lausanne for Paris, but is not merely running away: she takes with her her father's revolver and some sleeping pills, intending to commit suicide. She leaves a letter for her brother Bob explaining her intentions, and after reading it he sets off in search of his sister.
In Paris, Odile stays in a number of hotel rooms of varying quality. She sleeps most of the day, and at night frequents the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district. Odile has an intense but short-lived affair, after which she decides the time has come for her to end her life. She writes a second letter to Bob in which she explains her inability to form a lasting relationship with a man. She then slits her wrist in the bathtub.
She is saved by a medical student named Albert Galabar, who hears Odile screaming as she is cutting her wrist. Comforted by the young man's tenderness and care, she regains a taste for life. Suspecting that her brother has been searching for her, Odile meets him at a hotel on the Rue Gay-Lussac [fr], where her family used to stay. Bob contacts his parents to let them know he has found his sister, and the two return to Lausanne.
But Odile still feels ill at ease at home. She finds the family atmosphere to be oppressive, and once again she leaves for Paris, where she returns to her hotel room and Albert Galabar, to whom she entrusts her father's revolver. Odile looks forward to finding a job and having a life of her own.[5][6][7][8][9]
Reception
In his biography of Simenon, Pierre Assouline writes: "La Disparition d’Odile is a frightful portrait of father and daughter, especially in view of the context in which it was written and its fictionalized self-criticism."[5]
An anonymous reviewer writing for Kirkus Reviews opines: "A very frugal psychological study, not lackadaisical so much as listless . . . M. Simenon recites all this in a flatly declarative fashion as if his heart weren't in it and his very good mind were elsewhere."[10]
References
- ^ Simenon, Georges (1971). La Disparition d'Odile, roman. Paris: Presses de la Cité.
- ^ Simenon, Georges; Rush, Norman (2005). Tropic Moon. New York: NYRB. pp. vii. ISBN 159017111X.
- ^ Simenon, Georges (1972). The disappearance of Odile (in English and French). London: H. Hamilton.
- ^ Simenon, Georges (1972). The disappearance of Odile (in English and French) (1st American ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 978-0-15-125720-1.
- ^ a b c Assouline, Pierre (1997). Simenon : a biography. Internet Archive. London : Chatto & Windus. ISBN 978-0-7011-3727-4.
- ^ a b Lucille Frackman Becker (1999). Georges Simenon revisited. Internet Archive. Twayne Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8057-4557-3.
- ^ a b Carter, David R. (2003). Georges Simenon. Internet Archive. Harpenden : Pocket Essentials. ISBN 978-1-904048-21-3.
- ^ a b Becker, Lucille Frackman (2006). Georges Simenon : 'Maigrets' and the 'romans durs'. Internet Archive. London : Haus. ISBN 978-1-904950-34-9.
- ^ a b c d "Notice bibliographique". www.association-jacques-riviere-alain-fournier.com. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
- ^ "Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2023-10-15.
External links
- The Disappearance of Odile on the Internet Archive
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novels
- The Strange Case of Peter the Lett (1931)
- The Crime at Lock 14 (1931)
- The Death of Monsieur Gallet (1931)
- The Crime of Inspector Maigret (1931)
- A Battle of Nerves (1931)
- Maigret and the Yellow Dog (1931)
- Maigret at the Crossroads (1931)
- The Sailors' Rendezvous (1931)
- Maigret at the Gai-Moulin (1931)
- Guinguette by the Seine (1931)
- The Shadow in the Courtyard (1932)
- Maigret Goes Home (1932)
- The Flemish Shop (1932)
- Death of a Harbour Master (1932)
- The Madman of Bergerac (1932)
- Maigret in Exile (1940)
- Maigret and the Hotel Majestic (1942)
- Maigret and the Spinster (1942)
- To Any Lengths (1944)
- Maigret and the Toy Village (1944)
- Maigret in Retirement (1947)
- Maigret in New York (1947)
- A Summer Holiday (1948)
- Maigret's Dead Man (1948)
- Maigret's First Case (1948)
- My Friend Maigret (1949)
- Maigret and the Coroner (1949)
- Maigret and the Old Lady (1950)
- Madame Maigret's Own Case (1950)
- Maigret's Memoirs (1950)
- Inspector Maigret and the Strangled Stripper (1950)
- Maigret and the Burglar's Wife (1951)
- Maigret, Lognon and the Gangsters (1951)
- Maigret's Revolver (1952)
- Maigret and the Man on the Boulevard (1953)
- Maigret's Mistake (1953)
- Maigret Goes to School (1954)
- Maigret and the Headless Corpse (1955)
- Maigret Sets a Trap (1955)
- Maigret's Failure (1956)
- Maigret Has Scruples (1958)
- Maigret and the Lazy Burglar (1961)
- Maigret and the Saturday Caller (1962)
- Maigret and the Dosser (1963)
- Maigret on the Defensive (1964)
- The Patience of Maigret (1965)
- Maigret Hesitates (1968)
- Maigret and the Killer (1969)
- Maigret and the Mad Woman (1970)
- Maigret and the Loner (1971)
- Maigret and Monsieur Charles (1972)
- Les Fiançailles de M. Hire (1933)
- The Night Club (1933)
- Tropic Moon (1933)
- Chit of a Girl (1938)
- The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By (1938)
- Le Bourgmestre de Furnes (1939)
- The Strangers in the House (1940)
- Strange Inheritance (1941)
- La Veuve Couderc (1942)
- Young Cardinaud (1942)
- Act of Passion (1946)
- The Mahé Circle (1946)
- The Couple from Poitiers (1946)
- Pedigree (1948)
- The Bottom of the Bottle (1949)
- Belle (1952)
- Red Lights (1953)
- The Watchmaker of Everton (1954)
- The Little Man from Archangel (1956)
- The Cat (1967)
- The Man on the Bench in the Barn (1968)
- The Prison (1968)
- The Disappearance of Odile (1971)
- The Glass Cage (1971)
- The Man Who Wasn't Maigret (1992 biography)