Mobility and immobility in American novels of Georges Simenon

Within Georges Simenon's abundant production, a so-called American period is readily identifiable. It corresponds to the years 1945 to 1955, which the Belgian writer spent in America and during which he wrote approximately forty novels. After the war, Simenon sought to forget, aspiring to A New Lease of Life: a change of surroundings and a radical change of lifestyle. His method, however, remained unchanged. From one journey to another, Simenon's memory recorded feelings and impressions, forming sediment on which the novelist subsequently drew. The fictional framework of three novels of this American period, Trois Chambres a Manhattan, (1946), Feux rouges (1953) and Maigret a New York, is the object of the present study. The analysis of these three markedly autobiographical works focuses on the specificities and of the changes of scenery and their mechanism, then on the interactions between the characters and the ''spacetimes'' in which they live. Paradoxically, ''mobility'' and '' immobilities'' are the two parameters of a ''fundamental immutability'', that of the tragic destiny of '' the naked man