Status
Available
Publication
Knopf (2006), Edition: Translation, 416 pages
Description
Beginning in Paris on the eve of the Nazi occupation in 1940, this books tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way; a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food, a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy -- in their town, their homes, even in their hearts. -- Back Cover
Media reviews
Irène Némirovsky wanted Suite Française to be a five-book cycle about the occupation of France, but only completed a draft of two books before the Nazis sent her to Auschwitz, and to the gas chambers, in 1942. Her manuscript was lost in a basement for sixty years until her daughter, who had been
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pursued by Nazis through the French countryside as a child, discovered and published it. And now, impossibly, we can read the two books of Suite Française. Show Less
Less a Wheel than a Wave
French critics hailed "Suite Française" as a masterpiece when it was first published there in 2004. They weren't exaggerating. The writing is accomplished, the plotting sure, and the fact that Némirovsky could write about events like the fall of Paris with such assurance and irony just weeks
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after they occurred is nothing short of astonishing. Show Less
THIS stunning book contains two narratives, one fictional and the other a fragmentary, factual account of how the fiction came into being. "Suite Française" itself consists of two novellas portraying life in France from June 4, 1940, as German forces prepare to invade Paris, through July 1, 1941,
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when some of Hitler's occupying troops leave France to join the assault on the Soviet Union. Show Less
Lecturalia
El descubrimiento de un manuscrito perdido de Irène Némirovsky causó una auténtica conmoción en el mundo editorial francés y europeo. Novela excepcional escrita en condiciones excepcionales, Suite francesa retrata con maestría una época fundamental de la Europa del siglo XX. En otoño de
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2004 le fue concedido el premio Renaudot, otorgado por primera vez a un autor fallecido. Imbuida de un claro componente autobiográfico, Suite francesa se inicia en París los días previos a la invasión alemana, en un clima de incertidumbre e incredulidad. Enseguida, tras las primeras bombas, miles de familias se lanzan a las carreteras en coche, en bicicleta o a pie. Némirovsky dibuja con precisión las escenas, unas conmovedoras y otras grotescas, que se suceden en el camino: ricos burgueses angustiados, amantes abandonadas, ancianos olvidados en el viaje, los bombardeos sobre la población indefensa, las artimañas para conseguir agua, comida y gasolina. A medida que los alemanes van tomando posesión del país, se vislumbra un desmoronamiento del orden social imperante y el nacimiento de una nueva época. La presencia de los invasores despertará odios, pero también historias de amor clandestinas y públicas muestras de colaboracionismo. Concebida como una composición en cinco partes —de las cuales la autora sólo alcanzó a escribir dos— Suite francesa combina un retrato intimista de la burguesía ilustrada con una visión implacable de la sociedad francesa durante la ocupación. Con lucidez, pero también con un desasosiego notablemente exento de sentimentalismo, Némirovsky muestra el fiel reflejo de una sociedad que ha perdido su rumbo. El tono realista y distante de Némirovsky le permite componer una radiografía fiel del país que la ha abandonado a su suerte y la ha arrojado en manos de sus verdugos. Estamos pues ante un testimonio profundo y conmovedor de la condición humana, escrito sin la facilidad de la distancia ni la perspectiva del tiempo, por alguien que no llegó a conocer siquiera el final del cataclismo que le tocó vivir.
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"Jeg tror ikke jeg noen gang har vært presentert for en så stor samling mennesker skildret så susende godt. Beretningen er rett og slett makeløs." - Yngvar Ustvedt, VG
Da Irène Némirovsky, en av 1930-årenes mest kjente franske forfattere, grep pennen i 1941, var det for å skrive en roman
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som skulle bli mer enn en krigsskildring. Hun så krigen som et middel for å nå frem til det innerste i mennesket - og planla sitt litterære storverk: en suite med fire deler. Némirovsky rakk å fullføre de to første, og gjemte manuskriptet i en koffert like før hun ble deportert til Auschwitz, der hun døde i 1942. Like etter led hennes mann samme skjebne. De to døtrene fikk berget kofferten, men det gikk mange år før de orket å lese. Først i 2004 ble boken utgitt i Frankrike og i 2006 kom den på norsk.
Romanens to deler - Storm i juni og Dolce - følger flere familiers og enkeltpersoners strabaser og skjebner, og bindes sammen med toneart og stemninger; temaer og karakterer som går igjen. Her skildres arroganse, dobbeltmoral, likefremhet, kurtise og jærlighet ... Boken åpner med flukten fra Paris i juni 1940,preget av redsel, uvisshet, bombing og mangel på bensin og mat. I Dolce skildres livet i en okkupert landsby, der hverdagen med tyskerne har tatt over.
"Gjennom hele romanen kan leseren fryde seg over skarpe iakttakelser og klare, presise karakteristikker av menneskelig dårskap og jåleri, men også fine, sjenerøse portretter av menneskelig mot og offervilje." - Turid Larsen, Dagsavisen
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User reviews
LibraryThing member LisaCurcio
Anyone at all familiar with this book knows that the author, Irène Némirovsky, intended that there be three more parts of the book rather than just the two sections which have been published. It is only two sections because in July, 1942, while she was still writing, she was taken away by police
The work is a little bit about the beginning of the war, but more about how differently people reacted and coped when Germany occupied France in June, 1940. The first part, “Storm in June”, relates stories of the evacuation of Paris. The second section, “Dolce” chronicles the life of an occupied village until June, 1941, when the occupying German soldiers were sent to the Russian front.
Working class, bourgoiesie, aesthetes, bon vivant—all plan to evacuate the city in fear of the advancing German army. Three generations of the middle class Péricands and their servants load their big black limousine with “necessities” such as the embroidered linen. When all will not fit, they must find a van to accommodate the youngest children and the servants, and the teen-aged son must follow on his bicycle. Bank workers Maurice and Jeanne Michaud are expected by their manager to leave with him and other employees to take the bank’s records and valuables to the branch in Tours. They are worried about their son, Jean-Marie, who is in the army and from whom they have not heard in some months. The Michauds are only somewhat disappointed when they are left behind because the manager’s mistress has taken their places in the car with herself and her luggage. The rich writer Gabriel Corte--who could only write if “he had a small glass bowl of deep lapis lazuli beside him”—cannot leave without his manuscripts. He and his mistress spend the first night in the car when Corte refuses to sleep in an attic. Fat, rich Charles Langelet delays because he must pack the beautiful possessions with which he is obsessed and decide which he will take with him.
They travel through bombing raids and choked roadways to villages, farms and fields. Some die, some return to Paris, some settle where they can. Connections are made that are carried through to “Dolce”, and most likely were to be important in the other three books.
In “Dolce”, the reader comes to know villagers and farmers and some of the German soldiers who move into their homes and public buildings. Némirovsky evokes the phenomenon of the captives identifying with the captors along with a full range of emotional and visceral responses to the circumstances: venality, self-absorption, greed, self-sacrifice, generosity, acceptance, defiance, and, of course, love and hate.
Many have called this work a masterpiece, but really it is only the beginning of a masterpiece, and leaves the reader not only deeply affected, but terribly disappointed that the author could not complete her work. Némirovsky was a compelling writer; had it been finished, it would have qualified as an “opus”.
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and transferred to a concentration camp where she died just about a month later. This was truly the world’s loss almost as much as it was a loss to her family. Ultimately, the book was published at the behest of her oldest daughter who painstakingly transcribed her mother's notes.The work is a little bit about the beginning of the war, but more about how differently people reacted and coped when Germany occupied France in June, 1940. The first part, “Storm in June”, relates stories of the evacuation of Paris. The second section, “Dolce” chronicles the life of an occupied village until June, 1941, when the occupying German soldiers were sent to the Russian front.
Working class, bourgoiesie, aesthetes, bon vivant—all plan to evacuate the city in fear of the advancing German army. Three generations of the middle class Péricands and their servants load their big black limousine with “necessities” such as the embroidered linen. When all will not fit, they must find a van to accommodate the youngest children and the servants, and the teen-aged son must follow on his bicycle. Bank workers Maurice and Jeanne Michaud are expected by their manager to leave with him and other employees to take the bank’s records and valuables to the branch in Tours. They are worried about their son, Jean-Marie, who is in the army and from whom they have not heard in some months. The Michauds are only somewhat disappointed when they are left behind because the manager’s mistress has taken their places in the car with herself and her luggage. The rich writer Gabriel Corte--who could only write if “he had a small glass bowl of deep lapis lazuli beside him”—cannot leave without his manuscripts. He and his mistress spend the first night in the car when Corte refuses to sleep in an attic. Fat, rich Charles Langelet delays because he must pack the beautiful possessions with which he is obsessed and decide which he will take with him.
