Un nouveau dans la ville
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Le receveur des postes prétend que c'est un masochiste et qu'il ne voudrait pas être dans sa peau." |
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Un nouveau dans la ville (1950) is a novel by Georges Simenon, written in 1949 in Desert Sands, Tucson (Arizona).
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Summary
At the beginning of winter, in a small town in Maine, a stranger arrives, dressed anonymously, ordinary in every way. Despite his appearance, Justin Ward has a large wad of banknotes that he always carries with him. It is not his status as a stranger to the region that attracts attention (the nearby tannery employs immigrants), but rather his extreme reserve: he lives a very regulated life, conforms to the habits of the population; he even buys a billiard shop, but never gives anything of himself away. He seems to have no past, no thoughts and no shadow. But his mere presence has the effect of arousing hostility: is it not under his influence that the "Yougo", a picturesque outsider, becomes aware that he is tolerated because he gives others a good feeling of themselves? This leads him to set off a scene of violence.
The city's restless curiosity crystallizes in the person of Charlie, the owner of a small bar where Ward goes every day and who has vowed to penetrate the mystery of his real identity. He even sends a picture of the "new guy" to a friend in Chicago, who identifies him as a down-on-his-luck guy whose ex-wife he knew. But later revelations show Ward in a completely different light: he is actually "Kennedy," the name under which the secretary of a big industrialist responsible for the murder of a gang leader is hiding, and whom he turned in for a $5,000 bounty, making him wanted by the gang members.
The Avengers descend on the city and liquidate Ward-Kennedy. The city then feels exorcised.
Special aspects of the novel
The main character's indifference and lack of communication create an opacity in him that those around him are trying to pierce: it will only become clearer in the light of an unsuspected past from which he appears detached.
Work description
Space and time frame
Space
"The town," in the state of Maine, in the northeastern part of the United States, near the Canadian border, a small agricultural center with a tannery.
Time
Contemporary Era.
Characters
Main character
- Justin Ward ("the new guy"), American. No known occupation or marital status in the city; actually Frank Leigh, former receptionist and packer in Chicago, former secretary of a textile company that employed him under the name Kennedy. Divorced. In his forties.
Other characters
- Moggio, known as Charlie, Neapolitan born in Brooklyn, bartender.
Adaptations
- 1987 : Un nouveau dans la ville, épisode 8 de la série télévisée française L'Heure Simenon, réalisé par Fabrice Cazeneuve, avec Roger Jendly
