Motherless Children, Fatherless Waifs  

"To be sure, Simenon's empty, narcissistic protagonists, with their pitiful lack of resources, remain locked into their little, claustrophobic settings. Even when they take flight, they are still doomed to discharge their murderous tensions since circumstances -- often of their own making -- have brought them to the breaking point. Lacking the capacity for true object relationships Simenon's protagonists inevitably destroy their narcissistic love - objects, the part of themselves that they cannot endure . Only in the " serious " novels, however , does it become clear that the slayer and the slain are one and the same because there is nothing to come between them , no Maigret , no prosecutors , no judges , and no prisons . The assailant is seen as his own victim ; his "objective" victim is only the outward symbol of a self divided by pain. Such a self concept is not conducive to the exorcism of independent ego energies because self-hatred generates ambivalence , which , if not properly resolved , will block the exploratory drive." --Motherless Children, Fatherless Waifs (1996) by Leo Schneiderman