Suite Française [Import] [Paperback]

Irene Némirovsky (Author), Myriam Anissimov (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2004

434pages. in8. broché jaquette. Ecrit dans le feu de l'Histoire, Suite fran?se d?int presque en direct l'Exode de juin 1940, qui brassa dans un d?rdre tragique des familles fran?ses de toute sorte, des plus hupp? aux plus modestes. Avec bonheur, Ir? N?rovsky traque les innombrables petites l?et?et les fragiles ?ns de solidarit?'une population en d?ute. Cocottes largu? par leur amant, grands bourgeois d?? par la populace, bless?abandonn?dans des fermes engorgent les routes de France bombard? au hasard. Peu ?eu l'ennemi prend possession d'un pays inerte et apeur? Comme tant d'autres, le village de Bussy est pays alors contraint d'accueillir des troupes allemandes. Exacerb? par la pr?nce de l'occupant, les tensions sociales et frustrations des habitants se r?illent. Roman bouleversant, intimiste, implacable, d?ilant avec une extraordinaire lucidit?'? de chaque Fran?s pendant l'Occupation (enrichi des notes et de la correspondance d'Ir? N?rovsky), Suite fran?se ressuscite d'une plume brillante et intuitive un pan ?if de notre m?ire.

Product Details

• Paperback: 434 pages
• Publisher: Denoël (2004)
• Language: French
• ISBN-10: 2207256456
• ISBN-13: 978-2207256459
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,295,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Personalities and human frailities, January 15, 2007

By 

Loren N. Stein - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suite Francaise (French language edition) (French Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a wonderful book of characters with a true flavor of France; it has a kalidescope of characters and human frailities. To read this book is a magical journey in time to the occupation of France during World Ward II and the very special journey through a good book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For those interested in WWII, January 4, 2007

By 

Hill Country Book Lover - See all my reviews

This review is from: Suite Francaise (French language edition) (French Edition) (Paperback)

The author brings home to those of us who have never experienced war, what it was like when the Nazis invaded Paris and the French countryside. A fictionalized account of the events that challenged both the French and the Germans.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Les Deux Novellas, October 15, 2006

By 

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

This review is from: Suite Francaise (French language edition) (French Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

The fact that this masterpiece was not finished does not take away its beauty, or the skill that went into bringing it to fruition. Suite Francaise ranks up there on par (or above) with those forever timeless classics. I felt like a bee in a sea of nectar when I was reading "Dolce" in particular. Nemirovsky captures the human spirit - it's flaws, tragedies, conflicts, and passions. The narrative is clear and lucid, but far from simplified. It reads with a mischievous (but clean) sensuality that is generous, but never gives away too much.

The book is multi-layered. It deals with war and class, the formation of allegiancies and the breaking of ties. It tackles individual strife versus collective strife. It demonstrates the conundrum of the occupied - forced to cohabitate with the conqueror. In the midst of the German invasion of France, classes meet and clash, but a very fine line divides them - something reminiscent of 9/11 and to a great extent, the more recent Katrina. Civil servants, bankers, artists, dancers, and writers collide in a mass exodus from Paris. Nemirovsky portrays the upper-class in a bitingly acerbic way, but does so skillfully and very subtly. She herself was from a wealthy banking family, and she knew the manners of the bourgeois only too well. The middle classes and the working classes are also cleverly portrayed, without the hint of pity that you might come to expect from the author.

Perhaps even more interesting is Nemirovsky's personal life, and the circumstances that surrounded her at the time this book was written. She had no illusions about the hand of fate, as revealed in a letter to her editor. She was deported to Auschwitz two days later. Her husband protested frequently to the authorities, and kept her place at dinner unoccupied, thinking she would return. He, too, was driven strait to the gas chambers shortly afterward. The manuscript of Suite Francaise was discovered by her daughter years later and published in French, and then translated.

The book is timeless, and one almost wishes for a biography of the author. If a translation is this good, I am tempted to wonder how it reads in the original French, and am left flabbergasted that this work is not more popular than it is today.