tefiamaxwell

Irene Nemirovsky was a Russian Jew who spent her adult life in France just prior to the second World War. She established herself as a well respected writer in the 1930's, and likely would have had a phenomenal career had it not been for the Nazi occupation of France in 1941. Suite Francaise is two novellas that were meant to be part of a larger 5 part work covering life in France under German occupation. Even in this unfinished state, Nemirovsky's brilliance as a writer and her ability to capture the many different forces at work in France under the occupation comes through clearly. The reader can only imagine how flawless these works would have been had they gone through the complete editing process that Nemirovsky doubtless would have put them through. As they stand, they are as good as most complete works on the market today. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of these stories is reading them with the understanding that they were written by someone who could never know that the Allies would win the war. As a result, her depictions of collaborators, ordinary bourgeoise, fallen nobility, and the conflicts of the working class against the upper echelons of society clearly show the what she believes to be source of France's fall and Her only hope of salvation. Had the work been completed, it doubtless would have become the standard by which all other stories of the War on the continent would have been judged. As it was however, Nemirovsky was arrested and sent to Auschwitz where she was put to death in 1942. The manuscript made its way through the hands of her children unopened until recently. The discovery that this was not merely a set of notes about the war but two complete manuscripts was unexpected, and at last at least part of her master work can see the light of day.

2022-11-14 14:06