The story by itself is enough to give it 5 stars – even though it is unfinished. Part 1 (Storm in June) is a collection of short stories about several Paris dwellers who are fleeing the proposed occupied areas of France to escape the approaching Germans. All aspects of human nature are addressed: tenderness, compassion, fear, greed, arrogance. The second part (Dolce) deals with the relationships which develop between the French and the Germans. Some discover that their collective enemy is composed of individuals who are very human. The German soldier who is falling in love with Lucile says in answer to how long he thinks the war will last: “Madame, I am a soldier. Soldiers don’t think. I’m told to go somewhere and I go. Told to fight. Told to get myself killed, I die. Thinking would make fighting more difficult and death more terrible.” But there is more to this tragic story than just the incredible prose of Irene Nemirovsky. The story behind the story. While she is working on her 5 part novel, she is arrested and taken to a prison camp. Within a month she is dead. Her husband is also arrested a few months later and taken immediately to the gas chambers. A network of friends and supporters protect their two children and 64 years after Irene’s death one of her daughters sends the unfinished manuscript that shows the gentle side of the German officers to a publisher and we are finally able to read this masterpiece. During those first couple of weeks after Irene had been taken to the concentration camp, when family and friends were in their frantic letter writing phase providing proof from her writings that she was not sympathetic to the Bolsheviks and that she wrote positively about the Germans, the big question is – would this novel had saved her? If they had provided the draft of this manuscript to some high ranking German officer and convinced him to read it – would Irene have been released?

After watching this movie, I knew that I had to read the book. Honestly, I regret that as a French teacher I had not read this sooner. The movie only covers one part of the novel, and I wish that Némirosky had been able to finish this book as she had planned before she was taken to Auschwitz. With that being said, the perspective she gives is astounding for what she must have been going through while she was writing this novel. If I am being truthful, the first half of the novel took me a while before I became invested. Most of this was because it was switching back and forth between several characters' stories. However the second half, the book focused on specific relationships that were so complicated and rich that I felt completely immersed in the characters' lives. The descriptions of each scene were so beautiful, and I felt as if I had traveled back in time. I keep going back and forth on my overall rating of the book, because I feel like I need a better resolution. I can see where Némirosky wanted to go with her novel; I just wanted more!

Suite Francesa es una novela inconclusa ambientada en Francia de 1940, en el momento en que las tropas alemanas llegan a París. La primera parte de la novela (Tempestad en Junio)narra el éxodo de los parisinos en el momento de la ocupación. Son diversas historias que se van cruzando, desde Gabriel Corte, escritor egoísta y autoendiosado, los Péricand, una familia acomodada que se ve obligada a huir, los Michaud, cuyo hijo esta en el frente y no tienen noticias de él. Némirovsky nos entrega con un exhaustivo detalle la masiva huida de los parisinos. Es en este trance donde vemos lo mejor y lo peor de la sociedad, egoísmo, indiferencia, necedad, soberbia e incredulidad. Pero también vemos esperanza, esfuerzo y una capacidad (de algunos) de vivir pese a todo. En todo momento, en cada palabra y descripción bellamente lograda por Némirovsky, hay ironía y sarcasmo, se mezclan en partes iguales la belleza y la destrucción, la futilidad de la vida versus el apego excesivo a lo material. La segunda parte (Dolce) describe las relaciones que se forman entre los alemanes conquistadores y los franceses invadidos. Es en estos capítulos donde Némirovsky cuidadosamente va armando un espectáculo interacciones, rechazos y desafíos que deslumbran. Lo que vemos es como lentamente, por la fuerza de la costumbre, las relaciones se van armando y se va aceptando una nueva realidad. Para algunos es más sencillo que para otros, algunos luchan aún contra estos invasores, otros apoyan el nuevo régimen sin dudar, excusándose de una manera tan contundente que es imposible no darles la razón de cierto modo y otros, les guste o no, se terminan enamorando, pese a todo, pese al odio, pese a los demás. Némirovsky nos presenta a seres humanos en toda su dimensión, con sus miedos, esperanzas, errores y odios, dejo de lado el facilismo de presentar al invasor como alguien a quien odiar y a los invadidos como los héroes que se van a redimir. Némirovsky nos presenta una sociedad compleja, contradictoria y en una situación extrema que a la que nunca pensó llegar; nos enseña que, queramos o no por la fuerza de la costumbre se llego a un equilibrio entre unos y otros. Equilibrio que fue roto con el asesinato de un alemán y luego con la marcha del ejército al frente Ruso. Increíblemente la sensación que queda en este pequeño pueblo francés es que los van a extrañar. Irène Némirovsky vivo esto de primera mano y así como lo sufrió, murió en Auschwitz en 1942, dejando una hermosa novela inconclusa.