AFRICAN TRIO: Talatala, Tropic Moon, A board the Aquitaine

by Georges Simenon ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 16, 1979

Three short novels (about 100 pages each) dating back more than 45 years: Tropic Moon was published in France in 1933 and appeared in an English collection, In Two Latitudes, in 1940. Talatala appeared in France in 1937 and in England in 1943 in a collection called Havoc by Accident. So the Africa of these tales is still very much a colonial setting, though Simenon was quite aware of a change in the air. As an introduction to this trio he reprints a piece of his 1932 journalism, which includes this line from an ""old-time colonist"": ""Believe me, the African's answer to us whites is merde, and right they are."" Still, Simenon always has placed the personal before the political, and black/white tensions are only a small part of the social unease in these three novellas, all of which bring various European types together in exotic, unsettling surroundings. N.B. Maigret appears in none of the three.

Pub Date: May 16, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION