Suite Francaise

Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky is a mortal lock to top every year-end “best of” list. Unless, of course, the list was made by a cold, heartless bastard. Then maybe it will slip to #2.

If you don’t know the back story, here’s the BGB Digest version. Némirovsky was a Russian and a Jew. She and her husband fled Russia, with basically nothing, to escape the Bolsheviks. They found their way to France, where Némirovsky became a respected author. At the beginning pf World War II, neither Némirovsky nor her husband had become French citizens. Némirovsky began this book while France was occupied by Germany and it becoming clear what that might mean for her and her family.

Actually the book was to be a suite of five books. She completed the first two, which make up this novel, and her plans for the remainder would go unrealized. Némirovsky was shipped off to Auschwitz where she died very soon after. The book is followed by Némirovsky’s notes on what she wanted the novel to be, as well as her thoughts on the situation in France around her.

The second appendix to the novel includes surviving correspondence of Némirovsky and her family. These letters are heartbreaking. The letters include correspondence with Némirovsky’s publisher who, to his credit, was determined to maintain payment to her. He continued to do this in a climate where Jews were forbidden to work generally, but in publishing and writing especially. The letters begin with the family desperate to survive and to clarify their official position. Eventually the letters tell the story of Némirovsky’s capture and deportation through the letters of her husband who is frantic to reach her and send supplies, money, and love to her wherever she may be (he was initially older than the mandatory deportation age of foreign-born Jews). Later, the letters tell of the disappearance of Némirovsky’s husband and the machinations involved in caring for their children by others while the parents’ disposition in unknown. The letters show that Némirovsky’s publisher continued to send money to the children despite having no word from Némirovsky or her husband for several years.

Némirovsky’s papers, which are also included in this novel, remained with her children in France. For many years the children did not choose to read the papers, because it was too painful. It was enough to have them. Eventually one of Némirovsky’s duaghters began to figure out that the tiny writing on the worn pages was a novel in progress. The book was published, then translated, and finally published here almost 60 years after the end of the war. All of this is the foundation upon which this book rests. A blurb on the dust jacket notes that this may well be the first book of fiction written about World War II.

The first book in the Suite, Storm in June, takes place in the days leading up to the invasion of France by Germany. It is a gripping account of the lives of people from all walks of life as they prepare to flee ahead of the Nazi army. Némirovsky provides some insight into the French mindset, which proves to be more nuanced than the “rifle-dropping surrender monkey” brush that they are often painted with.

The second book, Dolce, continues the story into the German occupation and partitioning of France. I’ll admit that I had to dash over to WikiPedia for a refresher course on the Vichy France government. The second book features some of the same characters that appeared in the first. Némirovsky even manages to create a sympathetic portrait of some of the occupying Germans, no mean feat considering that we already know her story.

Némirovsky’s notes tell us that the third book, to be called Captivity, would have followed two of the characters from the second book to German prisons. The story arc of the fourth and fifth books, she allowed, would be unknowable until history revealed its plan.

Némirovsky wrote with a keen eye for everyday life. She tells herself in the surviving notes: “Reread Tolstoy. Inimitable descriptions but not historical, Insist on that…. try to create as much as possible…that will interest people in 1952 or 2052.” That’s the thing that shines through in this book. Némirovsky sems to have presciently known that given the subject matter the book must be written for future geneations. She admonishes herself in her notes for the novel:

Have no illusions: this is not for now. So mustn’t hold back, must strike back with a vengeance wherever I want.

And she does. This is a remarkable book, both for its unwavering fictional account and its heartbreaking non-fiction elements. I recommend it very highly. So far the book is atop the Amazon Editors’ Best of 2006 list. It is also at the top of MetaCritic’s Best of 2006 (scroll down), as well as their highest-rated book ever. Look for that trend to continue. On the success of this book, Némirovsky’s first book, David Golder, is schedules to be republished in 2007. From Amazon:

Praise for the first edition of David Golder:
“The work of a woman who has the strength of one of the masters like Balzac or Dostoyevsky”
–New York Times, 1930

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  By Elisabeth Stewart, November 20, 2006 @ 9:57 am

  Thanks for yet another great review and recommendation. This book has been added to my “To Read List.”

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  By DJ Cayenne, November 20, 2006 @ 6:12 pm

  Hi. Thanks for the kind words. You’ll love the book.

Other Links to this Post

1. Baby Got Books » Suite Francaise encore — January 12, 2007 @ 10:01 am