A Novelist in Eight Journeys by John Simenon

Foto Giovanna Fiorentini

English version
John Simenon 

I quit reading my father’s novels when I was a teenager after The Confessional (1965), whose protagonist is a boy with a passion for Greek mythology, braces and a face covered in spots.

In short, he reminded me very much of myself. It was in no way an autobiographical novel or a roman à clef, and the story had nothing to do with our family; however, upon discovering those similarities, which were unimportant but all too familiar, I couldn’t bear the idea of being exposed to the world
through my father’s novels. Af- ter that there came a lengthy pause.
Then, when I was about forty, I found a copy of The Snow was Dirty lying on a table in my house. It was a revelation.

To be Continued