They travel through bombing raids and choked roadways to villages, farms and fields. Some die, some return to Paris, some settle where they can. Connections are made that are carried through to “Dolce”, and most likely were to be important in the other three books.
In “Dolce”, the reader comes to know villagers and farmers and some of the German soldiers who move into their homes and public buildings. Némirovsky evokes the phenomenon of the captives identifying with the captors along with a full range of emotional and visceral responses to the circumstances: venality, self-absorption, greed, self-sacrifice, generosity, acceptance, defiance, and, of course, love and hate.
Many have called this work a masterpiece, but really it is only the beginning of a masterpiece, and leaves the reader not only deeply affected, but terribly disappointed that the author could not complete her work. Némirovsky was a compelling writer; had it been finished, it would have qualified as an “opus”.
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LibraryThing member TommyB
Suite Francaise is a stunningly good depiction of France during the Occupation. Irene Nemirovsky wrote with wonderful insight into French culture, and her observations of the social classes and their interactions are so compelling that they almost overshadow her powerful depictions of the country
This book must be read in the same way you listen to an unfinished symphony. Since Nemirovsky completed only the first two "movements" before she was taken to the concentration camp where she died, you can't expect to have the same fulfilled feeling that you would after listening to the finale of a great symphony. But the two parts she completed are among the best writing that I have read in years. Her notes at the end of the book give a tantalizing glimpse into her thought processes as she wrote the first two parts and hint at what the remainder of the book would have been like. What a tragedy that she was unable to finish her work.
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at war and dealing with defeat and occupation. She wrote with delicacy as well. Her description of a young wife of a prisoner of war and the German Lieutenant who is billeted in their house, who despite themselves find themselves falling in love is particularly memorable. Rather than describe through their eyes the scene in a spring meadow where they begin to realize that they have fallen in love, she pulls back and describes it through the eyes of a child who is secretly observing them. The description of the little girl watching and wondering what the two are saying and thinking invites you mentally respond to the girl's musings, with the result that you are pulled more fully into the scene as you mentally supply answers to the girl. What a wonderful technique. This book must be read in the same way you listen to an unfinished symphony. Since Nemirovsky completed only the first two "movements" before she was taken to the concentration camp where she died, you can't expect to have the same fulfilled feeling that you would after listening to the finale of a great symphony. But the two parts she completed are among the best writing that I have read in years. Her notes at the end of the book give a tantalizing glimpse into her thought processes as she wrote the first two parts and hint at what the remainder of the book would have been like. What a tragedy that she was unable to finish her work.
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LibraryThing member SandDune
The story behind the writing of this book requires a book in its own right. The first two sections of the planned five sections were written in 1941 shortly before the author was deported by the German authorities. She died in Auschwitz in 1942, and the handwritten manuscript, preserved throughout
Storm in June
As the German army approached Paris in the June of 1940, there is a wholescale panic to get out of the city. This first section of Suite Francaise follows a number of separate groups of middle-class Parisians as they attempt to flee the city: from the wealthy Pericands who can call on their own vehicles to transport themselves and their heirlooms and staff (in that order of importance) out of the city, to the poorer Michauds, bank employees who find that the places in their boss's car they have been promised for the evacuation, have been taken by his mistress and her luggage, and who are left with no choice but to walk to Tours. The narrative flits from one group to another in a way which could have been confusing in the hands of a lesser writer but here succeeds brilliantly in recreating the terror and confusion faced by the refugees as their whole world seems to be collapsing around them. But this is not a picture of a country pulling together in adversity, rather a damning indictment of large parts of French society, as the refugees determine to use whatever advantage their money, position and class can bring them to ensure that they do not have to endure the sufferings of the 'ordinary' people.
Dolce
Extracted from the confusion of the initial flight is the village of Bussy, about to be occupied by German troops for the third time since the invasion. And as weeks turn into months and the villagers become used to the German presence in the village, small compromises and understandings emerge between the inhabitants and their occupiers. Although with a completely different tone to 'Storm in June' Nemirovsky paints an extraordinarily nuanced and human portrait of the effect of the occupation on the villagers. To the young women of the village, used to the stultifying boredom of a place where marriages were still usually a matter of economics and a favourable dowry rather than love, the arrival of the Germans at first adds a little frisson of excitement to their lives, but things start to change as the reality of war is brought home to them. There are no easy answers given to how people should behave, no black and white view of right and wrong, just a careful consideration that real people are generally neither true heroes or villains.
The more I think about the book the more i am impressed by it. A strong recommendation.
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the trials of the war by her young daughter as a memento of her mother, was not published until 64 years after Nemirovsky's death. So what we have are two unfinished fragments of what might have been, but fragments that evokes the experience of living through the first years of the war in France with great clarity.Storm in June
As the German army approached Paris in the June of 1940, there is a wholescale panic to get out of the city. This first section of Suite Francaise follows a number of separate groups of middle-class Parisians as they attempt to flee the city: from the wealthy Pericands who can call on their own vehicles to transport themselves and their heirlooms and staff (in that order of importance) out of the city, to the poorer Michauds, bank employees who find that the places in their boss's car they have been promised for the evacuation, have been taken by his mistress and her luggage, and who are left with no choice but to walk to Tours. The narrative flits from one group to another in a way which could have been confusing in the hands of a lesser writer but here succeeds brilliantly in recreating the terror and confusion faced by the refugees as their whole world seems to be collapsing around them. But this is not a picture of a country pulling together in adversity, rather a damning indictment of large parts of French society, as the refugees determine to use whatever advantage their money, position and class can bring them to ensure that they do not have to endure the sufferings of the 'ordinary' people.
Dolce
Extracted from the confusion of the initial flight is the village of Bussy, about to be occupied by German troops for the third time since the invasion. And as weeks turn into months and the villagers become used to the German presence in the village, small compromises and understandings emerge between the inhabitants and their occupiers. Although with a completely different tone to 'Storm in June' Nemirovsky paints an extraordinarily nuanced and human portrait of the effect of the occupation on the villagers. To the young women of the village, used to the stultifying boredom of a place where marriages were still usually a matter of economics and a favourable dowry rather than love, the arrival of the Germans at first adds a little frisson of excitement to their lives, but things start to change as the reality of war is brought home to them. There are no easy answers given to how people should behave, no black and white view of right and wrong, just a careful consideration that real people are generally neither true heroes or villains.
The more I think about the book the more i am impressed by it. A strong recommendation.
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LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
An absolutely stunning book, which I can without qualification recommend to anyone. It is rare that a book as well done as this one comes along to be found on the shelves at the local book store; even more rare is that this one was written over 60 years ago. The manuscript was saved by Nemirovky's
The first section of this novel (originally planned to be in 4 parts) is called "Storm in June", and begins with the evacuation of Paris after the Germans take France. The author examines this event through the eyes of various people who come from different backgrounds -- the aristocratic families, the poor, the middle class, the rich, and briefly examines each group both in terms of themselves and their reactions to the others. The instinct for survival at any cost is also examined here.
The second part of the book, entitled "Dolce", focuses on life during the Occupation in one small town in the countryside. Less frantic in tone than the first part, the author looks at the effect on the locals and on the Germans when a small force of German soldiers occupies this area and some of the officers are billeted in private homes, in a place where the war has left no one untouched.
It is an amazing book, one I'll not forget for a long while. If you do not read anything else this year, please read this one.
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daughter who carted it all over France with her hiding from the French police and the Germans after the author and her husband were deported & taken away to Auschwitz. I was very curious when I began this novel and read the appendices first -- make sure you have a hanky because you'll need it.The first section of this novel (originally planned to be in 4 parts) is called "Storm in June", and begins with the evacuation of Paris after the Germans take France. The author examines this event through the eyes of various people who come from different backgrounds -- the aristocratic families, the poor, the middle class, the rich, and briefly examines each group both in terms of themselves and their reactions to the others. The instinct for survival at any cost is also examined here.
