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.

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