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Suite Française
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Nemirovsky, Irene - (Writer - Female) Fled to France during the Russian Revolution; attended the Sorbonne; arrested and deported to Auschwitz; her two small daughters escaped with her manuscript
Kirkus Reviews
Acclaimed in France and the U.K., here are two sections of a hugely ambitious novel about World War II France, plus authorial notes and correspondence; the remaining three sections were never written, for the already established Russo-French-Jewish author died at Auschwitz in 1942. These sections should be seen as movements in the symphony Nmirovsky envisaged. Part one, Storm in June, follows various civilians fleeing a panicky Paris and a victorious German army in June 1940. Here are the Pricands, middle-class Catholics, secure in their car; Madame offers charity to refugees on foot, but strictly for show. There is Gabriel Corte, famous writer and "privileged creature" (so he thinks); Charles Langelet, the ice-cold aesthete who steals gasoline from innocents; Corbin, the obnoxious bank director who forces his employees, the Michauds, out of his car. They can handle that; they're an admirable couple, sustained by their humility and mutual devotion. What interests Nmirovsky is individual behavior in the harsh glare of national crisis; keeping the Germans in the background, she skewers the hypocrisy, pretension and self-involvement of the affluent Parisians. There is no chaos or cross-cutting between multiple characters in part two, Dolce. Here the focus is on one middle-class household in a village in the occupied zone in 1941. Madame Angellier agonizes over her son Gaston, a POW; her daughter-in-law Lucile, who never loved him (he kept a mistress), is less concerned; the women co-exist uncomfortably. Tensions rise when a young German lieutenant, Bruno, is billeted with them; he and Lucile are drawn to each other, though they do not become lovers. Then another complication: Lucile agrees to shelter a peasant who has shot a German officer. An honest soul, Lucile is forced into duplicity with Bruno; Nmirovsky relishes these crisis-induced contradictions. Her nuanced account is as much concerned with class divisions among the villagers as the indignities of occupation; when the soldiers leave for the Russian front, the moment is surprisingly tender. A valuable window into the past, and the human psyche. This is important work. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Beautifully written.
The two novellas that make up Suite Française are the least interesting thing about it. The book is compelling because of the two things that sandwich the novellas between them: one thing being the fact this was written during the occupation of France and remained hidden for 60 years, the other thing being the author’s personal correspondence during the occupation that is included at the end of the book.
The first novella deals with the invasion of France and the resulting evacuation of Paris. It is is frenetic and frightening and frustrating and – with the sudden deaths of several characters – ultimately abrupt. The second novella is just the opposite – quiet, complacent and way too lingering.
The author’s correspondence at the end of the book was all related to what I hope one of the three further planned novellas would have dealt with: being Jewish during World War II. The correspondence is haunting, breathtaking in a most terrible way, and gives the best, loudest, most moving close to both Suite Française and Irène Némirovsky’s work.
This book is a bit chaotic--it pops back and forth from one family to the other, at least in the first part, and it's difficult to feel connected to any of the characters. But, what I really loved about it is that it provided a perspective of the black and white of people's characters that Nemirovsky certainly must have seen first hand during the war.
What really made this book for me wasn't so much the book itself (which I would give 3 stars), but the second appendix that followed. T...more This book is a bit chaotic--it pops back and forth from one family to the other, at least in the first part, and it's difficult to feel connected to any of the characters. But, what I really loved about it is that it provided a perspective of the black and white of people's characters that Nemirovsky certainly must have seen first hand during the war.
What really made this book for me wasn't so much the book itself (which I would give 3 stars), but the second appendix that followed. The first appendix was Nemirovsky's notes, used when writing the book; it's interesting to see where she wanted to take the novel. The second is a series of letters from Nemirovsky to her publisher, and her husband to her publisher, and to ambassadors and officials. In these letters Nemirovsky is trying to get money during the war, and her husband trying to find out what concentration camp Irene was sent to, and whether she was still alive or not. This provided the extra dimension that, for me, made the whole book and it's creation fascinating.. so much so that I plan to read Elisabeth Gille's Le Mirador, a biography of Irene's life.
Interesting idea, but it didn't work for me. Didn't evoke occupied France as I expected it would. Would benefit from more editing.