Customer Reviews

Irene Nemirovsky: Her Life And Works

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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.

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.

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.

Having read the majority of Nemirovsky's works in French, I was eager to read this book. What a disappointment! Mr. Weiss cannot make up his mind whether he is writing literary criticism or biography. His research is thin and the conclusions he draws (or attempts to draw) from the works themselves and various bits of research are extremely dubious. Mr. Weiss has jumped on the bandwagon of the success of 'Suite francaise' to sell his book. Do read Irene Nemirovsky's works and make up your mind youself about her work; I highly recommend them. As for a biography, save your money and wait for the really good biography of Nemirovsky that has just come out in French, which should be available in English in about a year.

The author has successfully been able to glean most of the existing information of Nemirovsky and put her and her works in a meaningful order in the light of France
in 1930-1942....helping the reader to get the full impact of her works, especially Suite Francaise

This biography is an academic, critical study of the life and writings of Irene Nemirovsky. It is well researched. As a critical study it is directed to other professionals in literature and to their graduate students.

In this brief work, Jonathan Weiss explores the life and works of Irene Nemirovsky, who was a successful Jewish author in France during German occupation. In particular, Weiss focuses on Nemirovsky's work along with her personal life in an attempt to explain who this woman was. The author uses an extensive amount of primary sources to reach his conclusion that includes letters and her literature work. He argues that Nemirovsky should be recognized as a "French-Jewish-Russian" author (xiii). In addition, the author argues against past claims that Irene Nemirovsky was a self-hating Jew.

Irene was born in Kiev on February 24, 1903 to a wealthy Jewish family. Her father, Leon Nemirovsky, was a wealthy Jewish banker. According to Weiss, there is little information on Irene's childhood because she did not leave a passport or any other official documents and there were only a few photos of her in Kiev (7). The author also describes Irene's family as being a secular Jewish family, which lived in a neighborhood with other wealthy Jews. The Nemirovskys had privileges as they could travel anywhere within the country because of their wealth and influence (8). Irene's family left Russia in 1917 because they feared the coming power of the Bolsheviks would take away their wealth and privileges.

Irene's first well known work was David Golder, which negatively depicted Jews (46). This book focused on the theme of Jews and business. The plot is about an ambitious Jew, David Golder, who becomes wealthy from investing in oil wells. Many Jewish critics of this book thought David Golder reinforced Jewish stereotypes such as their obsession with acquiring wealth (47). They also criticized the book for depicting its main character, David Golder, for having a hooked nose (51). Some Jewish journalists even labeled Irene as an anti-Semite. Nemirovsky responded to these critics by claiming she could not be an anti-Semite because she was Jewish and also the characters in the novel were based off of people who she knew (47). Weiss also notes that David Golder was the only character in the novel that had a soul and a conscious (51). After David Golder became a popular novel, Irene began writing short stories in far right publications, which had Catholic origins and also exerted xenophobic ideas (54-56). According to Weiss, she would eventually regret writing David Golder and other works that negatively depicted Jews because of the increasing anti-Semitism attitudes that were emerging in France in the late 1930s (57). In 1939, Irene wrote in a literature publication: "How could I write such a thing (David Golder)? If I were to write David Golder now, I would do it quite differently... The climate is quite changed!" (57).

Towards the beginning of France's war with Germany, Irene attempted to better protect herself against the emerging anti-Semitic attitudes. In 1938, Irene and her Jewish husband requested naturalization but their request went unanswered and thus rejected, even though they had lived in France since 1921 (73). In 1939, Irene with her husband and children converted to Catholicism. Although Irene did not leave any clear explanation of why she converted to Christianity, the author believes the primary motive was she and her family would be better protected. Weiss also suggests that she may have been attracted to Christianity as the Jewish family that she grew up in was more secular than most (91).
During the German occupation of France, Irene's life took a turn for the worse because of the Nazis anti-Semitic policies in France. The Nazis instituted laws, which forbid Jews to work in certain professions, which included writings in publications (119). There was also a law, which required Jews to register themselves as a Jew. Even though Irene registered, it is possible that she could have avoided this since France did not keep a good record of who was a Jew since it was a secular nation by law (115). This made it much more difficult for Irene to feed her children because both she and her husband, who was a Jewish banker, were prevented from working. Irene's works were also not to be published since she was Jewish and their was a paper shortage (119-120). However, Irene found away around this by publishing through a pseudonym (121). She also used a false identity to sell more of her works, which ceased to have Jewish characters in them (147). Irene and her husband would eventually be arrested for being Jewish and deported to Auschwitz. The author believes that both of them were probably gassed, even though the Germans did not keep tract of their deaths.

Irene Nemirovsky is a well-written book that effectively explores the identity of this Jewish French author. Weiss makes a strong case why Irene was not a self-hating Jew because she remained Jewish throughout her life and only converted to Christianity when she was possibly forced to because of the emerging anti-Semitic attitudes. She also married a Jewish man instead of somebody outside her ethnic group. Weiss presented a very objective viewpoint in his case study because he explored other explanations as well as explaining why he believed the opposition to his argument is incorrect. Weiss also notes that Irene criticized both communism and Nazism, which may have caused some of the Jewish journalists to be biased against her because Jews had the reputation of being both communists and socialists (139). Irene Nemirovsky is an interesting book about one of the many talented individuals who died at the hands of the Nazis.