The second part of the book, entitled "Dolce", focuses on life during the Occupation in one small town in the countryside. Less frantic in tone than the first part, the author looks at the effect on the locals and on the Germans when a small force of German soldiers occupies this area and some of the officers are billeted in private homes, in a place where the war has left no one untouched.
It is an amazing book, one I'll not forget for a long while. If you do not read anything else this year, please read this one.
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LibraryThing member blackhornet
Flicking through the appendices at the end of this novel adds to the sense of awe at what Irene Nemirovsky wrote and the terrible sense of sadness that her life was cut short when she was sent to a Nazi concentration camp. Conceived as her own 'War and Peace', she completed two sections of a
The missing three sections are not the only remarkable absence in this work. There is also no mention of the persecution of the Jews. Instead, Nemirovsky, a Jewish woman well aware of the danger she faced, chose to focus on the minutiae of a cast of characters drawn in the first section from Paris and in the second from a single village in the heart of France. Initially the unlikable qualities of so many of these characters seems to be a problem. However, as the novel progresses it becomes clear that they have to be unlikeable. For Nemirovsky is critiquing the particular type of French society that was able so quickly to reconcile itself to the Nazi occupation. Her book is not particularly representative of all France, but in its cruel depiction of the middle and upper classes she shines a light on the people who had themselves made such efforts to define what it meant to be French. Though France is geographically so near and the war historically within the memory of many, the novel also enlightens the reader - or an English one certainly - on events that took place.
It's a brilliant book. It seems churlish to lament the fact that it was not completed - afterall it is only a book, worthless when compared to the millions senselessly slaughtered. But part of the process of reading it is to reflect on what is missing - and that includes all the war dead.
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planned five before her death. That these sections are stunning in their completion and bear comparison with Tolstoy's classic is one thing; that she must have written them virtually contemporaneous to the war going on around her is quite another. How did she manage to gain critical distance? And where does the confidence come from to conceive a five-part novel about a war when the war has not even finished? Nemirovsky had her other three sections vaguely mapped out, though. It seems she was able to place a novelists sense of narrative structure on great historical events yet to occur as well as on her own work. And while her notes fret at times that she might have set herself the task of chronicling an event that would be many decades in the making, had she lived the notes make it clear that she would have been able to fit her planned narrative to what came to pass.The missing three sections are not the only remarkable absence in this work. There is also no mention of the persecution of the Jews. Instead, Nemirovsky, a Jewish woman well aware of the danger she faced, chose to focus on the minutiae of a cast of characters drawn in the first section from Paris and in the second from a single village in the heart of France. Initially the unlikable qualities of so many of these characters seems to be a problem. However, as the novel progresses it becomes clear that they have to be unlikeable. For Nemirovsky is critiquing the particular type of French society that was able so quickly to reconcile itself to the Nazi occupation. Her book is not particularly representative of all France, but in its cruel depiction of the middle and upper classes she shines a light on the people who had themselves made such efforts to define what it meant to be French. Though France is geographically so near and the war historically within the memory of many, the novel also enlightens the reader - or an English one certainly - on events that took place.
It's a brilliant book. It seems churlish to lament the fact that it was not completed - afterall it is only a book, worthless when compared to the millions senselessly slaughtered. But part of the process of reading it is to reflect on what is missing - and that includes all the war dead.
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LibraryThing member Bcteagirl
Suite Francais is the first three chapters in what would have been a much larger book (or perhaps a series of books). What caught my attention on the inside flap was the story about how this story survived. The writer was a Jewish author who had fled Germany with her two young daughters. After she
This book starts with the mass exodus from Paris as ‘The Germans are coming’!. I found this to be the most interesting part of the book. Those with lots of money are frantically stuffing their cars full of figurines and furniture (!) not realizing that they may run out of gas. Those without money find that the trains are not working and are heading out of town on foot. The book then follows their journey from town to town looking for shelter.
The rest of the book focuses on the German occupation. It was very surprising to me given the authors treatment by the Germans just how ‘benign’ the occupying Germans are in this story. Many of them are ‘billeted’ or put up by the French (Who were simply told that they soldiers were staying with them now) and despite being disliked the soldiers remain polite and eventually win them over, at least somewhat. It was sort of a ‘cozy’ story. From the authors notes included at the end of the book it appears that she meant for things to go ‘downhill from there’ but the book was never completed for obvious reasons.
I enjoyed the book, especially the first chapter which described people trying to get out of the city. It gives you a feel for what it must have been like at the time. It is more of a ‘cozy’ book than a depressing read.
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was taken to Auschwitz her daughters were hidden with friends/nuns etc and they hung onto sheets of tiny writing they thought were a journal. It was not until 40 years later when they could bear to read it that they realized it was an unpublished book. Already this book is a secret treasure that somehow managed to survive despite the odds.This book starts with the mass exodus from Paris as ‘The Germans are coming’!. I found this to be the most interesting part of the book. Those with lots of money are frantically stuffing their cars full of figurines and furniture (!) not realizing that they may run out of gas. Those without money find that the trains are not working and are heading out of town on foot. The book then follows their journey from town to town looking for shelter.
The rest of the book focuses on the German occupation. It was very surprising to me given the authors treatment by the Germans just how ‘benign’ the occupying Germans are in this story. Many of them are ‘billeted’ or put up by the French (Who were simply told that they soldiers were staying with them now) and despite being disliked the soldiers remain polite and eventually win them over, at least somewhat. It was sort of a ‘cozy’ story. From the authors notes included at the end of the book it appears that she meant for things to go ‘downhill from there’ but the book was never completed for obvious reasons.
I enjoyed the book, especially the first chapter which described people trying to get out of the city. It gives you a feel for what it must have been like at the time. It is more of a ‘cozy’ book than a depressing read.
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LibraryThing member alexdaw
What can I say? It is the best book I've read in a long time. I don't know why I like it so much. She manages to capture the ordinary everyday feelings of her subjects at a time of great upheaval. The translation I had also featured some Appendices - Appendix 1 containing handwritten notes on the
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situation in France and her plans for the rest of the novel taken from her notebooks. She writes 1 July 1942 - twelve days before she was captured - "my deepest conviction. What lives on: 1. Our humble day-to-day lives 2. Art 3. God". It feels so contemporary it is hard to imagine that it was written nearly seventy years ago. I can't wait to read more of her books. Even though the book is unfinished it doesn't feel like that to me so I urge you not to be put off by that fact. It's not as if it stops mid-sentence or anything. In fact I think its unfinished quality adds to the haunting quality of the book - all the characters wonder when the war will end. It is an extraordinary work of art written by someone who was able to step to one side and observe the extraordinary period in which she was living. Show Less
LibraryThing member lkernagh
I have tried to write this review five times now. Each attempt seems like a poor offering to explain how much this was a compelling read for me. This is a story that will stay with me, for a number of reasons. Némirovsky’s portrayal of life in France during those early war years (June 4, 1940
In writing this story, Némirovsky plays no favorites. She assumes the role of an outside sociologist watching events unfold, another amazing aspect of this story considering she writes about the good and bad, heroism and cowardice, crossing class lines to exemplify acts of venality, cowardice and hypocrisy as well as of extreme heroism.
.... still not happy with this review so I am just going to say that if you haven't read this one... READ IT!
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through to July 1, 1941) is amazing, especially when I think about how Némirovsky wrote this pretty much contemporaneously as the events of the war unfolded, making the serenely reflective manner of the story to be something one would only expect from an author conveying an ex post facto experience. I love how, In “Storm in June”, Némirovsky makes use of a select number of individuals to communicate the emotions and widespread chaos of the burgeoning sea of humanity attempting to flee the German invasion of Paris. Even with the shifting narrative, Némirovsky manages to bring clarity and focus on her individual characters at an almost microscopic level. "Dolce", the second novella in the story, has a bucolic feel to it, tucked away in the tiny French village of Bussy, under German administration. This made for fascinating reading as a narrative of day-to-day village life under German occupation. In writing this story, Némirovsky plays no favorites. She assumes the role of an outside sociologist watching events unfold, another amazing aspect of this story considering she writes about the good and bad, heroism and cowardice, crossing class lines to exemplify acts of venality, cowardice and hypocrisy as well as of extreme heroism.
.... still not happy with this review so I am just going to say that if you haven't read this one... READ IT!
