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A comment on If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret.

Re:If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret by sprafa on Tuesday September 03, 2019 @11:38AM (#20867601)
I love these books. I can buy them in Portugal for 50p and piece and they phenomenal covers. French police stories are fantastic because everything revolves around sex; which speaks to me as more realistic than American det novels (often about conspiracy theories, threats from other countries or from powerful men - to be fair some of them are quite frank about sex too) and British novels (which don’t seem to mention sex at all or when they do, it’s almost in passing and with no relevance to the story).

I find that the French frankness about sex leads to better crime novels that speak more about reality to me. I get the impression that the kind of crime novels each country has really speaks to their character (or intended character - I think the British are as horny as any other people, but they are bad at talking and thinking about sex).

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Re:If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret by nferracin on Tuesday September 03, 2019 @12:39PM (#20868356)
> I can buy them in Portugal for 50p

Can I ask you where? Also, in French of Portuguese? Moving to Portugal in 2020 and would love to know where to find books for cheap!

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Re:If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret by sprafa on Tuesday September 03, 2019 @02:40PM (#20869713)
You can find French books in some places, but you can find cheap Portuguese books virtually anywhere, but particularly so in Porto, close to where I live.

We call local/old/second hand bookshops “alfarrabistas” and they are very common around the country. Some have closed with the savage turistification that’s hit the country, but most are still around for now.

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Re:If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret by nferracin on Tuesday September 03, 2019 @04:27PM (#20870821)
Do you have any favorite you feel like suggesting? I've been there several times but never noticed them and even my Portuguese partner wouldn't know where to find one after many years living abroad.
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Re:If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret by sprafa on Thursday September 05, 2019 @03:38AM (#20884639)
Where? In Porto or Lisbon?
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Re:If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret by nferracin on Thursday September 05, 2019 @07:31AM (#20885644)
Both are fine :)
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Re:If only Georges Simenon had been a bit more like Maigret by sprafa on Tuesday September 03, 2019 @02:42PM (#20869735)
If you are moving there please make an effort to support the local economy and get involved with local politics and governance. The country is being flooded by techies and rich artists thinking that Lisbon is the new Berlin while ignoring completely that they are considerably damaging the local population’s quality of life.
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