Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

This is a remarkable book.

It's hard for me to separate the quality of the book itself from the history surrounding its publishing, so I won't try. Nemirovsky was an accomplished novelist living in France during WWII. She was also a Russian Jew by birth, so before finishing the book, she was deported to Auschwitz and killed. Her daughters, not yet in their teens, had the presence of mind to pack her notebook in their suitcase when they were hidden to live out the duration of the war. It was not until the late 1990's that it was further examined, and archivists realized that two-thirds of a book (as well as notes on the rest of it) was among its contents.

That book was published, with few changes, as Suite Francaise. I have no opinion about whether I would have liked the book without the history, but as it stands I really enjoyed reading it. The first half of it describes the journeys of various Parisians who leave Paris - on foot, bicycle, horseback, car - as the Germans begin to occupy France. The characters are representative of a wide spectrum of classes within France and the time, and the human spirit, from generosity to selfishness, is well-depicted.

Reading this part of the book reminded me somewhat of reading Huck Finn. I hazily remember an excellent high school English teacher trying to get us to understand the journey that Huck takes by drawing the river on the blackboard. I didn't really "get" what he was trying to teach us at the time, but I wish I had paid more attention, because this book's "journey" story surely had some shape that I did not pick up on.

The second part of the book was about a small French village that was occupied by German soldiers. The story follows a few of the complex relationships arising from the occupation. I had never thought about what it meant for a village to be occupied, so I enjoyed reading this half too.

There are two other gems to be found in this book as well. One is the author's personal notes on what she had written so far and what she planned to do with the rest of the book. She saw in her book all the flaws that frustrated me when I was reading (e.g., too many disconnected characters, missing connections between parts one and two). She also suggested continuations for the book that I did not even begin to imagine. As such a book lover, I was delighted with the chance to read an author's work-in-progress and accompanying notes.

The final part of the book is quite sad. Many people have compared the experience of reading this book with reading Anne Frank's diary, and I did not have that feeling while I was reading it. There was very little talk of Hitler or Aryans or Jews within the book; mostly it was about the French's reactions to occupation. However, the last part of the book chronicles dozens of letters between Nemirovsky, her husband, her publisher, and various other people in her life as the situation for Jews gets progressively worse. I worked hard on beginning to grasp how much potential had really been lost when people like Nemirovsky were deported and killed. Here was one woman's unfinished manuscript and personal story, and she is just one of millions.

Needless to say, recommended.