Suite Francaise Reviews

• A Masterpiece

  
  By A4SF7Z3L5YJ1Y on 2006-04-22
  Having read much history about the 1940 fall of France, including such indispensible first person accounts as Bloch's "Strange Defeat," I have read nothing that captures the human experience of that debacle (arguably any debacle) as immediate and gripping as Ir?ne N?mirovsky's two novellas, all that was completed of what would have been the five part "Suite Fran?aise" (her title). Characters are as real as people we know well. They are vividly and deeply etched, with a focus and an economy of utterance that belie how engrained they become in the reader's mind. Without a central narrator, through the depiction of lives that in some cases are interlocking, in others tangential, indeed in most merely coeval, the feel of a world in dissolution has never been so effectively conveyed, both the general maelstrom and the personal experience. Transcending its time and place, it reminds us today how transitory everything is, how off-kilter, unbalanced, insecure life can suddenly become, indeed of the fragility of our existence, of how supporting structures such as class, belief, position, employ, wealth, can be swept away by happenstance or a tide of events we do not fully understand or foresee. When all material support is gone, all the characters (we) have left is what they (we) find within. For some, it's emptiness and pretension which always engender brutishness. Others are surprised by habits and qualities they took for granted or were not even aware they had: integrity, empathy, resourcefulness, even the grace and generosity inherent in good manners. Riches indeed. Ironically, the novelist as well as we, have always known that brutishness is not always punished nor does virtue always heal.
  
  This novel speaks to the heart directly and, through the heart, to the intellect. The writing is thorough and gripping, detail is probed and embelished only when necessary. Some have described N?mirovsky's writing as Proustian. I think this is so only to the extent that the emerging picture is so flavorful and complete. The writing is always flowing yet compact; I don't recall a sentence which, unlike in Proust, could be remotely described as rococo. Though the events and composition are more than half a century removed from our time, the feel is oddly contemporary, the narrative's impact immediate and timeless.
  
  The first novella has to do with the flight from Paris and the French defeat; the second, with life in a village under the occupation. But, of course, this is as adequate as saying that "War and Peace" is about Russia and Napoleon.
  
  Read this book and be moved.
  
  Recommendation: skip the introduction and don't browse the appendices first. Read the novel without concerning yourself with provenance. Afterwards by all means do read everything else. You will realize what a truly remarkable person wrote the gripping masterpiece you have just read, and the love and dedication by the author, her daughters and relevant others that ultimately brought this book into being. But, it must be emphasized: the greatness of "Suite Fran?aise" lies in the work, not in the circumstances of its provenance.
  
  

• A timeless classic for today

  
  By A1JXGQRQFQSBX9 on 2006-03-17
  I think this is a wonderful book, so moving and beautifully written that you realize after only a few pages, that you are reading a timeless classic, something that
  will endure for ever in the same way as the great works of Tolstoy or
  Flaubert. Actually the author has all the lyricism of Tolstoy - and the
  breadth of vision - but doesn't hammer on about her 'message' as he can do.
  Think of those passages in Anna Karenina where the great man begins to
  describe Levin and the ideal life in the country. There is none of this in
  Suite Francaise. And the wonder of it is that you don't realize the author
  was a Jew living life on borrowed time , exiled to the French countryside and
  with the full knowledge of what this invasion meant for her personally and
  her family. There is no fear in the book. It is essentially and creatively
  feminine. That Irene Nemirovsky was about to be taken and killed , that she was a
  Jew in the middle of a European abomination , this never intrudes. You
  don't read the book for what the author suffered, despite her knowledge of
  her own personal perilous position, she just lets her art take over so what
  we get is a timeless brilliant classic which is so much more of an amazing
  legacy to her and those who died than any personalized or angled account
  could ever have been. What real heroism to do this, what an achievement, to
  rise about the fear and humiliation and write this wonderful work. And the
  translation is fantastic just because we don't notice it specially. Sandra
  Smith ( translators like editors are surely born to live in the shadows )
  has done a fabulous job in not making the book seem at all foreign. There
  are no jarring phrases and odd distracting foreignisms that often get in
  the way of really enjoying a great work like this . Of course we are
  reading Irene Nemirovsky but every word on the page is Smith's and they are
  all beautifully chosen to match the lyricism of the original. This is one
  of the most important books to emerge for years and, it sounds rather
  plangent but a triumph of life and art over the forces of death and
  ignorance.
  
  

• I really wanted to love this book.....

  
  By A3OZPA2Y2SUYX5 on 2007-04-29
  I started reading this book with an obvious bias- I truly wanted to love it, partially because of the subject matter, but mostly because of the back-story: the life of author Irene Nemirovsky and how the manuscripts for this novel were discovered and then translated decades after she was killed in the Holocaust. In addition, while I usually try not to pay attention to critics' reviews and/or big buzz when it comes to novels, there was no avoiding it- this book is very highly hyped in the media, so when I started reading I truly thought "I am going to love this book".....but then I read it.
  
  This novel just wasn't for me, and I can't imagine it being as universally appealing as the reviews make it out to be. I think the "backstory" of the author's life and the discovery of the transcript and challenge of translating it would have made a much more interesting book than the novel itself. Without giving anything away, the novel opens with various character fleeing Paris amidst invasion from the Germans. While it is probably extremely realistic and it is unquestionably well-written (translated), I just could not connect with any of the characters and did not care what was happening to them. I thought it was extremely boring and lacked emotionality. I wonder if people liked the book more so because of the circumstances the author faced, as opposed to the actual novel itsef, since I just can't belive how so many people could possibly connect with it. I could only recommend it to those readers with a particular interest in this aspect of French history.
  
  

• Bonjour tristesse !

