by Irène Némirovsky
After “Rummelplatz”, again a novel fragment. And again an unexpected discovery. Irène Nemirovsky couldn’t finish her work because she was deported t o a concentration camp in Poland. She died there of exhaustion soon after the arrival. For sure she would have been gassed since she was Jewish and exhausted. Her family fled the Russian revolution To France where they restarted their life. After only 10 years she was perfect in French. In the thirties she was a pretty popular writer but was forgotten until 2005 when her daughters published this last novel fragment as “Suite Française”. Such a surprisingly modern novel, and she was just forgotten. How could that happen? I will definitely buy more books of her.
To the opposite what you would think, the novel does not deal with the Jewish question. It is about man and how people react under stress. The first part describes the fate of some partisans who are on the run from the invading Germans. It is right before the fall of Paris. No reader will be left with illusions about the human behavior. Sometimes it is just disgusting how quickly solidarity is abandoned. But most likely 95% of men are like that and nobody knows if she/he is really between the 5% as everybody would claim of himself.
The second part take place in a village on year after the defeat. Every inhabitant has to accomodate a German soldier. First fear, then acceptance, and later surprise that those barbarians are not so different from their husbands and sons, which fought the same war and want to return to their family. Everything culminates in a relationship between a German lieutenant with good manners and the stepdaughter of a madame whose son is a prisoner of war in Germany. An explosive plot, which serves to examine all possible behavior under the occupation.
Némirovsky had planned three more parts. Sad for us. The irony was that she was handed over by the French police to the Nazis. Almost exactly what she has expressed in her novel.
To the opposite what you would think, the novel does not deal with the Jewish question. It is about man and how people react under stress. The first part describes the fate of some partisans who are on the run from the invading Germans. It is right before the fall of Paris. No reader will be left with illusions about the human behavior. Sometimes it is just disgusting how quickly solidarity is abandoned. But most likely 95% of men are like that and nobody knows if she/he is really between the 5% as everybody would claim of himself.
The second part take place in a village on year after the defeat. Every inhabitant has to accomodate a German soldier. First fear, then acceptance, and later surprise that those barbarians are not so different from their husbands and sons, which fought the same war and want to return to their family. Everything culminates in a relationship between a German lieutenant with good manners and the stepdaughter of a madame whose son is a prisoner of war in Germany. An explosive plot, which serves to examine all possible behavior under the occupation.
Némirovsky had planned three more parts. Sad for us. The irony was that she was handed over by the French police to the Nazis. Almost exactly what she has expressed in her novel.
Facts:
English title: Suite Française
Original title: Suite Française
Published: 2004