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LibraryThing member strandbooks
I was afraid of the hype on this one, but the fact that an unedited, unfinished book made it to the 1001 books to read before you die list made me check it out. I wish I had bought my own copy and not checked it out from the library. There were so many sentences I wanted to highlight. Some of the
It is a book about the French occupation from the point of view of people from many social classes. The characters are so well done I wanted to know more about each. Although it doesn't end as abruptly as I thought it would, she didn't get to finish the last 2 sections so there are a lot of loose ends. I'm still reading the Appendix which has her notes of what she planned in the last 2 sections.
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imagery gets a little heavy handed, but I kept reminding myself that Nemirovsky didn't get a chance to edit.It is a book about the French occupation from the point of view of people from many social classes. The characters are so well done I wanted to know more about each. Although it doesn't end as abruptly as I thought it would, she didn't get to finish the last 2 sections so there are a lot of loose ends. I'm still reading the Appendix which has her notes of what she planned in the last 2 sections.
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LibraryThing member Castlelass
This novel contains two separate parts related through setting and time period. The first is a story of the attempt to flee France in advance of the German invasion in 1940. The second is set in rural France during the German occupation and tells of how the families of the town interacted with the
I have read reviews that say some people are tired of books set in World War II. Here’s my attempt to convince them to at least consider this one:
- It was written contemporaneously (in 1940-1941).
- It is not just a modern story using the war as a backdrop.
- It is set in occupied France and provides a first-hand perspective.
- It is not a book about horrors of the concentration camps.
- It is beautifully written.
- It is historically significant. The author was a Jewish woman who was killed at Auschwitz in 1942, only a year after she finished the first two of what were supposed to be five segments of Suite Française. Her children brought out the manuscript and it was finally published in 2004.
I appreciated the many small and poignant scenes that provide a sense of the shock and denial experienced by people in the face of imminent war. For example, as a family begins to flee their home, the servants are packing the car: “If you listened closely, you could hear the sound of planes in the sky. French or enemy? No one knew… It was impossible to make the servants listen to reason. They were trembling with fear. Even though they wanted to leave too, their need to follow a routine was stronger than their terror, and they insisted on doing everything as they had always done when getting ready to go to the countryside for the summer holidays…They were living two different moments, half in the present and half deep in the past, as if what was happening could only seep into a small part of their consciousness, the most superficial part, leaving all the deeper regions peacefully asleep.”
The Notes at the end bumped the rating to 5 stars, as they are a moving testament to a real family’s tragedy. They include the author’s plans for the rest of the novel and letters written by her husband to the authorities after she was arrested, trying to find out where she was being held. His emotional pleas are heart-breaking. It is a real example of just one of many tragedies that occurred during the Holocaust.
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German soldiers.I have read reviews that say some people are tired of books set in World War II. Here’s my attempt to convince them to at least consider this one:
- It was written contemporaneously (in 1940-1941).
- It is not just a modern story using the war as a backdrop.
- It is set in occupied France and provides a first-hand perspective.
- It is not a book about horrors of the concentration camps.
- It is beautifully written.
- It is historically significant. The author was a Jewish woman who was killed at Auschwitz in 1942, only a year after she finished the first two of what were supposed to be five segments of Suite Française. Her children brought out the manuscript and it was finally published in 2004.
I appreciated the many small and poignant scenes that provide a sense of the shock and denial experienced by people in the face of imminent war. For example, as a family begins to flee their home, the servants are packing the car: “If you listened closely, you could hear the sound of planes in the sky. French or enemy? No one knew… It was impossible to make the servants listen to reason. They were trembling with fear. Even though they wanted to leave too, their need to follow a routine was stronger than their terror, and they insisted on doing everything as they had always done when getting ready to go to the countryside for the summer holidays…They were living two different moments, half in the present and half deep in the past, as if what was happening could only seep into a small part of their consciousness, the most superficial part, leaving all the deeper regions peacefully asleep.”
The Notes at the end bumped the rating to 5 stars, as they are a moving testament to a real family’s tragedy. They include the author’s plans for the rest of the novel and letters written by her husband to the authorities after she was arrested, trying to find out where she was being held. His emotional pleas are heart-breaking. It is a real example of just one of many tragedies that occurred during the Holocaust.
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LibraryThing member CymLowell
This lovely, patient novel was written by a well-know author in the 1930s and 1940s who was exterminated by the Nazis at Auschwitz in 1943. As Nazi pestilence spread across France in the early 1940s, Ms. Nemirovsky began a four part novel. The first two parts were completed before she was taken
The first part of the story (Storm in June) chronicles the experience of several Parisian families and how they coped with getting out of the way of the Nazi invasion and French resistance, such as it was. There is a rich family, an author, a working class couple, a noble fat man in love with his possessions, and a few others along the way. The author lets us see how people cope with being reduced to a low common denominator (survival, where resources may or may not make any difference). It also let’s us explore how we would handle the situations presented. Like the Kite Runner, the story produces epochal moments where brave people act and others hide away. There is charming care and love growing, as well as fear and horrow.
In the second book (Dolce), we are taken to a charming French village which has been occupied by the Germans. Some of the characters continue, others are new. The author explores how people adapt to having the enemy amongst them, especially women in a context where there husbands, sons, fathers and other males are away at war, dead, missing, or in prison camps. Some of them appear, awkwardly as the story evolves, again producing many opportunities to assess how a reader would cope. Would you take up with the enemy, in your house, when you are lonely and he is charming, educated, and in love with you? And when he is likely to be off to the Russian front to die?
In the world of the Vichy French, of course, we see how so many yielded, serving up the Nemirovsky’s of the world to the Nazi’s to protect themseselves. What would you have done?
In the end, the German soldiers are ordered to the Russian front with the farmers’ horses, where they are surely to die (men and horses) in the Russian winter as cannon fodder. There is melancholy all around.
“In these final hours, a kind of melancholy and human warmth bound them all together: the conquered and the conquerors.
. . . .
All that remained of the German regiment was a little cloud of dust [and the emotions of people to cope with for the rest of their lives."
This is a wonderful, patient book. It is not a fast, exciting read. It's full of emotion and thought. It presents France in World War II in an entirely different framework than one of my last reads, the phenomenal and exciting The Judas Cross.
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away, which she anticipated.The first part of the story (Storm in June) chronicles the experience of several Parisian families and how they coped with getting out of the way of the Nazi invasion and French resistance, such as it was. There is a rich family, an author, a working class couple, a noble fat man in love with his possessions, and a few others along the way. The author lets us see how people cope with being reduced to a low common denominator (survival, where resources may or may not make any difference). It also let’s us explore how we would handle the situations presented. Like the Kite Runner, the story produces epochal moments where brave people act and others hide away. There is charming care and love growing, as well as fear and horrow.
In the second book (Dolce), we are taken to a charming French village which has been occupied by the Germans. Some of the characters continue, others are new. The author explores how people adapt to having the enemy amongst them, especially women in a context where there husbands, sons, fathers and other males are away at war, dead, missing, or in prison camps. Some of them appear, awkwardly as the story evolves, again producing many opportunities to assess how a reader would cope. Would you take up with the enemy, in your house, when you are lonely and he is charming, educated, and in love with you? And when he is likely to be off to the Russian front to die?
In the world of the Vichy French, of course, we see how so many yielded, serving up the Nemirovsky’s of the world to the Nazi’s to protect themseselves. What would you have done?
In the end, the German soldiers are ordered to the Russian front with the farmers’ horses, where they are surely to die (men and horses) in the Russian winter as cannon fodder. There is melancholy all around.
“In these final hours, a kind of melancholy and human warmth bound them all together: the conquered and the conquerors.
. . . .
All that remained of the German regiment was a little cloud of dust [and the emotions of people to cope with for the rest of their lives."
This is a wonderful, patient book. It is not a fast, exciting read. It's full of emotion and thought. It presents France in World War II in an entirely different framework than one of my last reads, the phenomenal and exciting The Judas Cross.
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LibraryThing member LibraryCin
This is an unfinished novel in two parts (originally meant to be in 5 parts), written by a Russian woman of Jewish background, who had been living in France as a Catholic for a number of years. Nemirovsky was killed in Auschwitz in 1942 before she could finish the book.
The novel focuses on regular
The book was o.k., but I really only found one small storyline particularly interesting... really one character. There were a lot of characters, but because the book wasn't holding my attention, I couldn't really keep them straight. The only reason it is getting 3 stars is for that one storyline. There was a note at the end of the book about Nemirovsky's own life, which to be honest, I found more interesting than most of the rest of the book.