  
  By A2TB8Y23WQKAJT on 2006-11-29
  This novel bridges the divide between fact and fiction and as such is just my cup of tea. Irène Némirovsky, a successful Russian born novelist, was living in Paris at the start of the second world war - 1939. Although of Jewish parentage, she was in fact a Catholic, married and with two small children. By 1940 it was clear that France would be overthrown and Paris would be occupied by the Nazis. The Parisienne, and particularly the Jewish citizens of Paris, on hearing the guns of war outside their city, then proceeded by the thousands, to flee, and make for the rural communities of France hoping to avoid the wrath of the Nazis. In the case of the Jews, it was in order to save their lives. Némirovsky and her family fled to a small town in central France and she began to write the first of what she planned to be a series of four or five stories about the French experience during the war. She had completed her drafts of the first two of these, when she was discovered by the German SS and sent immediately to a concentration camp. Within a month, at the age of 39, she was executed. After a relatively short time her husband suffered the same fate. The children were taken by a friend and hidden from the Nazis for the duration of the war, and survived. They took their Mother's manuscript into hiding with them and some 60 years later, it was taken by Némirovsky's daughter, Denise Epstein to a publisher. It was published first in France, where it has already been very successful, and with a fine translation by Sandra Smith, now in English. The first of the two stories, "Storm in June" tells of the mass, panic exodus at the eleventh hour from Paris, where families, some of them used to a life of luxury, and most used to a degree of comfort and pleasure, were thrown into a situation where they had no control over their circumstances, and where real friends were distinguished from the fair-weather kind. Some of them found tolerable accommodation, some eventually returned to Paris, and some died under the guns of German fighter planes. The second story, is titled "Dolce" and it continues from the first in telling of life for the evacuees in a small rural village, occupied by German soldiers. Some of the French accommodated themselves to the soldiers and adapted a lifestyle in spite of them, some never accepted their presence, some resisted, some collaborated and some died. These are not great stories, but they are told with a sensitivity which could only come from the pen of a very good writer. Unfortunately, she never had the opportunity to review and polish them and the translator has faithfully translated leaving what errors there may be in place. There are two appendices in the book, the first containing the author's notes, the second contains her correspondence at the time. They add a considerable measure of poignancy to the stories, and in fact, I recommend that you read them first. It is a wonderful story, hailed in Europe as a French "Anne Frank". I heartily recommend it to you.
  
  

• Némirovsky's bitter-Suite WWII narrative.

  
  By A3D9VXSUDX8J36 on 2007-04-19
  Jewish novelist and biographer Irène Némirovsky (1903-1942) is best known for her unfinished Suite française (Denoël, France, 2004), two novellas written and portraying life in France during the Nazi occupation of Paris between June 4, 1940 and July 1, 1941. At age 39, Némirovsky was arrested as a "stateless person of Jewish descent" by French police and was transported on July 17, 1942 along with 928 other Jewish deportees to Auschwitz, where her arm was marked with an identification number and where she died a month later of typhus. (Némirovsky's daughter kept the notebook containing the manuscript for Suite Française for fifty years before donating it to a French archive, the Institut mémoires de l'édition contemporaine (IMEC), in 1998. The novel became a bestseller in 2004 when it was first published in France, and then won the Prix Renaudot.)
  
  Némirovsky's bittersweet WWII narrative vividly depicts life in France in the period following the June, 1940, defeat to Germany, and the Nazi occupation of Paris and northern France immediately thereafter. The first novel, "Storm in June," (Tempête en juin) chronicles the flight from Paris during the impending occupation of the city. The Péricands relocate to Nîmes, but Charlotte Péricand's senile father-in-law is left behind, and her son, Hubert, joins the army and its defeat. Her other son, Philippe, a "saintly" priest, is killed by a group of churlish orphans. Gabriel Corte, a snooty writer, departs for Vichy with his mistress. Charles Langelet, an intellectual, flees to the Loire in his car, but is killed upon his return to Paris. Maurice and Jeanne Michaud, bank employees, are instructed to go to Tours, though deprived transportation as promised by their employer. They remain in Paris unemployed, but determined to survive.
  
  The second novel, "Dolce" (defined as "sweet" or "soft") depicts life in a small farming village, Bussy, during the first months of the German occupation. Here Némirovsky's narrative explores the stark contrasts between the bitter German military and the sweet peasant farmers. Although the German occupation seems peaceful in Bussy, it is only peaceful for those who obey Nazi regulations, as depicted in the third novel. "Captivité," which reveals a growing French resistance, with some characters under arrest and facing death sentences in Paris (also the subject of an excellent French film, Lucie Aubrac, based on Aubrac's autobiographic novel). "Dolce" ends in July 1941 with the German troops celebrating their first anniversary in Paris, and as its title suggests, "Captivité" then explores the French resistance either in hiding or under arrest in Paris. To quote Némirovsky, her narrative ends "in limbo, and what limbo!" Her remarkable "novel" is highly recommended for its vivid blend of history--recorded while it was unfolding--with a fine fictional storyline, written under the constant threat of Némirovsky's death.
  
  G. Merritt
  
  
• Beauteous sadness
  By A10EW5N83RTO27 on 2005-01-21
  Here is a French speaking Jew from Ukraine living in Vichy France, writing a novel about the effect of the German victory in 1940. She dissected the French to a tee: the upper bourgeoisie interested only in retaining its power and money; the intellectual elite (at least those not on the Left) interested only in its privileges and self-respect; the ordinary people who showed more normal reactions to distress and loss. She even gives us the possibility of thinking an ordinary German officer might be a real human being. But the real story is not this very well written novel. It is the fact that a woman lionized by the French for her literary achievements was quickly dropped when the anti-Jewish laws of Vichy were passed. She lost all her friends but one and was deported to Auschwitz. So was her husband. A humane French policeman (one unlike most) gave her two children warnings and they survived. This book received the Renaudot prize, the French way of saying I'm perhaps sorry. But they are not really sorry.
  
  
• Not As Good As People Say...
  By A9XVRPNT7K3MA on 2007-04-09
  It's not often that I don't finish a book. I'm a voracious reader, especially when it comes to anything that even remotely has to do with history. When I saw all the high reviews for this book, I had to give it a go.
  
  I don't think I made it halfway through the book before I had to give up on it. Rambling would be a good description. The book is all over the board. Way too many characters, which doesn't leave room for ANY of the characters to have any sort of depth or feeling. The whole book felt flat to me. To compare this to the Diary of Anne Frank is just WRONG. The book bored me to tears. A B-17 Flying Fortress training manual is more exciting than this.
  
