"Suite Francaise"

Well, the new book club has gotten off to an excellent start with our first book, “Suite Francaise,” by Irene Nemirovsky. I had heard such good things about the book that I was afraid it might not live up my expectations, but it definitely did. The group had a very lively discussion, which centered almost as much on the backstory of “Suite Francaise” as the book itself.

In 1940, while living in Nazi-occupied France, Nemirovsky started working on a collection of novels about life during the German invasion and occupation. She finished the first two of five planned stories, but never got to finish her work. In 1942, Nemirovsky, a Russian-born Jew who had converted to Catholicism after 23 years in France, was taken to Auschwitz, where she died of typhus.

Meanwhile, her young daughters escaped with the manuscripts in a suitcase. Thinking the handwritten pages were a diary that would be too painful to read, the daughters didn’t open them and discover the novels until a few years ago.

The first novel, “Storm in June,” focuses on the looming German arrival in Paris in 1940 and the Parisians’ frenzied efforts to escape. Nemirovsky illustrates the general panic by focusing on half a dozen groups of characters, each handling the situtation differently. She tells each story beautifully and makes you feel as though you are right there with the characters. (The book group members were divided on whether they liked the chapter in which the author describes the scene from a cat’s point of view—I actually thought it worked.)

“Dolce,” the second novel, moves at a slower pace and describes life in a small rural village occupied by German troops. After the initial fear and disdain the French feel towards their conquerers, they fall into an uneasy harmony with the soldiers, until one villager’s rebellion shatters the peace.

The ending, which was really more of a middle than an end, definitely left me wishing that Nemirovsky had been able to finish the entire story. If completed, the planned collection of novels could have become one of the great literary works to come out of World War II. As it is, it is still a masterpiece, especially considering that it was written nearly simultaneously with the events it depicts.

The book has a couple of extensive appendices, consisting of notes Nemirovsky wrote about her plans for the rest of the novels, and letters that reveal her concern about the situation in France and her efforts to avoid being sent to a work camp. Strangely the novels do not have any Jewish characters or mention concentration camps, which might reflect either a lack of knowledge about the Nazis’ plans or an effort by Nemirovsky to distance herself from her Jewish heritage.

Bottom line, in spite of the hype that this book has gotten, it is well worth reading. I highly recommend it to ANYONE.

The book group spent a lot of time trying to decide what to read next, and we finally settled on “The Road,” by Cormac McCarthy, which I have been wanting to read for a while, in spite of Oprah’s endorsement. I think enough time has passed since she picked it that it will be safe to be seen reading it on the train :)

Never a lender be

On and off for the past couple of months, I’ve been reading a collection of essays by Anne Fadiman. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of “Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader” until recently because it is a collection of essays about BOOKS. And reading books.

One of my favorites is a piece in which Fadiman describes two types of book lovers: those who like to keep their books in pristine condition (the courtly lovers), and those who think a well worn book is a sign of a well loved book (the carnal lovers). She falls into the latter category, I am firmly in the former.

According to Fadiman, although the words in a book are “holy,” “the paper, cloth, cardboard, glue, thread and ink that contained them were a mere vessel, and it was no sacrilege to treat them as wantonly as desire and pragmatism dictated.”

I could not disagree more. I love my books as objects. Like the hotel chambermaid who admonishes Fadiman’s brother “You must never do that to a book,” when he leaves a book spreadeagled on the nightstand, I would never break a book’s spine, dog-ear the pages or (gasp) write on them.

I learned the hard way that not everyone is compulsive about taking care of books: When I was in 6th grade, a really annoying classmate named Rachel borrowed my copy of “The Runner,” by Cynthia Voight, and returned it essentially shredded. I was so mad, but my timid 12-year-old self couldn’t muster the courage to protest. A year later, I nearly stopped speaking to one of my friends when she returned “The Clan of the Cave Bear” with the front cover completely creased.

The lesson I have taken from this is, don’t lend books! Or at the very least, engage the borrower in an Israeli-army-style interrogation of their attitudes towards books. Courtly lovers are welcome to borrow, page-folders, stay away!

Coincidence

I just mentioned "Atonement" in my last blog post, and a couple of days later I got an e-mail from Amazon about the trailer for the movie, which is apparently coming out Dec. 7. I'm not always a fan of movies made from books, but the trailer looks pretty good.

Once again I have been delinquent in posting... I am currently reading "The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11," by Lawrence Wright. It won the Pulitzer Prize for 2007, so I am counting it for the Book Awards Reading Challenge. It's incredibly enlightening on the origins of Islamic fundamentalism—I will write more about it when I finish. I'm about halfway through but now it has to go on hiatus so I can read "Suite Francaise" for my new book group. That is, if I can find the book in the jungle of recently-moved boxes in my apartment....