The novel focuses on regular
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people in France during WWII. In the first part of the book, people are being evacuated from Paris. They later return, only to have to share their homes with German soldiers. The book was o.k., but I really only found one small storyline particularly interesting... really one character. There were a lot of characters, but because the book wasn't holding my attention, I couldn't really keep them straight. The only reason it is getting 3 stars is for that one storyline. There was a note at the end of the book about Nemirovsky's own life, which to be honest, I found more interesting than most of the rest of the book.
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LibraryThing member AlisonY
Given that Wine of Solitude left me feeling hugely underwhelmed, I'm glad I took on board the recommendations to still give Suite Francaise a shot. What a hugely different book in terms of writing style. Fantastic characters - tick. Good pace to the narrative - pick. Page-turning - tick. Everything
Set in occupied France during WWII, Suite Francaise consists of two separate parts. In the first we journey along with a number of different characters from Paris as they hastily exit the city upon hearing that the Germans had broken the Maginot Line. The wealthier have the resources to open up more options in their exodus than those who are forced to flee on foot, but war is indiscriminate and all are ultimately impacted one way or another.
The second part of the novel takes place in a small French village that is occupied by German soldiers and is a window into the complicated relationships between the occupiers and the occupied. Nemirovsky affords humanity in her depiction of the Germany soldiers as fathers, sons and husbands who treat their hosts with respect and politeness. Whether this is something Nemirovsky truly felt we will never know - she knew she was at high risk when writing the novel as a Jewish Russian exile living in France.
And there, after the second part, the novel ends. Nemirovsky intended the novel to be made up of 5 parts, with each part connecting the characters, but sadly she was sent to Auschwitz and never got to write the remaining 3 parts.
It's an incredibly affecting book, so much more so given the poignancy that the author was writing about the very enemy which would shortly send her to her death. I've not read any other WWII fiction which tells the story of what it was like to live in occupied France, and I doubt any could hold a candle to the authenticity of Nemirovsky's real-life experience.
Often during the year I read books which are enjoyable but not necessarily great page-turners. It was a joy to pick up a book that was simply a great read whilst also being hugely thought-provoking. It's incredibly sad that both Nemirovsky and her husband both died in concentration camps. Who knows what other remarkable work she would have written, and how she would developed this book and tied all the different parts together.
4 stars - simply a great read that brings this side of the war to vivid life.
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Wine of Solitude wasn't.Set in occupied France during WWII, Suite Francaise consists of two separate parts. In the first we journey along with a number of different characters from Paris as they hastily exit the city upon hearing that the Germans had broken the Maginot Line. The wealthier have the resources to open up more options in their exodus than those who are forced to flee on foot, but war is indiscriminate and all are ultimately impacted one way or another.
The second part of the novel takes place in a small French village that is occupied by German soldiers and is a window into the complicated relationships between the occupiers and the occupied. Nemirovsky affords humanity in her depiction of the Germany soldiers as fathers, sons and husbands who treat their hosts with respect and politeness. Whether this is something Nemirovsky truly felt we will never know - she knew she was at high risk when writing the novel as a Jewish Russian exile living in France.
And there, after the second part, the novel ends. Nemirovsky intended the novel to be made up of 5 parts, with each part connecting the characters, but sadly she was sent to Auschwitz and never got to write the remaining 3 parts.
It's an incredibly affecting book, so much more so given the poignancy that the author was writing about the very enemy which would shortly send her to her death. I've not read any other WWII fiction which tells the story of what it was like to live in occupied France, and I doubt any could hold a candle to the authenticity of Nemirovsky's real-life experience.
Often during the year I read books which are enjoyable but not necessarily great page-turners. It was a joy to pick up a book that was simply a great read whilst also being hugely thought-provoking. It's incredibly sad that both Nemirovsky and her husband both died in concentration camps. Who knows what other remarkable work she would have written, and how she would developed this book and tied all the different parts together.
4 stars - simply a great read that brings this side of the war to vivid life.
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LibraryThing member krazy4katz
What an incredible book! It has taken me a few weeks to settle down enough to write a review.
As others have said, there are 2 parts to this work. The first part includes 2 novellas, meant to be part of a 5-volume work on the war from the perspective of occupied France and the German occupiers. The
Both novellas address the differences between individuals from privileged and poorer classes in their response to the invasion of France by the Germans. The first book describes the evacuation of Paris in advance of German troops and the realization that France is losing the war. One gets a disruptive, confused feeling from this book. Perhaps because that is what happens when you have to evacuate. Perhaps because she did not live to tie up the loose ends. I don't know. The second book describes the occupation in a small village and depicts the lives of the occupiers and the occupied as they are forced to live together and, unavoidably, reconcile their preconceived notions of each other with the existing reality. It is a lonely time for everyone; loved ones -- prisoners, soldiers killed in the war, family left behind at home -- all are missed. In both books, people meet, interact and are destined to play roles in each other's lives, but how? We never find out because of Némirovsky's arrest and death in Auschwitz. Her prose was beautiful. Her storytelling was superb. The diary notes and letters at the end of the book only make one grieve more for the loss of this incredibly talented, sensitive writer.
As others have said, there are 2 parts to this work. The first part includes 2 novellas, meant to be part of a 5-volume work on the war from the perspective of occupied France and the German occupiers. The
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second part of this book contains her personal notes on her plans for the series, her letters and those of her husband and friends detailing her arrest, removal to a concentration camp and the desperate attempts to find her that continued long after she was killed. Both novellas address the differences between individuals from privileged and poorer classes in their response to the invasion of France by the Germans. The first book describes the evacuation of Paris in advance of German troops and the realization that France is losing the war. One gets a disruptive, confused feeling from this book. Perhaps because that is what happens when you have to evacuate. Perhaps because she did not live to tie up the loose ends. I don't know. The second book describes the occupation in a small village and depicts the lives of the occupiers and the occupied as they are forced to live together and, unavoidably, reconcile their preconceived notions of each other with the existing reality. It is a lonely time for everyone; loved ones -- prisoners, soldiers killed in the war, family left behind at home -- all are missed. In both books, people meet, interact and are destined to play roles in each other's lives, but how? We never find out because of Némirovsky's arrest and death in Auschwitz. Her prose was beautiful. Her storytelling was superb. The diary notes and letters at the end of the book only make one grieve more for the loss of this incredibly talented, sensitive writer.
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LibraryThing member emily_morine
The plots and characterization of highly episodic novels often strike me as somehow "thin," and I often have trouble appreciating them as a result. So I was surprised, partway through Irène Némirovsky's Suite française (a tapestry of vignettes set during the German invasion of Paris and
Les Michaud s'étaient levés à cinq heures du matin pour avoir le temps de faire l'appartement à fond avant de le quitter. Il était évidemment étrange de prendre tant de soin de choses sans valeur et condamnées, selon toutes probabilités, à disparaître dès que les premières bombes tomberaient sur Paris. Mais, pensait Mme Michaud, on habille et on pare bien les morts qui sont destinés à pourrir dans la terre. C'est un denier homage, une preuve suprème d'amour à ce qui fut cher.
[The Michauds got up at five o'clock in the morning so that they would have time to put the apartment to rights before leaving it. It was undoubtedly strange to take such care of objects without value, and condemned, in all probability, to disappear as soon as the first bombs fell on Paris. But, thought Mme Michaud, one clothes and arrays the dead who are destined to rot in the ground. It's one last homage, a supreme proof of love for that which was dear.
It's the psychology of small moments such as this one, when people act in unexpected ways, or continue to act in expected ways even when that behavior has ceased to make sense, that struck me so forcibly about Némirovsky's writing. Particularly in the sentence about clothing and arraying the dead, her substance as well as her style reminds me of the way Virginia Woolf intermingles outer activity with inner psychological portraits—pretty much the best compliment I could offer.