  
• for once the critical praise is deserved.
  By A370T7ZOJJ76I2 on 2006-12-07
  The Line of Beauty, Three Junes, The Kite Runner, etc... all the high praise that gushed out to mediocre ponderous crap like those books had me afraid to purchase Suite Française. But once in a great while you actually find a book where all the hype is justified. This is one of them. Who needs me to outline the story or critique the writing? no one, that's who. This is just a great book. If you love great novels, please read it.
  
  
• War and Armistice: Exodus interruptus & Occupation/Collaboration
  By A3NH7PYU4AD5GA on 2008-07-07
  Another brillant piece of writing by a Russian emigrant in a second language. The book remained tragically incomplete; in its current shape it has 2 of the 5 intended parts. The 3rd one was supposed to be called Captivity and was intended to cover the resistance, according to the notes in the appendix to this pocket book. (Irene herself was arrested and died in captivity. So did her husband, who was also Jewish. Her 2 daughters escaped and saved the manuscript for 60 years.)
  The first part, called Storm, is about the time when Germany was winning the war in France and the citizens of Paris made a mad dash South. It introduces a broad spectrum of characters from different shades of middle class plus farmers and the servant class. Workers are outside the spectrum of the book, which may be an accurate reflection of Mme Nemirovsky's social experience. Central characters are the members of a rich upper middle class family, the Pericands, and of a lower middle class one, the Michauds.
  The armistice causes the exodus to stop, life becomes 'normal' again, in a situation of occupation. The narrative in part 2, Dolce, moves to a small town near the demarcation line between the occupied and the 'free' part of France. We meet some new people, mainly the two Angellier women, and some old aquaintances. The aristocracy becomes a relevant player in the plot. The village has German troops billeted in every house. Biology takes charge: many young men from the village have left as soldiers, are in captivity or have died. The German troops and officers provide a solution to a felt need. Collaboration grows on simple physical and psychological factors. This phase is temporary: the war in Russia starts, the troops move out of France, the resistance begins to show up.
  In the first two parts, IN did not touch on the situation of the Jews in France. Actually, none of the many characters in the story seem to be Jewish. This is odd and I have no explanation for it.
  I realize this is the only fictional account of WW2 in France that I have read or that I can remember. Also odd. I also realize that my French has become too rusty for this level. I also realize that I need to give up on my arrogance which makes me often ignore the 'best books of the year' selections. I have often been disappointed by such dignitaries, but Nemirovsky demonstrates that the jurors can also be right.
  
  
• An Unfinished Life
  By A3IE3BRS6P506C on 2006-12-10
  An Unfinished Life
  
  Unfinished works embody the passage of time. Like broken clocks, they remind us that sooner or later time runs out, that authors and artists are mere mortals, that all lives are littered with unfinished business. Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française also reminds us that literature speaks across time, drawing us into eternal dialogue with those who came before us.
  
  As with all unfinished works, we need to consider the incompleteness of what we have available. After all, this two-part book is not what the author intended. In fact, it was conceived as a 1,000-page epic in five parts, a "suite" in the musical sense with interrelated movements designed to express a range of thoughts and feelings. In addition to "Storm in June" and "Dolce," the two parts that make up "our" Suite Française, Némirovsky envisioned the addition of "Captivity," "Battle," and "Peace." Had she lived to write the book she had in mind, we would have a vast, extended saga encompassing the German occupation of France, the French reaction and response (including acts of collaboration and resistance), the inside story of life in the concentration camps, the soldier's perspective from the battlefield, and Europe's redefinition as a force for peace in the wake of World War II.
  
  As we now know, Irène Némirovsky died at age 39 at Auschwitz in August of 1942, a matter of weeks after she was arrested by the French police (not by the Nazis, as Alan Cheuse stated on NPR) in the Burgundian village of Issy-L'Evèque where she had hoped to find refuge for herself and her two daughters. After decades if what is, in itself, a compelling story of survival, Elisabeth and Dénise worked together to bring their mother's unfinished novel to light. It won the coveted Prix Renaudot posthumously in 2004 and has since been translated into numerous languages.
  
  But what is the real story behind this work and what was the author's essential goal in telling it? It is important to note that in the two-volume version we have, we do not read about Germans persecuting Jews. Rather, we read about banal, day-to-day injuries and indignities that the French inflicted on one another in the chaos of 1940 and beyond. And many of the well-drawn characters are women, making this a study in women's lives as well as in the history of the German Occupation. Does this belong on the shelf as a chronicle of the Holocaust, a work of 20th century feminism, or as a human rights exposé of French complicity with the Nazi regime? More to the point, do we dare to categorize an unfinished, unedited work of art?
  
  Most reviews of this book have not gotten past the author's tragic fate or the poignant story of the daughters' devotion to their mother's legacy. But there are wider questions to consider. For example, Irène Némirovsky was Jewish, but not a "Jewish writer" and not particularly religious either, even though she converted to Christianity in 1939. This, it has been suggested, was often done by assimilated Jews like Némirovsky and her husband, Michael Epstein, as a means of distancing themselves from anti-Semitic acts and policies. But in fact, she was arguably anti-Semitic in her caricatures and comments about Jewish people in her early writings, and in her devotion to the comforts of French culture, even though was never granted French citizenship. In a sense, shewith her privileged upbringing and ties to right-wing journals like Candide and Gringoirecontributed to the socio-political climate of the France she critiques in Suite Francaise, just as her wealthy, materialistic parents had contributed to the climate that led to the violence of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
  
  These, and other, obvious conflicts are beautifully explored in a book that should be read alongside of Suite Française, Jonathan Weiss's biography entitled Irène Némirovsky: Her Life and Work (Stanford University Press, 2007). Weiss's thesis, that Némirovsky was "an author in search of an identity," explains her divided loyalties and the inconsistencies in her interests as a writer, which fluctuate from Russian-Jewish subjects to conventional French tales of youthful love and betrayal. This compassionate view of the young writer as a woman-in-flux, ever-searching also explains why her the focus of Suite Française is on the large and small moral dilemmas inherent in personal relationships. Indeed, Némirovsky's universe was "Balzacien" in its concern for day-to-day interactions: a raised eyebrow, a piece of bread shared or not, a kind word, a debt repaid or an act of greed. She was not a "historical novelist" in the sense of being concerned with the sweep of events; rather, she was fascinated with "la comédie humaine" and how the various characters in a village might organize themselves based on nationality, religion, class, and gender. She understood the drama of this level of life because she, from an early age, had lived with multiple identities and survived more than one violent conflict. Her senses were fine-tuned to small gestures, fleeting sensations, warning signs.
  
