Customer Reviews

Suite Francaise (Original French edition)

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This is a magnificently written book (also available in English). It is historically accurate (I was in France in June 1940) and describes beautifully and with deep understanding the changing ambience of the time and the individual and collective behavior of Frenchmen (and women) from diverse economic groups as well as that of the German invaders (the newly arrived onquerors)...

A beautifully written, deeply moving description of the Nazi invasion and the Vichy aftermath. Clear and precise language, compelling and engaging characters. The author's perception of the inner lives and especially the moral self-delusion of her characters is amazing. The spectrum of nobility is very narrow, the range of misbehavior broad. There are few happy families. There are lots of unhappy families dividing their efforts between self-preservation and self-justification. The invaders who are active but unseen in the first book become real characters in the second. The soldiers billeted with French civilians aren't monsters, but their role as conquerors makes it nearly impossible for them to do the right thing as individuals.

"Suite Francaise' is a very fine book and deserves a wide audience. It tells, unsentimentally, the state of mind of the various characters fleeing Paris just before the Nazi occupation. There are certainly modern parallels, but this isn't the most important aspect of the novel. It is the element of the protagonists attempting to survive above all and trying to find the acceptable in evil. In the telling, we are entralled.

May I also recommend a terrific thriller ""Calumet City'', by Charlie Newton? He goes places where 'crime' writers haven't ventured before and while there is lots of action, plot twists and turns, as go with the genre, the human heart emerges too. Newton is also a great experimenter with language, creating unexpected and delightful images.

This is the French version of the book, and it has a lot of introductory information about the author that the English version doesn't. I bought both to read with my other bilingual friend, as sometimes it helps to learn translation techniques. The story is engaging, and I hate that it ended where it ended - I was dying to see what would happen! Thankfully, this version also has more information from the author's notes that give you an idea of what certain characters were going to do and how they were planned to interact.

There is extremely detailed character development and description, more reminiscent of a 19th century style, so you need to have a little patience. Some characters that are carefully developed don't seem to have much action. It is, however, almost like watching a movie of the German invasion of France... you watch people from all types of backgrounds react to the chaos. Very interesting.

The book was great although quite expensive for a paperback.

Receiving the order was a problem. I received three (3) copies of the book although I only ordered one.