Irene Nemirovsky: Her Life And Works [Hardcover]

Jonathan Weiss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 13, 2006

On July 13, 1942, French gendarmes arrested Irène Némirovsky in southern Burgundy. She was deported to Auschwitz where she died on August 19. Who was this woman, author of more than a dozen popular novels and more than thirty short stories, whose posthumous novel, Suite Française, won France's prestigious Renaudot prize in 2004? Born in Russia to wealthy parents, Irène Némirovsky immigrated to Paris in 1919. Although she was Jewish, she consorted with authors and politicians on the extreme right, some of whom were openly anti-Semitic. She was sure that these friends would protect her from deportation after the Nazis invaded France. Instead, they abandoned her. Yet she never lost faith in France, even after she was refused French nationality. In this fascinating biography, Jonathan Weiss analyzes the discrepancy between Némirovsky's real and imagined identities, and explores a literary work that revisits in a unique way Jewish identity, exile, betrayal, and the solidarity of a persecuted people.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Irène Némirovsky's brilliant 1940 novel Suite Française was a surprise bestseller earlier this year. Némirovsky published more than a dozen novels and several biographies in her short lifetime, achieving acclaim in her adopted country of France. But information about the life and career of the Russian-born Jewish novelist, who died in Auschwitz in 1942 at the age of 39, has been scarce. This short critical biography by Weiss, an expert on contemporary French literature, is a fine introduction to her work. Némirovsky attained literary stature in France in 1930 with the publication of David Golder, a satiric portrait of the Parisian Jewish business community. Weiss's analysis of the Jewish press's negative response to David Golder (they "reeled, as if struck by a bomb") is excellent. Némirovsky continued to have a fruitful literary career until her deportation to Auschwitz. Weiss offers a discussion of Némirovsky's 1939 conversion to Catholicism, which appears to have been sincere although at the same time she was exploring the personal meaning of Judaism in her life. At times Weiss relies too heavily on autobiographical readings of Némirovsky's novels, but such a tack is understandable given that we are in the early stages of scholarly work to be done, of which this is a fascinating and important beginning. (Oct.)
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Review

"In Némirovsky's search to reconcile national, religious, and cultural identities, Weiss recognizes the struggle of many immigrants in France today. For this reason, more general readers may enjoy this biography as much for the fresh perspectives it bring to questions of national and cultural identity currently under debate in the Francophone world as for the insights it brings to Némirovsky's life and literature. Scholars will value the complete bibliography of her published and unpublished works, Weiss's attention to the present controversy regarding Némirovsky's anti-Semitism, and his sensitive and well informed readings of her work, including Suite française. This critical volume provides solid evidence that Némirovsky should be included among the most important writers of twentieth-century French fiction."—Hollie Markland Harder, French Review

"Immensely clarifying . . . As Weiss's important and prodigiously researched biography makes clear, Némirovsky was the very definition of a self-hating Jew."—The New Republic

"[An] informative work, neatly structured to bring out the dramatic and tragic fate of a woman who, as [Weiss] puts it, 'died without ever having resolved the question of where she belonged.' It is a book well worth reading."—Australian Book Review

"This short critical biography by Weiss, an expert on contemporary French literature, is a fine introduction to her work."—Publishers Weekly

"[A] brief, but intensely thought-provoking biography by Jonathan Weiss."—The San Francisco Chronicle

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press; 1 edition (September 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804754810
• ISBN-13: 978-0804754811
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #270,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Revealing., November 23, 2006

By 

A .J. Casper (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Irene Nemirovsky: Her Life And Works (Hardcover)

I was totally transformed by the beauty and lucidity of Suite Francaise. I went in search of a book that would help me understand the author better. This book did help me understand Irene Nemirovsky, but you have to keep in mind the paucity of information that Jonathan Weiss had. Nemirovsky's literary career reveals a great deal about her identity and the world that surrounded her.

Many of Nemirovsky's books seem to attack her heritage - with their harsh caricatures and stereotypical portrayals of Jews. She made a hefty pocket publishing these in questionable journals, and was well-received by the anti-Semitic audience. She didn't write only about the wealthy type (like her family), but also the poor, unassimilated in Kiev podols. The ultimate irony, of course, is that the France she so admired (together with its culture and language) not only denied her citizenship, but also handed her over to the Nazis. Nemirovsky also seems to have played with all the wrong people - authors with rightist leanings. They, too, abandoned her in the direst of times, despite being a brilliant "woman of letters". Was it that she had foolhardy illusions of assimilating in French society? After all, 23 years in France made her feel French, and her native Russia might have become an obscure forgotten land.

Like Jonathan Weiss, I truly don't believe it was self-hatred (she never denied being Jewish - even during the occupation). It was mostly a moral odyssey that haunted her. Her writing paints the world she grew up in - one of money-hungry men and women ever in search of new pleasures, furs, and jewelry. It's in this context that we must understand her unwavering admiration of "traditional French values" - which characterize many of her novels.

This book also helps give some light as to why Jews are not mentioned in Suite Francaise, something that puzzles many. It was written at a very precarious time and Nemirovsky might have wished to broach this subject at a latter time.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent companion to Suite Francaise, February 17, 2007

By 

M.V. Warncke - See all my reviews

This review is from: Irene Nemirovsky: Her Life And Works (Hardcover)

This short biography helps the reader get a better picture of Irene Nemirovsky's background and hardships as a as a Jewish author living in France both leading up to and during the occupation before her deportation. I highly recommend reading it after reading "Suite Francaise." Her tragic and untimely death keeps us from being able to see how the rest of her serial novel (Suite Francaise) and writing would have unfolded had she survived.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Do You Say That I Am?, March 18, 2007

By 

J. Fischer "Bookfish" (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Irene Nemirovsky: Her Life And Works (Hardcover)

This great work brings to light the controversy of integration. Irene, sacrificing her Russian Jewish origins to embark on a literary career in France finds acceptance, not because of who she was but because of what she could produce. Her intrinsic value as a human being is recognized by a few but ignored by the masses as she finds her end at Auschwitz. Her works seem to be a foreshadow of her life. Am I Jewish, am I Russian, am I French, am I a woman of letters, am I a friend, am I a mother, am I a wife...or am I human debris? Tragically this book is non-fiction! A great read as a follow up to Suite Francaise, which is written by Irene.