  That said, Némirovsky's work bears witness to more than the particular dilemma in which she was situated. In her effort to navigate a life of multiple identities, we find a common 20th century dilemma where identifying labels became cues for dominant powers to exclude and oppress. If Némirovsky's work had fulfilled its vision of an epic journey, her central problem would have been to use writing to illuminate a way out of "otherness" for all those suffering on both sides of a divided world. There, she would be joined by other women writing in French out of French conflicts and French Colonialism (Marguerite Duras, Gabrielle Roy, Kim Lefebvre, Edwidge Danticat). And there she would belong, among the eloquent exiles.
  
  We can only wonder what insights and solutions Némirovsky might have found, had she been allowed to live and think and write another 20 or 30 years. Suite Française is not only an unfinished novel, it is a testament to an unfinished life whose unresolved questions remain with us today.
  
  
• Moving Backstory Does Not Overshadow Vividly Rendered Wartime Accounts in France
  By A13E0ARAXI6KJW on 2006-05-30
  She was apparently a renowned novelist living quite luxuriantly in 1930's Paris, but it is this just-published incomplete work which will assure author Irène Némirovsky her legacy. The circumstances behind this work are just as compelling as the stories presented in the book itself. A Ukranian-born Jew forced to wear a yellow star to show the Nazis her status, she was sent to her death at Auschwitz in July 1942 just as she was completing two of the stories that were to comprise a five-part novel. Her daughters survived the camps and miraculously held onto their mother's manuscripts. This is the work we are privileged to read now along with an appendix outlining what her plans were for the final three parts of the book.
  
  With the first story, "A Storm in June", Némirovsky vividly describes the different classes of people forced to flee Paris in June 1940 to the countryside. There is an unblinking honesty to her account of panic-stricken Parisians, especially the bourgeois class, in which the vile circumstances induced the worst behavior. She is particularly sharp in painting the individual portraits, whether it is Langelet, who treasures his porcelain collection more than people; or Gabriel, the pompous writer expressing his disdain of the masses from the comfort of his chauffeur-driven car; or Madame Péricand who does not let the bombing prevent her from maintaining her pre-war sense of entitlement, keeping her fine linen close to her bosom and conveniently forgetting her debilitated father-in-law en route. The author, however, does not present a purely cynical recollection since she poignantly describes the struggles of the underclasses. Regardless of their status, all are subject to the humiliation of living under Nazi occupation, which translated into food shortages and not knowing the fate of their loved ones drafted into military service.
  
  Némirovsky is particularly evocative in describing what the French countryside looked like at the time and how the physical beauty still persisted amid the persecution and bloodshed. This talent especially serves her well in her second story, "Dolce", a more straightforward account of several French citizens in a provincial village where a German regiment has just arrived. Némirovsky's major accomplishment here is showing the German soldiers as multi-dimensional as the French in character. There is even a bit of a romance novel element in the detailing of an affair between a lonely village woman and a young German officer. Even with this somewhat predictable twist, the author dexterously explores the inherent conflict between loyalty and love with a surprising freshness. Moreover, she has each villager come to accept his or her own rationale for surviving and confront the consequences of their actions.
  
  Had Némirovsky been able to fulfill her complete vision, the scope of her book would have likely been comparable to Tolstoy's "War and Peace", especially since she admired the epic Russian writers according to her notes. The resulting book has hints of that wide canvas, yet it ultimately feels more intimate like Anne Frank's diary. There is the same sense of impending doom in the face of guarded optimism that makes the irony of her death at the Germans' hands indisputably poignant and dramatically resonant. Intriguingly, the author's daughters read the manuscripts for the first time only a decade ago for fear of reliving the wartime horrors. Sandra Smith has done a superb job translating this memorable work.
  
  
• Gripping Saga
  By A30IFTXSZOENOX on 2006-11-28
  I found Nemirovsky's work, especially the second part (the WWII German occupation of a town in France) masterful and gripping, with an ever-growing sense doom for the both the nations at war as well as for the relationship between Lucile, an upper middle class French woman unhappily married to a French soldier-POW, and Bruno, an aristocratic German officer of the detested occupying force. That the author could craft this work knowing that her own end was likely fast approaching is nothing short of amazing. The first appendix of correspondence read very much like the copies of letters I still have of letters written by my father, newly arrived in the US from 1939 - 1941, trying to locate friends and relatives still in Europe, and some of their responses, first optimistic and reassuring, then resigned, and then not at all. Nemirovsky's own notes give clues as to how carefully she crafted these sections of what was to be an epic. And the final appendix (the forward to the French Edition) brought tears to my eyes. Murdered talent. Murdered relationships. And a stroke of luck that Denise, the author's daughter, thought to put the MS, unread, into her suitcase as a memento of her mother.
  
  
  
• Watch out! The book is in French!
  By A22BCV53D1N34G on 2006-11-27
  I ordered this book for my next book club read. The fact that it was written in French was not obvious when I placed the order!
  
  
• Suite Francaise is a Modern Classic by Auschwitz victim Irene Nemirovsky
  By A1G37DFO8MQW0M on 2006-06-16
  Suite Francaise was a planned five part novel dealing with the fall of France to the Nazis in the summer of 1940. Tragically,
  the author Irene Nemirovsky (1903-1942) was seized by the Nazis and died in Auschwitz in July. Her husband followed her to the
  ovens in November, Irene was born in Kiev, Ukraine to an upper
  class and wealthy banking family. The family fled to France after
  the Communist seized power in 1918. Nemirovsky converted to Roman Catholicism, was sophisticated, beautiful and keenly intelligent. She married a good man, was the mother of two daughters (who were hidden after their parents died and grew to
  adulthood)and wrote several best sellers. She was the toast of the Parisian literary set living a high life of glamour, fame
  and joy.
  In this novel we read the first two parts of the proposed five
  part novel. In part I we see the lives of several Parisians who
  fled the city as the Nazis took Paris. The lives of the characters are well etched; Nemirovsky is a poet of prose as she
  draws sketches of nature in all its beauty and horror.
  The people we meet are all too human. Greed, self-preservation,
  snobbery, generosity and love are all displayed.
  In part two she takes us to a village occcupied by the Nazis. We see the complicated relationships which developed between
  the occupying soliders and the villagers.
  If you only read one novel this year then pick up this master-piece which was only recently published in its French edition. It is winning fans in English and will remain as a testimony to the courage and brilliance of an amazing woman. Her cruel fate adds poignancy and power to her words. Excellent!
  
