Suite Francaise

While I wouldn't consider this one of my favorite books, it was definitely a good one. Irene Nemirovsky wrote about France's occupation by German troops in the 1940s in what she intended to be a 5 part book (she completed the 2 that are now published before being arrested and sent to a concentration camp, where she died). What's interesting is that she wrote about the occupation while she was experiencing it herself, firsthand.

The first story, Storm in June, is pretty much chapter-by-chapter, back and forth account from various points of veiw of people fleeing France. Instead of telling you what is going on, she shows you through the thoughts and actions of her characters which also vary greatly. You get the perspective from the rich and poor, old and young and single people and families. It gives you a very clear picture of what was going on at the time and shows you that while we're all different, we're also all very the same, deep down. Feelings and emotions are the same for every human

The second story, Dolce, I liked best. It focused mainly on 2 families, each with a German soldier living with them (military orders). Again, Nemirovsky shows you what is going on instead of telling. It's so hard to imagine what it must be like to be forced to welcome the enemy into your home against your will and that some people ended up befriending them. Nemirovsky explored this idea by having her characters become torn between their own emotions. They weren't sure whether to be cordial to the enemies they were forced to live, eat and sleep with or to remain cold and distant to the enemy who quite possibly could have tortured, imprisoned or taken the life of someone they loved. While the book is fiction, you can't help but think that as crazy as the story and the circumstances sound, this was complete truth only decades ago.

The only thing I felt was lacking in this book was that I didn't feel any sort of emotional connection to any of the characters (which could be because it was left 3/5 of the way unfinished).

My favorite books hae been the ones where I have that feeling that I can't wait to get home and curl up and read as much as I possibly can before exhausting myself. Those are the books where I find myself daydreaming throughout the day about the characters and what they're going through. It reminds me of that saying "books can take you anywhere" and maybe it's cliche, but now I realize how true this is. In these books, I feel the characters' grief, their happiness, their love and yearning and I completely submerge myself in their world. I've been known to cry at books before which I think says something for the writer. To be able to move someone so strongly that they react with their own real emotions, from a story that is FICTIONAL is amazing. Those are the books that when I finish them, I tell my mom, "Now that I'm done with it, I wish that it never ended! I wish that the book was THIS THICK [holding my hands about a foot apart] so that I can keep reading."

I remember the first books that I said that about were the Mrs. PiggleWiggle series. :)

Would I recommend this? Yes. However, if you are looking for something more 'light' to read or something that is not historical fiction, then I would stray away from this book. Otherwise, I would be happy to loan this out :)