“Have you ever wished you could be someone other than yourself?” This question forms the core of Simenon’s subtle exploration of a physician’s reaction to a life-threatening crisis. Finding himself involved in a case of malpractice, Bergelon, a country doctor, sees his established routine brutally broken. An outraged husband is bent on getting a life for a life. The menace, however, also opens an avenue of escape—from a life that in all its aspects is predictable, boring; from a marriage that was stale even when it started; from children who are exploiting and whining; from a pattern of suffocating sameness. Bergelon does what countless people are tempted to do and some actually succeed in doing: he walks away from his family and his work, with the best of excuses—he is fleeing for his life. Unencumbered by luggage, he drifts to a seaport, takes up with a girl, and very nearly gives in to the lure of exotic places. An orgy into which he is drawn by a daredevil acquaintance opens his eyes to his own limitations. The Delivery is another of Simenon’s stunningly acute probings into character. Adverse circumstance confronts a man with his latent insecurities, his suppressed desires, and, lastly, with his unconquerable fears.
Author
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (1903 – 1989) was a Belgian writer. A prolific author who published nearly 500 novels and numerous short works, Simenon is best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret. Although he never resided in Belgium after 1922, he remained a Belgian citizen throughout his life. Simenon was one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, capable of writing 60 to 80 pages per day. His oeuvre includes nearly 200 novels, over 150 novellas, several autobiographical works, numerous articles, and scores of pulp novels written under more than two dozen pseudonyms. Altogether, about 550 million copies of his works have been printed. He is best known, however, for his 75 novels and 28 short stories featuring Commissaire Maigret. The first novel in the series, Pietr-le-Letton, appeared in 1931; the last one, Maigret et M. Charles, was published in 1972. The Maigret novels were translated into all major languages and several of them were turned into films and radio plays. Two television series (1960-63 and 1992-93) have been made in Great Britain. During his "American" period, Simenon reached the height of his creative powers, and several novels of those years were inspired by the context in which they were written (Trois chambres à Manhattan (1946), Maigret à New York (1947), Maigret se fâche (1947)). Simenon also wrote a large number of "psychological novels", such as La neige était sale (1948) or Le fils (1957), as well as several autobiographical works, in particular Je me souviens (1945), Pedigree (1948), Mémoires intimes (1981). In 1966, Simenon was given the MWA's highest honor, the Grand Master Award. In 2005 he was nominated for the title of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian). In the Flemish version he ended 77th place. In the Walloon version he ended 10th place.