  
• Where are the Jews?
  By A3PEYT4UOB5OUV on 2006-06-15
  Nemirovsky was a great writer; her description of the exodus from Paris is inspirational and I felt that I knew the characters very quickly (loved some, hated others!).
  
  I read this book because of all the hype about how wonderful it was. I am giving it three stars because Nemirovsky does tell an interesting story about how the French population coped with the German invasion and occupation but only from the point of view of French Catholics and the different classes of France (including the aristocracy, literary writers, farmers, the middle class and the poor). She does not mention the Jews at all, which is inexplicable to me.
  
  Since Nemirovsky was born a Jew and ultimately converted to Catholicism, the omission of any mention of the Jews in France is bewildering. And since she obviously understood that the Jews (including herself, husband, and children) were in a much more dangerous position than ordinary French people, I cannot fathom why she doesn't mention the Jews plight.
  
  However, I still recommend this book and especially the notes at the end of the two novellas. They are fascinating and enlightening about the difficulties the author and her family experienced because of their Jewish background.
  
  
• 2/5 of a Superb Novel
  By A1Y9LNE9RBM3AV on 2007-04-02
  Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky is a superb novel even thought it is a translation - and even though it was published 64 years after the author died.
  
  The book plan called for five sections for an approximate total of 1000 pages. Unfortunately, only 2/5 of this major novel was written before the author was put to death in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.
  
  The opening section, called "Storm in June", details the lives of several families - ranging from poor to upper middle class - who were forced to flee Paris ahead of the German bombing in June of 1941.
  
  The second and last section of the novel, called "Dolce," takes place in a small provincial French village and describes the interactions between the villagers and the soldiers of the German army.
  
  The last three sections of the book, which were to be titled "Captivity", "Battles," and "Peace" were in various stages of outline, but the author died before these sections were written, leaving the book with several loose threads.
  
  To complete the novel, the publisher added three Appendices. The first contains the author's handwritten notes for the novel.
  
  The second includes correspondences from the author and her husband to her publisher concerning money and also to influential friends seeking release from her imprisonment.
  
  The final section is the Preface to the French addition published in 2004.
  
  With these appendices, the novel seems complete, although surely not in the manner envisioned by the author.
  
  What remains is a five star piece of art.
  
  
  
• Two Affecting Stories
  By A2MQQI4UYT9C11 on 2006-11-01
  Both the novel and the story of how it was written and published make this one of the most affecting books I've read in a long time. Ms. Nemirovsky, born to a Jewish family in the Ukraine, moved to Paris with her banker father as a girl (as a result of the Russian Revolution). A talented writer, she progressed to become one of the most well-regarded novelists of pre-World War II Europe. When the Germans took over France, Irene's Jewish heritage (she was married to a Catholic and by then had converted herself) proved a liability. She finished two fifths of a series of novels about World War II and the occupation before being deported and eventually killed by the Nazis in 1942. The novels weren't published in Nemirovsky's lifetime--the manuscripts were discovered, translated and published first in French in 2004 and then in English in 2006.
  
  "Storm in June" tells the story of the evacuation of Paris; "Dolce" relates the experiences of people in the French countryside as their homes and towns are occupied by German soldiers. According to her notes, Nemirovsky's goal was to tell how the war affected the day to day lives of the people of Europe. As such, there is very little description of military action or campaigns--moreso, she describes the range of reactions to both the need for evacuation and the circumstances of the occupation. As a bonus, her writing is so beautiful (even translated into English), that much of the book is like reading a long poem. I wish I knew French.
  
  The stories Nemirovsky tells are heartbreaking enough; maybe more heartbreaking is the denial of her genius for readers of the rest of the 20th century. Very highly recommended--it's the best book I've read this year, and maybe for several years.
  
  
• Reviewed by Barb Radmore
  By A299L0XDG92LMP on 2007-02-09
  Suite Francaise is, on the surface, the story of individuals fleeing from Paris in 1940 as the Nazis approach. It follows four specific tales from the rich family leaving their fancy home to stay safe and their priest son trying to escort a boy's orphanage, to a vain writer and his girlfriend, a self absorbed hedonist and a working couple.But it is the story within and behind the story that is noteworthy.
  
  While it would be expected that it is a tale of bravery, courage and caring, it is far from it. Nemirovsky has done a masterful job of portraying the fear and the disorder of the crowds as they leave Paris with their belongings, mattresses tied to the top of cars, bird cages on their laps. As they progress along congested roads with bombs falling, bodies exploding and death all around, it becomes a matter of personal survival. The villages along the way are over run with refugees seeking shelter and food. This novel vividly exposes the bedlam and madness that affected the people evacuating as the enemy progressed. It is not a celebration of human spirit but a portrayal of the madness of war, the pain and suffering involved. It is one of the most damning condemnations of war possible- the truth.
  
  What makes this novel the definitive authority on the evacuation is that it was written by Nemirovsky in 1940 as the events were occurring around her. She was a well known author in France at the time that was broke out. She had planned a five part work, a "suite" but was only able to complete the first two parts. It was written in tiny handwriting on scraps of paper. She was arrested by the Nazis and died in Auschwitz in 1943. The manuscript was owned by her daughters but they did not read it as they were afraid it would cause them too much heartache. When the papers were rediscovered by her daughters in a suitcase in 1992 they transcribed them and agreed to have them published. The only two pieces of the suite written were Storm in June and Dolce, both included in the translation published by Alfred A. Kopf.
  
