108. SUITE FRANCAISE

Irene Nemirovsky 2006
Translated from the French by Sandra Smith

This book is the first two parts of an unfinished work by the author who was arrested and transferred to Auschwitz before she completed an intended 5-parts book. As such, although they are meant to be connected, they are really not. It will definitely leave you wanting. However, the first part succeeds in describing the three days of frenzy and confusion in the life of Parisians as they flee the streets of Paris prior to the arrival of the Germans in 1940. The second part depicts the conflict and necessity of coexistence. The Germans and the French learn to live together. The appendices accompanying this book are the most memorable parts for me. Appendix 1 shows the author's thoughts and plans for the book through her journal entries and Appendix 2 shows the period before and after her arrest by way of various correspondences from 1936-1945. The letters from her husband are particularly haunting.

Part 1: Storm In June

'Hot, thought the Parisians. The warm air of spring. It was night, they were at war and there was an air raid. But dawn was near and the war far away.'(opening lines)

'In a novel, there is nothing more valuable than teaching the lesson of humility to the heroes.'(16)

'The stars were coming out, springtime stars with a silvery glow. Paris had its sweetest smell, the smell of chestnut trees in bloom and of petrol with a few grains of dust that crack under your teeth like pepper. In the darkness the danger seemed to grow. You could smell the suffering in the air, in the silence.'(29)

'Privileges, exemptions, connections, all that was for the middle classes. Deep in her heart were layer upon layer of hatred, overlapping yet distinct: the countrywoman's hatred, who instinctively detests city people, the servant's hatred, weary and bitter at having lived in other people's houses, the worker's hatred.'(65)

'It was an exquisite evening with clear skies and blue shadows; the last rays of the setting sun caressed the roses, while the church bells called the faithful to prayer. But then a noise rose up from the road, a noise unlike any they'd heard these past few days, a low, steady rumbling that seemed to move slowly closer, heavy and relentless. Trucks were heading towards the village. This time it really was the Germans.'(93)

'Important events-- whether serious, happy or unfortunate-- do not change a man's soul, they merely bring it into relief, just as a strong gust of wind reveals the true shape of a tree when it blows off all its leaves. Such events highlight what is hidden in the shadows; they nudge the spirit towards a place where it can flourish.'(167)

Part 2: Dolce

"But most of all, my children, let your hearts speak. Do not aim for stylistic effect: forget your letter-writing skills and speak from the heart. Ah, the heart," said the Viscountess, half closing her eyes, "nothing beautiful, nothing great is accomplished without heart."(224)

'Madame, I am a soldier, Soldiers don't think. I'm told to go somewhere and I go. Told to fight, I fight. Told to get myself killed, I die. Thinking would make fighting more difficult and death more terrible."(251)

'The individual or society? Well, Good Lord. Nothing new there, they hardly invented that idea. Our two million dead in the last war were also sacrificed to the "spirit of the hive." They died... and twenty five years later... What trickery! What vanity! There are laws that regulate the fate of beehives and of people, that's all there is to it. The spirit of the people is undoubtedly also ruled by laws that elude us, or by whims we know nothing about. How sad the world is, so beautiful, yet so absurd... But what is certain is that in five, ten or twenty years, this problem unique to our time, according to him, will no longer exist, it will be replaced by others... Yet this music, the sound of this rain on the windows, the great mournful creaking of the cedar tree in the garden outside, this moment, so tender, so strange in the middle of the war, this will never change, not this. This is for ever...(263)

'War... yes, everyone knows what war is like. But occupation is more terrible in a way, because people get used to one another. We tell ourselves, "They're just like us, after all," but they're not at all the same. We're two different species, irreconcilable, enemies forever.'(307)

'It's nothing to do with us, it's not our fault. In the heart of every man and every woman a kind of Garden of Eden endures, where there is no war, no death, where wild animals and deer live together in peace. All we have to do is to reclaim that paradise, just close our eyes to everything else. We are a man and a woman. We love each other."(321)

Appendices

'My God! what is this country doing to me? Since it is rejecting me, let us consider it coldly, let us watch as it loses its honour and its life. And the other countries? What are they to me? Empires are dying. Nothing maters. Whether you look at it from a mystical or a personal point of view, it's just the same. Let us keep a cool head. Let us harden our heart. Let us wait.'(341)

'More and more, the world is becoming divided into the haves and the have nots. The first don't want to give anything up and the second want to take everything. Who will win out?'(345)

'Irene was taken away on July 13 by the French police, acting on orders from the German police, and taken to Pithiviers-- because she was a stateless person of Jewish descent, without taking into account the fact that she is Catholic, her children are French and that she took refuge in France to escape the Bolsheviks, who also stole her parent's entire fortune.'(378)

'Could you please find out if it would be possible for me to be exchanged for my wife-- I would perhaps be more useful in her place and she would be better off here. If this is impossible, maybe I could be taken to her-- we would be better off together.'(379)

A Borzoi Book
394 pages
Book borrowed from the library