Reading Suite française by Irène Némirovsky already fills you with a sense of melancholy and regret because you know that the the author died in Auschwitz and the reader can't help but carry around the overwhelming tragedy of the senselessness of war. Because this novel was written during the German occupation of Paris, the authenticity is unquestionable and impacting and Némirovsky's ghostlike authorial presence enhances this effect. Not to mention her ability for deep understanding of the French as well as handling the class structure of Paris at the time with satirical facility and irony. This novel, incomplete and devastating, does not lack humor despite its historical context.

Dead at thirty-nine purportedly from typhus but later proven to have been gassed, Némirovsky only finished two parts out of five that she outlined for Suite française. She was famous in France before the onset of World War II from the publication of her debut novel, David Golder followed by other successful novels. The manuscript wasn't even discovered for sixty-four years which made its publication so anticipated. Even though her story is harrowing and written during the time the novel is set in, it is not a novel about her experience, but a representative of the French experience during the Second World War. The characters are sympathetic, of course, and the writing is clear and elegant. What this unfinished work does is reflect a city imprisoned. It reflects not just the physical imprisonment of Jews but also the imprisonment of a Jewish identity, a Jewish heritage. And for that, it is impossible to single out one person, one writer or one character. I think this passage best describes the reality of war for one and for many:

The preceding winter--the first of the war--had been long and hard. But what of the winter of 1940-1? The end of November saw the beginning of the cold and snow. It fell on the houses destroyed by the bombs, on the bridges they were trying to rebuild, on the Paris streets where there were no cars or buses, where women in fur coats and wool hoods hurried by, where other women shivered and huddled in doorways. It fell on the railway tracks and on the telegraph wires, which were sometimes dragged to the ground by the weight and snapped; on the green uniforms of the German soldiers standing at the entrance to their barracks and on the red flags with their swastikas draped over the monuments. In freezing apartments, it cast a mournful , deathly pallor that made everything feel even colder and more inhospitable. In the poorer families, the old people and children stayed in bed for weeks: it was the only place they could be warm.

This is the story of not just one, but many. Most importantly, written by one of the many that died. Parts of her life are left vividly in the parts of this novel. How lucky we would have been if she could have given us and herself all the parts?

Suite française
By Irène Némirovsky
Translated by Sandra Smith(PEN Award Winner)
Alfred A. Knopf
Paperback
448 Pages
ISBN: 978-1-4000-9627-5
$14.95