  
  
• Masterpiece, Interrupted
  By A3QY27FQHK453B on 2007-02-26
  This book is a must read. I've just finished it and I'm in awe. The author wrote the book as she was living it. There is no other explanation for the absolute realism she achieves. The first part of the book (only 2 of 5 parts were finished) shows exactly how people act in a mass crisis. At first everyone helps out and shares what they have. A few days later, it's everyone for himself, with stealing, looting, and even killing. The first part concerns the evacuation of Paris as Hitler's army invades. There is no one main character; the story moves back and forth between many people, who were intended to become interrelated later in the book. You get the feeling of overall chaos and also its effect on individuals. The closest I came to being in such a situation was trying to get out of Lower Manhattan with some other people on 9/11. It's not the same thing, of course, but we didn't know what was going to happen and I can say Part I is realistic. Part II is called Dolce and takes place during the occupation. Compared to what happened to the author and her family, this section is idllyic. Both the author and her husband were deported and died at Auschwitz, and the book was never finished. Strangely, but maybe because we don't have the last parts, there is barely any mention of anti-semitism and no Jewish characters. Nemirovsky herself was a stateless Russian Jew in France at the time of the Nazi invasion, probably the worst position anyone could be in at the time. The writing is exquisite, the story breathtaking. I would say do NOT miss this book, published almost 60 years after it was written. No research and imagination could produce a book like this.
  
  
• Read the Appendices First!
  By A1IM7XWNETV5RC on 2006-06-10
  I cannot say enough about "Suite Francaise". The two novellas, of the five planned, are wonderful reading with character development not seen in any modern novels. But, start with the appendices. This will provide you, the reader, with the author's plans for the five novellas and a timeline of the last months of her life. On their own, the appendices are powerful reading as you realize that the efforts to save her from the Nazi's are fruitless as she has already been murdered as the French literary establishment is trying tom get letters to the Germans requesting that, as a French literary treasure, she be spared. Read this book. You will not be disappointed. But, instead of more about the book, I found it important to put the author into an historic perspective.
  
  Irene Nemirovsky was born in 1903 in Kiev. After the Russian revolution she and her family immigrated to Finland and then to France. Her literary career was tragically cut short with her murder on 17 August 1942, at the Auschwitz death camp. With respect to one of here earlier books: "Her talent comes out in best light when she paints the feelings of common humanity. [Les Chiens et les Loups] is the first novel of Mme. Nemirovsky's which brings in memories of her girlhood in Russia . To this personal touch is due a vividness in the descriptions and an intensity of emotion, which impart to the story great force of appeal." (`The Literary Scene in Paris', New York Times , By Charles Cestre Paris, October 6, 1940 .)
  
  In 1929 she published her first novel "David Golder" which was strikingly reviewed: " David Golder is a stirring and powerful piece of work. A sordid tragedy which makes us for the thousandth time question the worth of human existence. The impression remains with the reader that it is the work of a woman who has the strength of one of the masters like Balzac or Dostoyevsky, and is capable to an unusual degree of exciting pity and terror." (`Some Trust in Chariots' and other Recent Fiction, New York Times , November 23, 1930.)
  Prior to here death, her other published works include: 1930, The Ball; 1935, The Flies of Autumn; 1939, Dogs and Wolves; 1933, The Courtilof Affair and published posthumously in 1946, The Life of Checkov.
  
  Who were Ms. Nemirovsky's contemporaries? The following is from the Wikipedia citation for the best selling novelists in the United States:
  1930 - "Cimarron" by Edna Ferber and "The Woman of Andros" by Thornton Wilder
  1931 - "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck and "Shadows on the Rock" by Willa Cather
  1932 - "Sons" by Pearl S. Buck and "Mary's Neck" by Booth Tarkington
  1933 - "Ann Vickers" by Sinclair Lewis and "One More River" by John Galsworthy
  1934 - "Work of Art" by Sinclair Lewis and "Seven Gothic Tales" by Isak Dinesen
  1935 - "Of Time and the River" by Thomas Wolfe, "Good-Bye, Mr. Chips" by James Hilton, "Heaven's My Destination" by Thornton Wilder, "Lost Horizon" by James Hilton and "Come and Get It" by Edna Ferber
  1936 - "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, "The Last Puritan" by George Santayana, "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis, "The Thinking Reed" by Rebecca West and "Eyeless in Gaza" by Aldous Huxley.
  
  Imagine if she would have lived and finished her masterpiece. She deserves to be in this list of contemporaries. Please read "Suite Francaise".
  
  
• Like slogging through mud...
  By A346F4FY9I5FSW on 2007-08-26
  I'm a pretty optimistic reader. I keep reading long after common sense would dictate that I cut my losses and move on. I have this hope that somehow, magically, the story will pick up, the characters will become interesting and my time will be justified. Not so in this case. I actually gave up after a few hundred pages of disconnected stage-setting. I found no characters in whom I was at all invested and no inducement to continue reading. All the hype on this "masterpiece" left me feeling either cheated or far less intelligent that I had supposed. Reading "Suite Francais" was like slogging through mud. Uphill.
  
  
• An epic tale
  By A2X29H96X7C3XJ on 2006-12-03
  This wonderful book has been well-reviewed on Amazon and elsewhere and I can only echo others' admiration for the beautiful writing and Tolstoyian flow of Nemirovsky's story. What a tragedy that she didn't live to finish the novel and continue to write much more. I especially appreciated the insights into life and survival in an occupied country and the human strengths and weaknesses that are magnified by that kind of perilous living. This is a must read for anyone who loves serious fiction.
  
  
• A story that will grab you attention
  By A21NVBFIEQWDSG on 2007-01-27
  
  
  Irene Nemirovsky was born in the Ukraine, and in the 1940s was a highly respected writer living in Paris when she began working on Suite Française. 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 39. Her daughters took the manuscript with them into hiding.
  
  The first part of this book, "A Storm in June," covers the chaotic period just prior to the Nazi invasion of Paris, when hordes fled the city, facing the horrific changes in their lives and circumstances.
  
