Suite Francaise

Suite Francaise / Irene Nemirovsky;
trans. from the French by Sandra Smith
NY: Knopf, 2006.
395 p.

Another novel of war, this time a different one is a different place. This bestseller is well known; I've just finally gotten around to it. It is the first two books in a projected series of five, written in 1941/42 by an author who was imprisoned and murdered by Nazis shortly after. Her manuscripts were tucked into a suitcase and taken by her daughters in hiding, found and published sixty years later. The story of the manuscripts adds to the actual story, and I appreciate how the cover of this edition nods to that history. 

Part One is "Storm in June", in which a wide and varied group of people flee Paris at the first news of the Occupation. They flee into the country, where there are traffic jams on the roads, no places to stay, no food, thievery, stress and fear: those left in Paris feel ghostly but nothing happens. Many of those panicked people make their way back to Paris eventually, only to have the actual Occupation come later. 

The way that she draws people is unflinching and unforgiving. People are not innately good; there is violence and danger and selfishness all around. Of course, this was written at the time of the events so the existence of Nazis was pretty good proof that awful people do exist. And the level of panic and violence among French citizens was darkly frightening. One scene in particular, in which the gentle priestly son of a good family is fatally punished for his attempted good deed, was horrifying. 

I actually didn't really like this story very much. The general awfulness, and the frequency of random violent death, was a bit unsettling. The way that French people either accidentally or intentionally killed each other off, needing no help from Nazis, throughout this story, was upsetting. It feels nihilistic, which I suppose the author could have been seeing and feeling in her setting. But it wasn't comfortable reading, that's for sure. 

Part Two, "Dolce", is set in a provincial town where people who have been more distant from the fighting now have to contend with German troops setting up in their town. Soldiers are billeted in farmhouses and barracks; an officer is stationed in the big house, where he and the young wife of an absent soldier begin to connect in a deep way. Her moral and emotional turmoil make up a lot of the story. 

At a nearby farm, there are other issues for the locals to deal with -- food shortages, town vs. country rivalries for food and other goods, and an Allied soldier injured and nursed back to health who needs to be disguised from the Germans. Lots of drama, but a slightly gentler, less despairing tone to this part of the book, despite violence and fear. The depiction of the Germans as simultaneously terrible and 'just like us' is masterful. 

Well worth reading, and it is to our great loss that she never finished this series of loosely linked stories. But be prepared for more war, and more grief, in all areas of this book if you do read it.