They say you should never meet your heroes. I caught the wisdom of that early in my life. Aged about ten and living in walking distance from a certain football stadium, myself and some pals would stand outside waiting for our heroes to appear hoping for autographs. They were mostly accommodating and might even engage in some chat. Others, however, couldn’t get past you quick enough muttering stuff that was best not to hear. Needless to say the next time you saw them on the field of play your estimation of them was somewhat tarnished. It’s true to say, there is only one way off a pedestal.
So now to Georges Simenon. I enjoy crime crime novels and there are few better than those that involve Paris based Commissaire Jules Maigret. I first discovered the Maigret novels in my local library when I qualified for an adult ticket and they very soon became a favourite choice. They were short, easy to read and you didn’t have to reach for the dictionary every two pages.
Reading a biography of Simenon recently I have discovered that this was deliberate. Like any writer Simenon wanted people to hear his message so why make it difficult for them? That was his style even when he wrote what he called his more ‘serious’ work. Not the usual crime fiction but novels which explored human psychology with some emphasis on the dark side. These met with much acclaim in the literary community with many placing Simenon among the best writers of the twentieth century.
The biography, however, does not hold back in opening up Simenon’s personal life. As great as his literary achievement undoubtedly is, it apparently came from a broken and disordered life. Alcohol, promiscuity, greed all feature prominently. Not that this puts me off his work. It’s a familiar story with many writers. Often the greatest work emerges from less than attractive lives. I regard this as evidence of the grace of God in operation.
The Bible begins with God as a Creator of immense power bringing the whole Universe into being. He remains the source of all creative achievement in music, art, writing, architecture and science. Even those artists, musicians and writers who have no personal faith in God testify to something working beyond themselves in their creations. The poet Edwin Morgan was an atheist and yet he once said in an interview that he never completed a poem without feeling that it was in some way ‘given’. God can be at work in lives that are not consciously open to Him in order to enrich the lives of all humankind. This is what John Calvin called ‘common grace.’
We may balk at the lifestyle of some of our cultural heroes but this need not negate our admiration of their achievements. What we are seeing is more evidence of the grace of God working in broken lives.