  "Dolce," the second part, centers on a small provincial village in occupied France: the collaborators, soldiers, and the aristocrats, farmers, shopkeepers, and workers. There is the excitement of hiding villagers who have shot Germans, and the grind of day-to-day existence with the enemy living under your roof.
  
  This book is lyrically written, a new classic for the millennium.
  
  Armchair Interviews says: Fantastic story
  
  
• Author background much more interesting than book
  By A2KS4X9KMFTB0T on 2007-07-18
  I am listening to the audio version and am bored to tears, wanted to look at reviews to see if i should bother listening to the last 1/4 of the story but now I won't bother! I was not aware of the background of the book/author, and I have to guess that this background, as opposed to the writing itself, is what most people found appealing. I also repeat the sentiments of other reviewers who said that they could not bring themselves to "care" about the characters.
  
  
• Remember - Two Novellas
  By A1RMHZSWZ7ZEQO on 2007-09-24
  It must be remembered that this one book consists of two novellas. With the exception of minor mentions in the second book of a few characters from the first, there is nothing in common between the two. Thus, they really should be evaluated as two books.
  
  The first was about Parisians fleeing Paris before the German occupation in June, 1940. Most are from the upper class and they are forced to "mix" with the lower classes. Almost all the characters are unlikeable and the characterizations almost seem to be caricatures of snooty Frenchmen and women. It is amazing that a French author would draw such scathing portraits.
  
  Although the writing is good, I found the pacing extremely slow and tedious. There was a relentless litany of whining and complaining without corresponding renderings of real suffering. At one point I thought the tedium was by design, to show the relentless hardship. If that were the purpose, it did not work. The first book was simply over-written, slow and tedious. There really was no plot. It consisted of mere accounts of the plight of some atypical Parisian refugees.
  
  The second book, "Dolce" was much much better. I wish I had not been jaded by the first novella. It was the account of the occupation by the Germans of a small rural town. It had tensions between farmers and town people, rich and poor (rich were still lambasted mercilessly), sympathizers and patriots and, best of all, the internal tension of a French woman forced to billet a German officer. This was the heart of Dolce. The woman's husband is a prisoner of war. Despite that, she realizes she is falling love with the German officer and he with her. The plot rotates around this tension and events that effect it.
  
  In sum, I wish I had skipped the first novella but enjoyed the second. Thus, the average to 3 star rating.
  
  
• A magnificent, tragic fragment.
  By A1FG91CM8221X1 on 2007-09-29
  Irene Nemirovsky's "Suite Francaise" will stand with "The Diary of Anne Frank" as one of the most poignant literary monuments of World War II and the insanity of the Holocaust. But whereas Anne Frank was a young girl whose hopes and dreams ended forever at Belsen, Irene Nemirovsky was a novelist of enormous talent who would have been recognized as one of the greatest European writers of the 20th century had her life not been extinguished at Auschwitz. Considering all she suffered during the war, and how she was murdered in the very middle of it, it is amazing that Nemrovsky completed as much of it as she did, and that what she completed is of such a high order. "Suite Francaise" consists of the first two parts of a projected five-part novel depicting the fall of France to the Nazis, the panicked flight of Parisians and the return to something vaguely resembling normalcy under German military rule. The first section, "Storm in June," gives readers a panoramic view of several groups of fleeing Parisians, representing every class of society and every conceivable moral and mental attitude; the second, "Dolce," depicts life in a French village under the Germans, bringing back some of the characters from the first book and making it plain that Nemirovsky planned to reintroduce more of them in the following three books. Superbly translated by Sandra Smith, "Suite Francaise" is a swift and graceful read, depicting the characters and action with breathtaking clarity and excitement. Many of the characters are presented only in a few sentences, yet all live and breathe with total realism. What is really astonishing about "Suite Francaise," however, is Nemirovsky's authorial impartiality and clear-eyed sympathy for all her characters. There are no saints and no monsters in Nemirovsky's universe, just people--some more likable than others, but even the most despicable among them are given sharp moments of deep and moving humanity. Even the Germans are human--they have their faults, but also their virtues. To be able to write such panoramic fiction in the midst of war, with such a detached and pragmatic yet sympathetic eye, is truly amazing, even more so from an author who rightly feared she would be arrested and deported to the death camps at any moment. A Russian-Jewish emigree to France who moved in the highest literary and societal circles, Nemirovsky was an exceptionally keen observer of the French class system and how it warps individuals, in that sense (and in others) the equal of Balzac, Flaubert and Proust. The argument in Chapter 16 of "Dolce" between the snobbish, sickly-sentimental Vicomtesse de Montmort and the brutish peasant Benoit Sabarie stands out: both are sympathetic, as people and as representatives of their social classes, and both are utterly despicable. Nemirovsky sums up their fight neatly: "What separates or unites people is not their language, their laws, their customs, their principles, but the way they hold a salad fork." This argument has repercussions that promise to ripple across the rest of the story, except that Nemirovsky, alas, never had a chance to show us how. Appendices to the book include Nemirovsky's copious notes on how she planned to continue the story; correspondence to, from, and about her; and the preface to the French addition, included as an afterword here, which tells the poignant story of Nemirovsky's life and death, and of how Nemirovsky's daughter discovered the manuscript of "Suite Francaise" more than sixty years after her mother's death. "Suite Francaise" is a magnificent fragment and an eternal testimonial to the genius of its author. We can only mourn that the book, like her life, will remain unfinished.
  
  
• Compelling Masterpeice
  By A3JHMN7ZJ4NEEK on 2006-05-08
  Irene Nemirovsky has given us a compelling masterpiece, written with insight into the human condition, social classes, mores, individual values and ethics, that take place during the occupation of France beginning in 1940.
  
  In "Storm in June" we are given characters who flee Paris city life and comforts, for what they believe is the safer countryside. In reality it is a frantic situation, as city refugees try to cope with chaos, and country farmers and peasants try to cope with the frenzy thrust upon them. Included in this chaos are characters whose lives intertwine and connect. We are given the scope of their souls during this time of extreme turmoil. The upper class and the lower class, all come together, within the same situational confines, and we see who is really made of character, strength and stoicism, and who can weather the storm. From a well-respected upper class family, to an author, to a priest, to an unmarried man whose life revolves around his porcelain collection, to the lower-class and loveable couple, we are given insight into the inner minds and inner core of these individuals. We see the meaning of what is essential and important in life, revealed through these characters, whether it be material things, children, family members, or a simple photograph. Her assessment of humanity and social structure and attitude is nothing short of incredible, amazing, and filled with intensity, clarity and first-hand knowledge.
  
