The Premier, by Georges Simenon

I couldn't sleep last night so I read The Premier by Georges Simenon. It's a slim volume, 160 pages. It is engaging enough that it was easy to read. The protagonist is not the most pleasant sort of person, but he has done his bit and maybe a bit more, and now he is on the way out. The story telling technique is, what? clever? well done? random? In any case it works well.

I picked it up at Post Hip a couple of weeks ago on the recommendation of Scott. Scott had stumbled upon a story about Georges, something to the effect that he had slept with 20,000 women, but his wife and he had done some figuring and decided that 12,000 was a more accurate number. Huh.

Wikipedia's opening paragraph on this guy gives us the essentials:

Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (February 13, 1903 – September 4, 1989) was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 200 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known for the creation of the fictional detective Maigret.

I guess I got roped into this because I vaguely recall a detective name Maigret, so I figured I would get (re-) acquainted with him. This book is not a Maigret story. Also, Scott doesn't stock any Science Fiction, but Roberta X has written a Sci-Fi novel and I plan on buying a copy.