Betty Paperback – July 1, 2021

Betty was first published as Betty in 1961, and was translated into English by Alaistair Hamilton. There's a big gap in Betty between what it is about and the way Simenon treats the situation described. The book is an attempt to understand the mind of a woman dissatisfied with her life, someone who has been so harmed in growing up that her self esteem has been destroyed, so that, though she seemingly has everything she wants, she feels she doesn't deserve it and attempts to destroy her own happiness and situation as a wife and mother. The character Betty is explored with all of Simenon's acuity and he seems to understand the particular problems that can face a woman very well. But so far this is all case notes. Simenon doesn't really have a story, a drama to describe. The book soon becomes tedious and seems to meander. The descent through drink and sexual promiscuity is predictable but not vividly told as Simenon can do on occasion. Although explorations of Betty's state of mind is empathetic, the solution is almost the opposite as she is found to survive only by belonging to a man, a man whom she has taken from a woman whom unaccountably befriends her and looks after her and who too is so dependent on a man that when she loses her lover she has nothing to live for and dies. This book I think should have remained in Simenon's notebooks.

In his marvelously detailed autobiography, “Intimate Memoirs,” Georges Simenon, one of the world’s most prolific authors, tells of his trip to Versailles in December of 1960. While strolling about alone, looking for a friendly bar and an agreeable female, he stops in a nightclub and sits down next to a woman he describes as respectable bourgeoise who is half drunk. Turns out she had just left her husband and children. For good. From that meeting comes the psychological novel “Betty.” In this book, Betty’s story is dragged out of her and it rushes to a taught climax. Would she survive her totally upset world. As Simenon drew most of his characters from real life, their tales are extremely realistic. And Betty’s is no exception. No wonder he is one of the best-selling authors of all time.

Not one of this great author’s better books. Unfortunately reflects some rather odd ideas and obsessions he may have had about women’s sexuality. I’m afraid I found it quite tiresome, if well written.