  "Storm in June", literally can apply to varied situations, such as weather, infiltration of forces, emotional conflict, etc. Nemirovsky gives us much to ponder in this intense and masterly written novella.
  
  In "Dolce", we are given a continuation of some of the characters from "Storm in June", and given new characters, set in a farming village in the countryside. This novella is filled with humor and poignancy, as we watch peasants, farmers and Germans inhabit the same village, and how they manage to exist together within the confines of German Officers have been billeted into homes. We see how daily life continues, despite the inconveniences of the occupation. Peasant women seem to like the attention, although they are afraid to show it out of fear for reaction from their peers, a married woman debates within her mind whether the German Officer billetted in her house is a decent individual in his own country. Love beckons and is born, within the village borders. Each side surviving as best as they can, and even trying to understand each other. Life's daily drama is enhanced by the intensity, drama and depth of character (or lack of, in some cases) that Nemirovsky has brought to Suite Francaise.
  
  Having lived during this turbulent time, herself, and realizing, that she had a short time to live, she managed to pen these two "portions" of a book that was to have five sections, before she was sent Auschwitz, where she died. She outlined the five parts of the book (but was only able to complete the two, before she died), and we are privileged to be able to read those writings, also.
  
  She is compared to Proust and Tolstoy, and several other classic authors, but for me, Nemirovsky is beyond compare, with her compelling and intense writing, her descriptives flowing from one word to another, into sentences, creating two extremely realized novellas. She was a master at assessing individuals, and their stature in the scheme of difficult situations. She was heroic, in her own right, to even consider writing these two novellas, under extreme circumstances and threat of extermination. That she was able to complete what she did, is an incredible testament to her own strength, and her extraordinary capability, and her need to show what life was like in the face of adversity. She knew and accepted that death was imminent, and wrote to help pass the time, and to ease her mind. She was a witness to the historical events she wrote about. That we were able to even read these two novellas, is witness to her heroic strength and fortitude.
  
  This book will stay within me indefinitely.
  
  
• A master work from a just rediscovered major figure of 20th century literature
  By AIHVWL83LN90U on 2006-05-15
  Suite Fran?aise follows a cross-section of French civilians through the stampede away from the German invaders in the summer of 1940 -- later called "l'exode" -- and its aftermath in a village where German soldiers are billeted in forced intimacy with the locals. Together with three movies, Ren? Cl?ment's "Forbidden Games" in 1952, Andr? T?chin?'s "Les Egar?s" in .2002, and Jean-Paul Rappeneau's "Bon Voyage" in 2003, it is the only work of fiction that l know of depicting this particular episode. World War II and the nazi occupation of France have been the subject of countless books, movies and talk shows but not "l'exode." When it was published in 2004, more than 60 years after it was written, it immediately commanded one of France's top literary prizes, the Prix Renaudot, and sparked a renewal of interest in Nemirovsky's 15 or so other works of fiction. That this book and two of the three movies on the subject should have been released in the past four years signals a need in the country to come to terms with this particular episode.
  
  "Suite Fran?aise" was written at the time of the events, by a 38-year old Jewish-Ukrainian immigrant murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. While some reviewers likened her writing style to Proust's, I don't see the connection. If she writes like any other French writer, it is her contemporary Georges Simenon. Her sentences are short, clear, evocative, and made of simple words. It is the kind of simplicity that takes years of practice to achieve. Her writing is sensuous in its rendition of the heat, the hunger and the fear of the refugees on the road, as well as the longings of the enemy men and women thrown together by the occupation. And it is unsentimental about what these challenges bring out in human nature.
  
  
• What I really loved about this book
  By AJ0KMUCSHSSMZ on 2007-02-15
  is also the sorrow of this book. Because Irene Nemirovsky was lost in the horror of WWII, she has sadly and unfairly but truly given us a great gift. As a history teacher, it was so meaningful to me to read a novel about the people of France during the war and as they were invaded by the Germans which was completely without the influence of the author knowing later history. It feels horrible for me to even say so because I would of course much preferred that she had lived to raise her girls and write more. But I also know that had she lived, she would have written a beautiful 5 novel piece as she had planned but it would have been edited and no author can help including later knowledge because as time moves on it becomes part of a person. So, the thing I loved about the novel is that it brought me back to that time in very real terms - the people feel real - they are multifaceted as people should be. So, I loved it, and I couldn't put it down, and in the end cried for the loss of this wife and mother.
  
  
• Moving
  By A2PWUIQG57O1AZ on 2007-06-16
  Russian/Jewish author, Irene Nemirovsky set out to write a 4 or 5 part epic in 1939, just prior to WW2. She achieved only two of the books which were to make up her epic before being captured by the Germans and killed in Auschwitz concentration camp. Her surviving work, which was scribbled in tiny writing in notebooks, was somehow saved by her daughters and remained lost for over 50 years. This book is the first two sections of her work, unedited and without a final polish, nevertheless it is a masterpiece of simple yet superb writing, detailing the lives of various classes of Frenchmen, and how they all coped with bombing, evacuation, lack of food and amenities and the things which make up everyday life. Some of the so called upper classes do not come out of it smelling like roses, while the so called "noble peasants" appear brutish and ugly with selfish and animal like behaviour. When I started this book, I was expecting to read about acts of unspeakable cruelty, committed by the Gestapo but the author did not live long enough to write about these future events. The world has surely lost by not being able to read this lady's thoughts over the years of late 1941 and into 1942, as her writing is masterly yet simple and without any of the so called "clever tricks" that some writers aspire to in order to appear more brilliant. M/s Neminovsky writes without pretension and from the heart.
  
  

• Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
• Water for Elephants: A Novel
• The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
• Fire in the Blood (Vintage International)
• The Emperor's Children (Vintage)