But whereas novels like Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse take place on ordinary days, reflecting the grand events of the outside world only obliquely, the characters of Suite française are in the midst of a direct collision with the forces of history. The actions required of them—fleeing en masse from their homes in Paris; accommodating themselves to German troops living in their homes and their village—are cataclysmic, and yet these people more or less continue in their accustomed mental and emotional habits as long as they can. The bourgeois Péricand family, for example, is delayed in leaving their house by the servants' insistence on ironing all the handkerchiefs like they always do before anyone leaves on vacation; the writer Gabriel Corte, accustomed to thinking of himself as the absolute center of the universe, is incensed that the war would dare to encroach on his home. Occasionally the characters change and learn over the course of the novel; most often, they really don't. I like that about Suite française: there are no pat epiphanies tied up for the reader with a bow at the end of either section.
Which is not to say that the characters do not journey. Némirovsky portrays the mental and emotional lives of her characters with a quiet precision that offsets perfectly her chaotic, upsetting subject matter, and her characterizations struck me as absolutely believable—even, despite never having been through anything remotely like a foreign invasion of my home, familiar. The way in which one often finds oneself reacting in the "wrong" way to a traumatic experience: thinking odd, disconnected thoughts, experiencing and even expressing inappropriate emotions. It's a quiet portrait of a whole country in violent shock, whose individuals are often unable or unwilling to make the effort involved in donning the customary cloak of civilization and politesse.
I've read quite a few reviews of this book that dwell on how unlikeable the characters are, and there are indeed a few that are totally despicable. Most are what I would consider average people: often selfish; bad under pressure; with their pettinesses and their loyalties that percolate through their lives in predictable and unpredictable ways. Perhaps it speaks to my own worldview (I am sometimes accused of being a cynic), but I found Némirovsky's characterizations accurate and insightful, rather than overly dark. True, there are few real "heroes," but I found almost everyone in the book somewhat likable, if only by virtue of recognizing myself in their actions. Even in the case of Gabriel Corte, surely one of the least sympathetic characters in the novel, I often found myself smiling or grimacing in recognition, as in this scene when he explodes with frustration at having to share the roads with the unwashed masses:
— Si des épisodes aussi douloureux qu'une défaite et un exode ne sont pas rehaussees de quelque noblesse, de quelque grandeur, ils ne méritent pas d'être! Je n'admets pas que ces boutiquiers, ces concierges, ces mal-lavés avec leurs pleurnicheries, leurs ragots, leur grossièreté, avilissent un climat de tragédie. Mais regarde-les! regarde-les!
"If events as painful as a defeat and an exodus are not set off by some nobility, by some grandeur, they don't deserve to exist! I will not accept these shop-keepers, these janitors, these unwashed with their whining, their gossip, their rudeness, debasing the climate of tragedy. Just look at them! look at them!"
What he's saying is obviously despicable—would he have the roads guarded, allowing only those of sufficient "nobility" to save their own lives? And yet he's also so ridiculous as to be darkly funny: does he believe that he himself is acting nobly by complaining that the poor people are messing up his tragic atmosphere? Does he really believe that the universe owes him some kind of meaning in the way it unfolds its events? OF COURSE military defeats and exoduses don't deserve to exist! And yet, can you honestly guarantee that thoughts like these would never pass through your own mind, if you were similarly bored, terrified and grief-stricken, stuck on a hot, dusty road with a huge crowd of panicky people you neither knew nor cared about, but who were impeding your progress toward a place of safety? I certainly can't guarantee they wouldn't pass through mine—or even, if I were exhausted and scared enough, that I wouldn't say them out loud.
Furthermore, to crown this whole complex little episode, a couple of pages later we see one of the despised band of shopkeepers and janitors delivering a grief-stricken little speech of true pathos and nobility. And indeed, I'm eager to seek out Némirovsky's short stories, because she does such an excellent job of creating, in each chapter, a miniature, self-contained journey for the reader, often one whose final paragraphs cause a shift of perspective. Not what I would call a "twist" exactly; more like a turning, as if one were pelting forward on a path only to stop and turn around, glimpsing a different view of the way one had come. She has a developed sense of the irony of life (one character, for example, survives all the dangers of the Paris exodus only to be run down by a car on his safe return), but it never feels gimmicky or overly pat; on the contrary, this is a complex, deeply felt, yet unsentimental portrait, and one I won't soon forget.
*******
All above translations are mine, but there are probably better versions of them available in Sandra Smith's English translation of this book.
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occupation of rural France), to find that I was not only liking but loving it. What differentiated this, then, from other episodic novels? For me, it was Némirovsky's unerring ability to pinpoint the tactile quality of a moment in time, suspended motionless but with all its past baggage and future uncertainty still intact, rendering her vignettes eloquent enough to stand on their own or as part of a larger narrative. Tempête en juin, in particular—the first section of this projected five-part novel, of which only two parts were ever completed—was constantly surprising me with the unexpectedness of its emotional insight. Take, for example, the Michaud couple, husband and wife, middle-class bank employees preparing to flee the city with the rest of the Parisians as the Germans advance. Némirovsky describes the process of lovingly cleaning and cleaning the flat, even in the full knowledge that it will likely be bombed or otherwise destroyed before they ever see it again: Les Michaud s'étaient levés à cinq heures du matin pour avoir le temps de faire l'appartement à fond avant de le quitter. Il était évidemment étrange de prendre tant de soin de choses sans valeur et condamnées, selon toutes probabilités, à disparaître dès que les premières bombes tomberaient sur Paris. Mais, pensait Mme Michaud, on habille et on pare bien les morts qui sont destinés à pourrir dans la terre. C'est un denier homage, une preuve suprème d'amour à ce qui fut cher.
[The Michauds got up at five o'clock in the morning so that they would have time to put the apartment to rights before leaving it. It was undoubtedly strange to take such care of objects without value, and condemned, in all probability, to disappear as soon as the first bombs fell on Paris. But, thought Mme Michaud, one clothes and arrays the dead who are destined to rot in the ground. It's one last homage, a supreme proof of love for that which was dear.
It's the psychology of small moments such as this one, when people act in unexpected ways, or continue to act in expected ways even when that behavior has ceased to make sense, that struck me so forcibly about Némirovsky's writing. Particularly in the sentence about clothing and arraying the dead, her substance as well as her style reminds me of the way Virginia Woolf intermingles outer activity with inner psychological portraits—pretty much the best compliment I could offer.
But whereas novels like Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse take place on ordinary days, reflecting the grand events of the outside world only obliquely, the characters of Suite française are in the midst of a direct collision with the forces of history. The actions required of them—fleeing en masse from their homes in Paris; accommodating themselves to German troops living in their homes and their village—are cataclysmic, and yet these people more or less continue in their accustomed mental and emotional habits as long as they can. The bourgeois Péricand family, for example, is delayed in leaving their house by the servants' insistence on ironing all the handkerchiefs like they always do before anyone leaves on vacation; the writer Gabriel Corte, accustomed to thinking of himself as the absolute center of the universe, is incensed that the war would dare to encroach on his home. Occasionally the characters change and learn over the course of the novel; most often, they really don't. I like that about Suite française: there are no pat epiphanies tied up for the reader with a bow at the end of either section.
Which is not to say that the characters do not journey. Némirovsky portrays the mental and emotional lives of her characters with a quiet precision that offsets perfectly her chaotic, upsetting subject matter, and her characterizations struck me as absolutely believable—even, despite never having been through anything remotely like a foreign invasion of my home, familiar. The way in which one often finds oneself reacting in the "wrong" way to a traumatic experience: thinking odd, disconnected thoughts, experiencing and even expressing inappropriate emotions. It's a quiet portrait of a whole country in violent shock, whose individuals are often unable or unwilling to make the effort involved in donning the customary cloak of civilization and politesse.
I've read quite a few reviews of this book that dwell on how unlikeable the characters are, and there are indeed a few that are totally despicable. Most are what I would consider average people: often selfish; bad under pressure; with their pettinesses and their loyalties that percolate through their lives in predictable and unpredictable ways. Perhaps it speaks to my own worldview (I am sometimes accused of being a cynic), but I found Némirovsky's characterizations accurate and insightful, rather than overly dark. True, there are few real "heroes," but I found almost everyone in the book somewhat likable, if only by virtue of recognizing myself in their actions. Even in the case of Gabriel Corte, surely one of the least sympathetic characters in the novel, I often found myself smiling or grimacing in recognition, as in this scene when he explodes with frustration at having to share the roads with the unwashed masses:
— Si des épisodes aussi douloureux qu'une défaite et un exode ne sont pas rehaussees de quelque noblesse, de quelque grandeur, ils ne méritent pas d'être! Je n'admets pas que ces boutiquiers, ces concierges, ces mal-lavés avec leurs pleurnicheries, leurs ragots, leur grossièreté, avilissent un climat de tragédie. Mais regarde-les! regarde-les!
