The biography of the legendary Belgian-French king of pulp fiction (1903-1989), who wrote more than 400 novels and bedded even more women (he estimated 10,000), is deemed masterful, absorbing, and definitive (Deirdre Bair, the New York Times Book Review ). Simenon wins praise for its defense of Simenon's oeuvre , often dismissed as hackery, and for its candid treatment of his misogyny and anti-Semitism.