Four Days In A Lifetime
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Les Quatre Jours du pauvre homme (1949, English: Four Days In A Lifetime) is a 'roman dur' by Georges Simenon.
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Plot
Part 1: "The two days of rue Delambre". - The death of his wife Germaine in the hospital leaves François Lecoin more distraught than ever. Without a job, having above all lived on handouts, at the end of his resources, he will not be able to meet the cost of the funeral. The day before his death, the sudden arrival of his brother Raoul, returning from the colonies, in the modest apartment he occupies with his young son Bob, rue Delambre, revived his painful family memories and the feeling of decline. This decline is all the more bitter as it contrasts with the success of the eldest brother, Marcel: the latter made a marriage of interest and pursued a brilliant career which, from the bar, led him to politics. Taking advantage of Germaine's death, François takes steps to approach his sister-in-law Renée, just as she is about to join her family in Deauville and, paying lip service to her, he announces that he is is on the verge of entering as editor of an electoral paper in the service of a rich ambitious merchant, Gianini, who promises to be Marcel's most serious rival in his constituency. Renée understands: an important check will put an end to the humiliations of François Lecoin and his son.
Part 2: "The two days of the Champs-Elysées". - Three years have passed. Having become director-owner of La Cravache, François Lecoin takes advantage without scruple of the politico-financial collusions that he denounces and the turpitudes of the private lives of prominent figures that he reveals or threatens to reveal. A team of collaborators assists him, striving to thwart the maneuvers which, little by little, are being hatched against his exploitation of scandals. Meanwhile, Bob is completing the year of a model student at Collège Stanislas. Tracked down by the judicial police, Lecoin feels compromised and lost. Not daring to return to his mistress's home, he goes at to the apartment he had kept rue Delambre. There he finds his son has just hanged himself; next to it, an unopened letter in which the director of Stanislas tells Bob's father that he will not be able to continue his studies there. François Lecoin renders himself to the police.
Analysis
Two moments in the life of a man, each concentrated in two decisive days.
From the first to the second part stands out a progression in indignity of the hero, "poor man" by his fate of failure. A fate whose only positive trait - fatherly sentiment - will ultimately be annihilated in tragic failure.
Cast
- François Lecoin. Out of work, then general manager of a blackmail paper. Married, then widowed, daughter living in Savoie. 36 years.
- Bob, son of François, 11 years.
- Marcel Lecoin, lawyer, politician, brother of François
- Renée, his wife
- Raoul, ex-colonial, other brother of François, 46 years of age.
- Viviane, maîtresse of François (in the second part).
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