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Suite Francaise

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Manufacturer: Vintage
List Price: $14.95
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Beginning in Paris on the eve of the Nazi occupation in 1940. Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. As Parisians flee the city, human folly surfaces in every imaginable way: a wealthy mother searches for sweets in a town without food; a couple is terrified at the thought of losing their jobs, even as their world begins to fall apart. Moving on to a provincial village now occupied by German soldiers, the locals must learn to coexist with the enemy—in their town, their homes, even in their hearts.

When Irène Némirovsky began working on Suite Française, she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. For sixty-four years, this novel remained hidden and unknown.


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 843.912
EAN: 9781400096275
ISBN: 1400096278
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 448
Publication Date: 2007-04-10
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 2007-04-10
Studio: Vintage


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CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Suite Francais review
Comment: Eztremely well written book, but sometimes became repetitive in story line. Would recommend it partly as a lesson in World War II history and partly as interesting fiction.


Customer Rating:
Summary: The Occupiers You Know...
Comment: Many others have already written of the amazing nature of this book: two insightful novellas written about the second World War...not in retrospect, but as it was unfolding. As if the achievement of a well written reflection on contemporaneous events were not enough, the circumstances surrounding author Nemrovsky's presumed death in a Nazi concentration camp and the "discovery" of her manuscript by her daughter nearly sixty years later make Suite Francaise all the more poignant.

The first novella, "Storm in June," describes the flight of Parisians from their city in the wake of the Nazi invasion. Several disparate characters are used to represent various social classes and how their reactions to the tragedy differed. It's interesting to read about the impending invasion in light of what we all know today from the historical record, but what could not have been knowable to the French at the time of the Nemrovsky's writing. This first part of the book is solid and interesting, providing a window into the frequently petty motivations of the well-heeled city dwellers who often saw the war as an inconvenience, but the second novella, "Dolce," proved to be the more fascinating of the two.

"Dolce" explores daily life in a French country village under the rule of an occupying Nazi garrison. While you might be expecting tales of fierce resistance fighting and underground machinations designed to thwart the occupiers, you won't find it here. The surprising thing about Dolce is the near normality of the situation. While no one's happy to live under German occupiers, few feel that there's anything to be done about it. It's more often seen as something to be endured until it effectively runs its course, which most expect is simply a matter of time. Equally surprising is the "civilized" nature of the occupation. The German officers are courteous and respectful to the townsfolk, some locals even decide that they're not so bad after all. Indeed, a few local women find themselves attracted to their new caretakers.

The horrors of Nazism are not explored here, but rather how difficult it is to hate individuals as opposed to concepts or faceless groups. This is perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the story - that the twisted philosophy for which the Nazis fought could be subdued beneath a cloak of Prussian civility.

Customer Rating:
Summary: constantreader
Comment: This book was recommended to me by a friend who read it for her book club. The book was interesting and held my attention the entire way through. But the ending was horrible. No epilogue. I found myself frantically searching through the discussion questions to see if I had somehow missed the ending. It just stopped. Awful! It made me feel as though I had wasted my time reading it.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Buy this book!
Comment: Why I had this on the shelf for a year I don't know. Well, not true -- I do know. I was afraid as some other reviewers have said, that it would be heavy and depressing. But it is not at all. It is a wonderful narrative and description of France in wartime -- in real time. Others have said so much -- if you have read this far, take a chance -- you won't be disappointed!

Customer Rating:
Summary: Unique WWII Insight
Comment: This book gives a unique insight into the French having to house the German soldiers, showing the humane side - both good and bad -of both nationalities. A very interesting read.

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