Suite Francaise
 

'Suite Française,' by Irène Némirovsky

I just finished reading this book and would highly recommend it. A wonderfully written book. A fictional story of life during the German occupation of France in WWII. It is really parts 1 and 2 of what was to be a 5 piece work, but was never finished because the author was writing it as things happened and never got to finish as she was of Jewish heritage and died in a camp.

I would have enjoyed the book anyway, but knowing the circumstances behind the writing, made it that much more interesting and poignant. Her daughter had these notebooks and didn't open them until the late 1990's, saw what they were and sent them to a publisher.

For those here that write, the appendix with the authors notes and her thought processes into the developing story may be interesting as well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/bo...ray.html?fta=y

No thanks, I think I'll stick to Harry Potter.

j/k

but seriously, it sounds like heavy emotional sledding.

Thanks for the tip. I've been debating wading into this. I haven't trusted the glowing reviews because literary praise has become so political, and politicaly there's so much to admire about this book, apart from the literary merit. I understand that though a Jew (converted to Catholicism, correct?) the novel doesn't cover the Jews at all.

How strange the irony that she wound up being liquidated as a Jew. When they come after the Mormons they better not get me, because I'm inocent of that crime.

Not heavy at all, in fact it was fun for the most part. Her journals and letters in the appendix, now that is where it gets tough, but the novallas themselves had none of that in it.

You're the guiltiest apostate out there. Half of your working day is consumed by thinking about Mormonism.

Actually her grandparents were Jews, but her parents and herself were cathlolic. She was born and raised a catholic. There is no mention of the Jews at all in the book.

It more deals with the daily life and hassle of first evacuating Paris and then dealing with the occupation and having the German soldiers living among them, beign a part of their lives and how their daily life was.

I didn't find it political at all, just matter of fact this is the way different classes have to deal with this crap.

Oh and yes you will be rounded up, guilty by association with this board alone.

I didn't mean the book's contents being political in this instance. I meant that because the book was written by a holocaust victim, and based on events that led to her death, the book itself being a relic of that supremely tragic event, what critic wouldn't praise it? She may actually have been liquidated for being an intellectual and a writer as much or more than for being a descendant of Jews.

I see what you mean. I went into it blind though and really enjoyed it for the writing. Just happened to pick it up off the shelf at the local library and didn't even read the cover or know the background.

Yeah you would look like a jerk for criticizing it.

the notes in the book said it was because of race thing, but we will really never know. Either way she may not have been in a good position.