Suite Francaise | 
 enlarge | Author: Irene Nemirovsky
Creator: Sandra Smith
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  372 reviews
Sales Rank: 6300
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.7
ISBN: 1400044731
Dewey Decimal Number: 843.912
EAN: 9781400044733
ASIN: 1400044731
Publication Date: April 11, 2006
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Product Description
By the early l940s, when Ukrainian-born Irene Nemirovsky began working on what would become Suite Francaise—the first two parts of a planned five-part novel—she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz: a month later she was dead at the age of thirty-nine. Two years earlier, living in a small village in central France—where she, her husband, and their two small daughters had fled in a vain attempt to elude the Nazis—she’d begun her novel, a luminous portrayal of a human drama in which she herself would become a victim. When she was arrested, she had completed two parts of the epic, the handwritten manuscripts of which were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. Sixty-four years later, at long last, we can read Nemirovsky’s literary masterpiece
The first part, “A Storm in June,” opens in the chaos of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion during which several families and individuals are thrown together under circumstances beyond their control. They share nothing but the harsh demands of survival—some trying to maintain lives of privilege, others struggling simply to preserve their lives—but soon, all together, they will be forced to face the awful exigencies of physical and emotional displacement, and the annihilation of the world they know. In the second part, “Dolce,” we enter the increasingly complex life of a German-occupied provincial village. Coexisting uneasily with the soldiers billeted among them, the villagers—from aristocrats to shopkeepers to peasants—cope as best they can. Some choose resistance, others collaboration, and as their community is transformed by these acts, the lives of these these men and women reveal nothing less than the very essence of humanity.
Suite Francaise is a singularly piercing evocation—at once subtle and severe, deeply compassionate and fiercely ironic—of life and death in occupied France, and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 367 more reviews...
 Wanted more and more!! .such a tragedy she is gone... October 6, 2008
A book like this only comes around once in a while and touched me greatly and even though the author died tragically at Auschwitz in 1942 she will be in my memory forever.. Thank god her daughter got this book published. I fell in love with all the characters who were written so vividly I thought I was there...So descriptive, with both humor and sadness. The next part "Captive" was not yet written only in bits and pieces before her death. I cried on the last two pages regarding her life and death. Such a talented writer. Rest in peace Irene..
 Subtle, Powerful, Unfinished - An Astonishing Survival September 29, 2008
9 out of 12 found this review helpful
Perhaps the miracle of this manuscript is that it survived the internment and death of its author and all the mischances of World War II to achieve publication. Even in its unfinished condition (only two sections out of the author's intended three or four), this novel paints an unforgettable portrait of France in defeat.
The first section, Storm in June, follows a number of people who flee Paris ahead of the German Army. The author hopscotches from character to character, trying to show the reaction of many different classes and types of people. The most poignant story was that of a middle-class, middle-aged couple who both work at the same bank. They report to the bank as ordered, only at the last minute the bank director decides to take his mistress in his car so he tells the couple that they are to report to Tours tomorrow or face losing their jobs! They have to walk and their faith with one another and their worry about their son in the army makes for affecting reading.
The second section, Dolce, is set in a farming community under occupation. The tensions between the occupiers and the occupied are deftly delineated. The subtle choices faced by those who willingly collaborate and those who do so reluctantly are played upon. The author does this in such human terms, showing the relationship that grows step by step between Lucille, a woman trapped in a loveless marriage to a man now held captive, and the German officer quartered with her and her mother-in-law.
These two sections, plus some of the author's notes, are all we have--this in itself is a tragedy and waste of war. Had this novel been finished we would be hailing it as one of the supreme works of literature. As it stands, it is like a great cathedral gutted by a bomb. The ruined shell still soars to heaven, a reminder of the human spirit triumphing despite human destructiveness.
One of the best, by far. September 27, 2008
When a friend handed me her copy of Suite Francaise my first thought was that it would not be my sort of thing, with its 1940's movie character cover and "secret manuscript hidden away by author's daughters for more than 60 years" backstory. How wrong I was! This is one of the very best books I've ever read. It is so beautifully translated that you catch your breath over its wonderful phrasing, elegant descriptions, perfectly paced plot, and characters all too human. Impossible to overstate the emotional impact of the loss of this powerful writer to the evil Nazi regime.
Good prose, surprisingly heartwrenching appendix September 25, 2008
There are many reviews already, so suffice it to say I believe she had talent and am interested in reading a novel she had time to finish.
If you read this novel, do not overlook Appendix II, which contains letters written by Irene, her husband and their friends and family. It will break your heart what they went through when the Nazis came for them.
Suite Francais is a masterpiece! September 16, 2008
The setting is 1940 France amid the German occupation. Ms. Nemirovsky and her family were caught in the middle of the French people fleeing the occupied territory. She tells the tale with beautiful imagery and descriptions, not making monsters of the German overlords who made their lives so difficult. What is even more amazing is that this novel was finished when Ms. N was sent to Auschwitz. She never left. Even though she was a French citizen, the Nazis used her Jewish roots against her and stifled one of the most gifted writers I have ever had occasion to read. This novel was hidden for about 60 years, and only recently was published to critical acclaim. A great read that tells the tale of a city, and a people, occupied--but now overthrown.
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