Georges Simenon- "The Train"
In 1940, Marcel is a radio set mechanic in Fumay in the Ardennes. He is without ambition and is married to pregnant Jeanne. They already have a young daughter, Sophie. Then the Germans invade and the family flees on a train. He is separated from his family.
Suddenly his life changes abruptly. He becomes involved with a young woman, who turns out to be Anna Kupfer, a Czech Jew. Marcel changes into a different person, who is deeply in love with the Anna. They travel across France in a train cattle cart to La Rochelle, where they live as man & wife, under a circus tent with Belgian refugees. Anna follows him everywhere & understands what he is going to say before he says it. She reads his mind. They are a perfect couple. But they both understand it is a life without a future.
But then the Germans reach La Rochelle. France surrenders. Marcel finds where his wife is, in a maternity home in the village of Bressuire. They travel there, with Anna leaving as Marcel reaches the Maternity Home.
Her parting words, whispered in his ear: "I've been happy with you".
But for Marcel, Anna is already fading as an individual. That phase of the war is over. Marcel has returned to an almost peacetime existence.
In the final chapter, Anna turns up in Fumay. She is on the run with a British Airman who was shot down. They have been denounced to the Gestapo. He is her last resort. In response he begins:
" 'Listen. ...
'I understand.'
She always understood before I had opened my mouth. All the same, I wanted to say what I had to say:
'The Germans are watching me. Twice, they ...'
'I understand, Marcel,' she said again. 'I don't hold it against you. Excuse me.'
I didn't have time to stop her. She had turned back, running towards the man who was waiting in the dark."
A few weeks later he learned that she had been caught and shot.
...
Back to Occasional Thought Page.
...