"If events as painful as a defeat and an exodus are not set off by some nobility, by some grandeur, they don't deserve to exist! I will not accept these shop-keepers, these janitors, these unwashed with their whining, their gossip, their rudeness, debasing the climate of tragedy. Just look at them! look at them!"
What he's saying is obviously despicable—would he have the roads guarded, allowing only those of sufficient "nobility" to save their own lives? And yet he's also so ridiculous as to be darkly funny: does he believe that he himself is acting nobly by complaining that the poor people are messing up his tragic atmosphere? Does he really believe that the universe owes him some kind of meaning in the way it unfolds its events? OF COURSE military defeats and exoduses don't deserve to exist! And yet, can you honestly guarantee that thoughts like these would never pass through your own mind, if you were similarly bored, terrified and grief-stricken, stuck on a hot, dusty road with a huge crowd of panicky people you neither knew nor cared about, but who were impeding your progress toward a place of safety? I certainly can't guarantee they wouldn't pass through mine—or even, if I were exhausted and scared enough, that I wouldn't say them out loud.
Furthermore, to crown this whole complex little episode, a couple of pages later we see one of the despised band of shopkeepers and janitors delivering a grief-stricken little speech of true pathos and nobility. And indeed, I'm eager to seek out Némirovsky's short stories, because she does such an excellent job of creating, in each chapter, a miniature, self-contained journey for the reader, often one whose final paragraphs cause a shift of perspective. Not what I would call a "twist" exactly; more like a turning, as if one were pelting forward on a path only to stop and turn around, glimpsing a different view of the way one had come. She has a developed sense of the irony of life (one character, for example, survives all the dangers of the Paris exodus only to be run down by a car on his safe return), but it never feels gimmicky or overly pat; on the contrary, this is a complex, deeply felt, yet unsentimental portrait, and one I won't soon forget.
*******
All above translations are mine, but there are probably better versions of them available in Sandra Smith's English translation of this book.
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LibraryThing member pdebolt
If you read no other book, read this one. It is an absorbing depiction of war-occupied France during WWII and will leave you wondering what you would have done under similar circumstances. It shows humanity at its best and worst. Best of all, it will leave you with a great deal to ponder.
LibraryThing member BrianDewey
I first wondered if I'd like this book. I didn't like the continually shifting points of view. I would have been OK with each chapter being in a different point of view, but Némirovsky shifts even within a chapter. I guess I don't read many stories these days from the omniscient point of view, and
But once I got used to it, I fell in love with the book. Némirovsky's portrayals of the French upper classes reminds me of Jane Austen. It's both funny and sad. And the contrast of the upper-class life with the historical background is simply amazing.
Apparently, Némirovsky was inspired by music; you can see its influence in the structure of the two novellas in Suite Française. The opening Novella, "Storm in June," reminds me of an overture to an opera -- all of the characters that will play a role in the Suite are woven together like musical themes. Then the second novella, "Dolce," develops a specific set of characters and a specific scene more fully. It's the first full act of the opera.
The selection of correspondence in the appendix of this edition is heartbreaking.
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it took a little getting used to.But once I got used to it, I fell in love with the book. Némirovsky's portrayals of the French upper classes reminds me of Jane Austen. It's both funny and sad. And the contrast of the upper-class life with the historical background is simply amazing.
Apparently, Némirovsky was inspired by music; you can see its influence in the structure of the two novellas in Suite Française. The opening Novella, "Storm in June," reminds me of an overture to an opera -- all of the characters that will play a role in the Suite are woven together like musical themes. Then the second novella, "Dolce," develops a specific set of characters and a specific scene more fully. It's the first full act of the opera.
The selection of correspondence in the appendix of this edition is heartbreaking.
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LibraryThing member Kcollins1107
I read this book after hearing it mentioned because of the long delay in it'e publication. I was transfixed by this book. I could think of nothing else while I was reading it. I knew, pretty much, what the ending would be but strangely this did not effect my 'enjoyment' or experience in the reading
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of it. At the end there is biographical info but more than that is excerpts from Irene's journals and letters as she was fleeing the Nazi's and conceiving of and writing her book. It is extraordinary. She also writes about her process in writing or at least in conceiving of the work as a piece of music. What an enormous loss. This is one of the best books I have read in years. Show Less
LibraryThing member herschelian
Friends gave me a copy of “Suite Française” by Irène Némirovsky as a birthday present, and I read it this week. (Curiously, my mother and my sister had each been given copies of the same book for their birthdays.)
It is not a complete book, the author, a Russian Jewess living in France, who
Her writing is exceptional, light, delicate and intimate. She conveys the horrors of the Nazi invasion of Paris so well that you live through the nightmare and the panic as you read.
Her account of rural life under the German occupation is superb; she views everything and everyone with an unsentimental clarity. It is not too exaggerated to say I found her writing on a par with Flaubert. What a terrible loss to French literature.
I am quite unable to do justice to this book in a few words, suffice to say I thought it was simply wonderful, and urge everyone to read it, particularly teenagers. It is a beautiful and chilling reminder of what happened in the mid 20th Century, and what we must guard against ever happening again
It is not a complete book, the author, a Russian Jewess living in France, who
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had already written several acclaimed novels started writing it in 1941. She intended the finished book to be in five parts, like an orchestral suite of music, but was seized by the Nazis and died in Auschwitz in late 1942, having written only two of the five parts. These two parts, together with her copious notes on what she was writing and her planning for the remaining three parts of the book, miraculously survived in a small suitcase which her two small daughters had with them when they fled the Nazis and went into hiding. As adult women, Iréne Nèmirovsky’s daughters decided to transcribe what they had thought was her daily journal, and discovered that it was a book, or part of a book. “Suite Française” is a collection of the two parts she had written, all her notes, letters between herself and her publishers and friends about her books, and then the frantic correspondence between her husband Michael Epstein and anyone of influence in occupied France whom he thought could save his wife after she had been arrested.Her writing is exceptional, light, delicate and intimate. She conveys the horrors of the Nazi invasion of Paris so well that you live through the nightmare and the panic as you read.
Her account of rural life under the German occupation is superb; she views everything and everyone with an unsentimental clarity. It is not too exaggerated to say I found her writing on a par with Flaubert. What a terrible loss to French literature.
I am quite unable to do justice to this book in a few words, suffice to say I thought it was simply wonderful, and urge everyone to read it, particularly teenagers. It is a beautiful and chilling reminder of what happened in the mid 20th Century, and what we must guard against ever happening again
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LibraryThing member labfs39
I didn't realize when I purchased this book that it was an unfinished manuscript. The author had planned on writing a five-part novel of nearly a 1000 pages, but only the two parts included here, Storm and Dolce, were finished before she was arrested by the Nazis and sent to Birkenau. Although
The first book, Storm in June, is a whirlwind of movement with the Germans closing in on Paris in 1940. The reader is introduced to several families and individuals who are all in a panic fleeing before the oncoming wave. Belongings are flung together and loaded into suitcases, cars, and carts, as people flood the train stations and cars clog the road. Like flotsam and jetsam, people flow down into the Loire Valley and struggle to find food and shelter. All is chaos, and eventually most end up straggling back to Paris as initial fears give way to practicality.
The second book, Dolce, is less polished and concerns a smaller circle of people, introduced peripherally in the first book. The focus is a hamlet in the occupied zone and the relationships between the conquering Germans and the vanquished French. All classes of society are scrutinized and found wanting in their actions and attitudes.
The appendices in my edition of the book are priceless. First are notes that the author kept regarding her manuscript. Through them we see what she was trying to attempt and her plans for the longer, complete work. Seen through this lens, it is possible to catch a glimpse of the greatness her final work was attempting.
The second appendix contains the final correspondence of the author to her publishers and others and reflects her growing fears for herself and her family. Born in Belarus, Irene and her parents fled Bolshevik prosecution and sought refuge in Paris. Her father was able to rebuild his lost fortune in the banking industry, and Irene had a wild social life before she met and married Michel Epstein. In 1939 Irene, Michel, and their two daughters converted to Catholicism, both as a means of further assimilating into French society before growing antisemitism and as a rejection of Irene's detested mother. On July 13, 1942, Irene was arrested and sent to the notorious Pithiviers concentration camp outside Orleans. Her last two notes to her husband were smuggled out from there. The remaining heartbreaking correspondence is her husband's, as he tries desperately to find and free Irene, even offering to take her place, or at least join her so they might be together. Instead, he is arrested, transferred to Auschwitz, and sent immediately to the crematorium. Irene, we later learn, died in the Birkenau infirmary a month after her arrest.
