Dirty Snow is an apt title for this sparse noir novel. Living in his mother's brothel, Frank is a young petty thug who gets by better than most despite foreign occupation. However, he is emotionally numbed and restless, going on a flashy self-destructive spree that catches up with him. In some ways he is like snow which can not be kept pristine by his surroundings, and his character's development has a chilling effect. Georges Simenon, a prolific Belgian writer, effects the right gloomy tone in this bildungsroman of a troubled young man.
This is the first Simenon book I've read and I found it very dark (hence "noir" genre), but an interesting psychological look at the mind of a killer. This was hard to read because the villian had nothing to make him even a little bit likeable. I'm going to look for one of the Inspector Maigret books next.
