Springcleaning – Book 10 “Suite Francaise” by Irene Nemirovsky

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (translated from the French by Sandra Smith) has been on my to-be-read pile for a very long time. So long, in fact, that I can probably measure the time it has languished there in years. I bought it originally because I saw something online about the circumstances in which the book was written and then found a cheap copy in a charity shop somewhere so I picked it up as much from curiosity as anything else. The blurb on the back, however, didn’t particularly engage me and so I never started it. I put it on the list for this challenge because I thought that I ought to read it now or give it away again. I am very glad that I have read it.

The author, who was Jewish, escaped from Russia after the revolution in 1917 and settled in France where she became a novelist. This book was started after the German occupation of her adopted country and was designed to be five interlocked short novels telling the story of what the invasion was like for a variety of ordinary people. In 1942 after the first two sections were written the author was arrested and murdered by the Germans because of her religion/race and so the full book was not finished. Her daughters were hidden from arrest and kept many of her papers with them during their difficult childhood. It was not until the 1990s that someone read what they had saved and realised that there was an unfinished book which needed to be published. I understand that there is also a film of the book which I have not seen. The copy of this book which I have has notes that were made for the continuation of the story as an appendix but you don’t really need this as the two sections which were finished will stand on their own.

The first of the two sections in the book follows a variety of different characters all fleeing Paris as the Germans approach. The author brilliantly portrays all the different responses to the crisis and to the hardship of fleeing and she includes characters who are sympathetic to the reader and many who are not. Her observation of human nature is sharp and unflinching and often very funny. I was totally absorbed in this story.

The second section includes some of the same characters but explores life for the inhabitants of a small town where the Germans settle. The story considers romantic and sexual attraction but also the varied responses to having the enemy living among people trying to continue with their everyday lives. There is an examination of the compromises people make with themselves and others.

I was absolutely captivated by the writing in this book. I thought it was realistic and authentic. I was engaged with the characters and what happened to them. It is a great sadness that we never got the remaining sections of the book because it would have been so interesting to see what the author did with the lives of her characters.

This book has gone onto that shelf where I keep particular favourites and I have ordered another of this author’s books to see if I enjoy it as much as I did this story. That is why my to-be-read pile never seems to get smaller – there is always another great book to read.