Taken together, the manuscript, her notes, and the correspondence form a devastating picture of life in occupied France.
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clearly unfinished and in need of further editing, the two sections included in Suite Française are fascinating.The first book, Storm in June, is a whirlwind of movement with the Germans closing in on Paris in 1940. The reader is introduced to several families and individuals who are all in a panic fleeing before the oncoming wave. Belongings are flung together and loaded into suitcases, cars, and carts, as people flood the train stations and cars clog the road. Like flotsam and jetsam, people flow down into the Loire Valley and struggle to find food and shelter. All is chaos, and eventually most end up straggling back to Paris as initial fears give way to practicality.
The second book, Dolce, is less polished and concerns a smaller circle of people, introduced peripherally in the first book. The focus is a hamlet in the occupied zone and the relationships between the conquering Germans and the vanquished French. All classes of society are scrutinized and found wanting in their actions and attitudes.
The appendices in my edition of the book are priceless. First are notes that the author kept regarding her manuscript. Through them we see what she was trying to attempt and her plans for the longer, complete work. Seen through this lens, it is possible to catch a glimpse of the greatness her final work was attempting.
The second appendix contains the final correspondence of the author to her publishers and others and reflects her growing fears for herself and her family. Born in Belarus, Irene and her parents fled Bolshevik prosecution and sought refuge in Paris. Her father was able to rebuild his lost fortune in the banking industry, and Irene had a wild social life before she met and married Michel Epstein. In 1939 Irene, Michel, and their two daughters converted to Catholicism, both as a means of further assimilating into French society before growing antisemitism and as a rejection of Irene's detested mother. On July 13, 1942, Irene was arrested and sent to the notorious Pithiviers concentration camp outside Orleans. Her last two notes to her husband were smuggled out from there. The remaining heartbreaking correspondence is her husband's, as he tries desperately to find and free Irene, even offering to take her place, or at least join her so they might be together. Instead, he is arrested, transferred to Auschwitz, and sent immediately to the crematorium. Irene, we later learn, died in the Birkenau infirmary a month after her arrest.
Taken together, the manuscript, her notes, and the correspondence form a devastating picture of life in occupied France.
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LibraryThing member plenilune
This book is excellent. You need to do yourself a favor: stop reading this and go get this book. It may be difficult to keep track of all of the different characters, particularly in the first section, but it is well worth the effort.
Nemirovsky managed to create dozens of characters, each unique
I highly, highly recommend this book . Don't neglect the two appendices! They are captivating and will break your heart.
Nemirovsky managed to create dozens of characters, each unique
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and meticulously crafted, some likable and some detestable, and placed them in the tumultuous landscape of her contemporary occupied France. Meant to be a five-part novel of epic scale, Nemirovsky only had the chance to write the first two sections, both of which could stand on their own merits as individual books. Imagine what she could have done had she not been sent to Auschwitz due to her Jewish heritage. I highly, highly recommend this book . Don't neglect the two appendices! They are captivating and will break your heart.
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LibraryThing member Cariola
A lovely novel that intertwines the stories of several French citizens and their efforts to survive the Nazi invasion and occopuation. Nemirovsky does a fine job of conveying the hardships of day-to-day living for her well-drawn characters.
LibraryThing member shirleybell
You don't read this book, you are transported back to France in 1941 - an evocative and at times heart-breaking depiction of wartime France and the effects on its people.
LibraryThing member megantron
A ridiculous, sentimental cover for an unsentimental novel that was published posthumously. Nemirovsky's voice is surprisingly witty and tough as nails; heartbreaking that she would never have a chance to finish her French suite-- she died in Auschwitz at the age of 39.
This is the most honest book
This is the most honest book
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I've read that looks at the lives of women during wartime. Nemirovsky romanticizes nothing. Show Less
LibraryThing member CarlosMcRey
Ever since picking up my first work by Nemirovsky last year, I've admired her talent for observing the human condition. There's something about her observation of people and their actions that suggests a balance between optimistic humanism and world weariness. In Suite Francaise, she trains her
The book is divided into two sections. The first section begins as the news spreads through France that the army has been unable to stop the Germans. With the Blitz heading towards Paris, panic spreads, and people begin to flee to the countryside. Nemirovsky quickly introduces several people, including one family, and the preparations they make to leave. At first, the sheer number of characters made it a bit confusing, but as the story progressed, I got to know the characters better and became able to distinguish them.
As the Parisians flee, they often find themselves in pretty harrowing circumstances. The invasion has thrown things into disorder, and people who've led lives of privilege and prestige suddenly find the charmed existence that they enjoyed has suddenly disappeared. At first the Germans appear only as news on the radio, but then there are bombings and aerial strafing, followed by pitched battles. The story reflects the horror and confusion of war. As the first section ends, the government has fallen, the fighting has ended and people are in the process of putting their lives back together.
The second section begins in the countryside, specifically in one of the villages to which one of the Parisians had fled. The Germans have gone from being an invading army to an occupying one, and in the process have gone from being an amorphous threat to having a very human face. In fact, the presence of all the young men in a village which has seen its own boys killed or taken prisoner gives rise to a strange dynamic of affection and resentment. This section felt even stronger, as Nemirovsky probes all the fault lines, allowing for a much slower boil of conflicting emotions and allegiances.
Because Nemirovsky was sent to the death camps, she never finished the novel, so the second section of the novel ends somewhat abruptly. Though not part of the novel, I couldn't help but contrast Nemirovsky's eye for day-to-day humanity with the sheer inhuman evil of the Holocaust. I also couldn't help wondering how this chronicle of the war, with all its fine detail and observations, would have continued had she lived.
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fine eye on the way that people react, and then adjust, to war, specifically Germany's invasion of France in WWII. The book is divided into two sections. The first section begins as the news spreads through France that the army has been unable to stop the Germans. With the Blitz heading towards Paris, panic spreads, and people begin to flee to the countryside. Nemirovsky quickly introduces several people, including one family, and the preparations they make to leave. At first, the sheer number of characters made it a bit confusing, but as the story progressed, I got to know the characters better and became able to distinguish them.
As the Parisians flee, they often find themselves in pretty harrowing circumstances. The invasion has thrown things into disorder, and people who've led lives of privilege and prestige suddenly find the charmed existence that they enjoyed has suddenly disappeared. At first the Germans appear only as news on the radio, but then there are bombings and aerial strafing, followed by pitched battles. The story reflects the horror and confusion of war. As the first section ends, the government has fallen, the fighting has ended and people are in the process of putting their lives back together.
The second section begins in the countryside, specifically in one of the villages to which one of the Parisians had fled. The Germans have gone from being an invading army to an occupying one, and in the process have gone from being an amorphous threat to having a very human face. In fact, the presence of all the young men in a village which has seen its own boys killed or taken prisoner gives rise to a strange dynamic of affection and resentment. This section felt even stronger, as Nemirovsky probes all the fault lines, allowing for a much slower boil of conflicting emotions and allegiances.
Because Nemirovsky was sent to the death camps, she never finished the novel, so the second section of the novel ends somewhat abruptly. Though not part of the novel, I couldn't help but contrast Nemirovsky's eye for day-to-day humanity with the sheer inhuman evil of the Holocaust. I also couldn't help wondering how this chronicle of the war, with all its fine detail and observations, would have continued had she lived.
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Awards
Audie Award (Finalist — 2007)
The Economist Best Books (2006.5)
Indies Choice Book Award (Honor Book — Adult Fiction — 2007)
Independent Booksellers' Book Prize (Winner — Adult — 2007)
Wingate Literary Prize (Shortlist — 2007)
PEN Translation Prize (Winner — 2007)
French-American Foundation Translation Prize (Winner — 2006)
Christian Science Monitor Best Book (General Fiction — 2006)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2004 (posth.)
2006 (UK)
Physical description
416 p.; 6.52 inches
ISBN
1400044731 / 9781400044733
Local notes
fiction