Now that was a strange dark little story. Emile and Marguerite married in their 60s, the second marriage for both. They end up in a vindictive, cold and obsessive relationship after the deaths of their respective pets. It was a bit of a compulsive read for me, it’s well written and it’s the differences in the characters backgrounds and their stubbornness that leads to an inevitable ending.

The story of a married couple in their seventies giving each other the silent treatment is superficially very funny. However, Simenon does not write The Cat as a straight forward comedy. Instead he approaches both characters with compassion and attentiveness which allows for hilarity and deep emotions at the same time. The writing style is clear and concise. I thoroughly enjoyed this read!

Simenon’s romans durs is a danse macabre ......

Catastrophically and suffocatingly co-dependent, Emile and Marguerite have entered into a death dance which no one wanted to stop dancing, right till the very end when they were forced to stop.
Simenon gleefully mixes hard and soft and juxtapositions these attributes skilfully. We have humans who are hard, vindictive to each other while being soft, very soft with their pets. At the same time,they are hard, vindictive, and violent on each other’s pets. He fatally binds Emile and Marguerite until death and none of them want to escape this noose.

As usually with the good ones, I’m left with lots of ‘but whys’, confused thoughts, possible nebulous endings.

A republication by Penguin Modern Classics.

An ARC gently provided by publisher via Netgalley.

Although I've never read a Maigret novel for some reason, I'll read any of Simenon's "romans durs" whenever they cross my path. The Cat is short and nasty, tracing what the blurb calls "marital warfare", but what we might now call a toxic relationship, between an older couple who have married late in life. There's class conflict, issues of respectability, entitlement and aggression, and, at its heart, the sheer difficulty of developing relationships. The extremeness of the central couple communicating only by silence and hate-filled notes is made stranger by the no-nonsense prose, which creates a strange but compelling read. At one point, Émile starts to fill his time by reading but he's careful to state to his temporary landlady and lover, Nelly, that: "I'm not mad about books. It's always the same story and there's almost nothing true in them". The core of the novel, and of Simenon's approach to writing, might be found there. Not the best of the romans durs that I've read, but a fine and provocative novel nonetheless.

I first requested The Cat by Georges Simenon on NetGalley purely because of the cosy, almost charming cover. I was expecting something warm and whimsical, but what I got instead was an unflinching, razor-sharp exploration of a marriage gone deeply, irreversibly wrong.

Within just a few pages, the tension between the two leads crackles off the page. Simenon wastes no time pulling you into their quiet war. Every look, every note, every silence is loaded with malice. From there, it only escalates, like watching a slow-motion car crash you can’t look away from.

If Pixar’s Up is the tender, uplifting side of an elderly couple’s life together, The Cat is the opposite: biting, cold, and relentless. The writing is masterful in how uncomfortable it makes you feel. The emotions are raw, stripped of any romantic gloss, and at times almost claustrophobic in their intensity.

It’s a very short book, but it hits hard, like a perfectly aimed dart to the chest. By the final page, I felt wrung out and oddly awed by how much Simenon could say with so few words.

Trigger warning: animal cruelty. It’s central to the emotional rupture between the characters and is depicted without sentimentality.

I was delighted to receive an ARC of this novel, being a great fan of Simenon. I'm not disappointed. 'The Cat' is an example Simenon's 'romans durs', or a psychological novel. I might refer to it as a 'domestic noir' in which a couple, who get together in later life, develop a compellingly awful relationship. The cat, Joseph, is the husband, Emile's, cat, and is detested by the wife, Marguerite. When the cat dies, Emile suspects his wife poisoned the animal, and the bizarre but beautifully humorous and, well, weird, relationship between the couple persists through written messages. The two are entirely incompatible, even factoring in the need for companionship, and their relationship is sustained through a mutual dislike - more than just 'dislike', but not quite 'hatred' - of each other. It's a really brilliant exploration of character, relationship and marriage. What a pleasure to receive the ARC from the publisher. Huge thanks to NetGalley, too.

What an extraordinary story! I haven’t read Simenon since I was at school when we had to read him in French. For me, that was a chore so the writing itself was of no interest. The quality of the prose in this novella has therefore taken me by surprise, a shocking admission to some, I imagine!

Emile and Marguerite are both widowed and living opposite each other. She has had a comfortable, middle class life; he was a construction worker, now retired. It’s doubtful that anything attracted them to each other apart from the possibility of having companionship in old age. Certainly, Marguerite was marrying beneath her socially. Emile is more than a little rough around the edges! When his cat dies, he accuses Marguerite of poisoning him and he may be right but his reaction is extreme. From that point on, not one word passes between them and they communicate solely by passing each other notes.

I expect there are couples in ‘real life’ who simply tolerate each other, between whom there is no affection, only antipathy. From Emile’s perspective, the only one we really know, their situation has become a game he is determined to win but knows he can’t. They live in a claustrophobic, dismal environment with no joy in anything. They’re just waiting for one of them to be the first to die.

This isn’t a comfortable read but it is compelling due to the wonderful way that Simenon draws us immediately into the lives of this couple. Now that I’ve been reintroduced to his work, I’m looking forward to reading more, although I hope to find something less dark than this.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Classics for a review copy.

This is an odd little book that was strangely engrossing. The couple are so horrible to each other, and although things at the start feel sort of funny, and you just think they're being silly, it quickly tumbles into something much darker, and the depths of their feud go further and further. Very readable, unsettling, funny, uncomfortable and dark!

Had no idea what to expect with this book but I thought it was delightful. Very underrated read. Really enjoyed it overall.

A beautifully written and observed novel.

The plot is both tragic and bleak, yet the dark humour and wonderful use of language kept me reading. Both main characters are horrible people and the fact that the reader is only given the husbands perspective leaves plenty of thought provoking questions.

One negative for me however was the depictions of animal cruelty which I found upsetting.

Overall a beautifully written, dark, bleak look at a destructive relationship. Recommended.

Thanks to Penguin Press UK and NetGalley for the ARC.

I loved the cover of this book. It’s evocative and sets the scene. I went through a Simenon phase some decades ago and I enjoy his writing. The Cat felt vaguely familiar and I’m sure I read it some 50 years ago. It’s a curious piece; beautifully observed throughout featuring a husband and wife in conflict and confinement. They’re both unpleasant and yet Simenon manages to make them compelling as characters as we watch their spite and mutual hatred grow. It’s a timeless tale, two people trapped by the worst aspects of their character. It lingers in the mind and has a haunting quality. I enjoyed this ( not so much the animal cruelty bits) and it)s memorable and , I believe, sympathetically translated so nothing is lost. Quietly understated and worth a read.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a review copy.