Suite Francaise / by Irene Nemirovsky

A Russian immigrant living in France at the time of World War II, Irène Némirovsky had fled the bolsheviks in her homeland only to be persecuted by another totalitarian regime when the Nazis invaded Paris. A Jew by birth, Nemirovsky and her husband were apprehended in 1942 and deported to Auschwitz where she died at 39. Her manuscript, written in barely readable script and largely unorganized within several notebooks, was preserved by her two surviving daughters where the uncompleted work gathered dust for 60 years. It wasn't until 2003 that Nemirovsky's notes were discovered compiled into a novel whereupon it quickly became a French sensation and international bestseller.

Némirovsky's original plan for her book consisted of five novella-sized stories intended to be organized into one volume. Only two were completed at the time of her capture. The first, "Storm in June," follows a gaggle of Parisians during the initial exodus from the German-occupied capital. The people, once residents now refugees in their own homeland, plod through the streets, across fields and further southward into the countryside in largely disorganized fashion. The once-proud nation is far from patriotic and anything but noble. Their slow migratory procession away from the metropolis is filled with constant bickering, quarrels and petty disputes arising from lives interrupted and revulsion at their country's swift, cowardly surrender. Social status meant little even as more aristocratic types persisted with their pretentious manners, always feeling entitled to preferential treatment, and often just downright mean and selfish.
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The second part describes a small village in 1940 where French girls, at a loss for other options, openly flirt with their German occupants who willingly reciprocate their affection. Though the situation incites fierce resentment among residents, little can be done it seems until a German officer is murdered, evidently done in by the patriotic indignation of one of the villagers. Certain the killer is a civilian harbored by the enemy, military police aggressively lay down the law, harshly infiltrating homes and individuals, exacting vicious tactics of coersion. The culminating outcome of the search which, in addition to rooting out the culprit, exposes several particularly passionate liasons between certain soldiers and mademoiselles, ultimately creating an inevitably paradoxical circumstance where war and love make strange bedfellows. Suite Francaise is a splendid "debut" novel by a genuinely gifted writer. Nemirovsky's first-hand account of a foreign occupation, written while it was taking place amid panic, confusion, chaos and conflict evokes an important and decidedly tumultuous time and place in history.