Her children brought out the manuscript and it was finally published in 2004. The author was a Jewish woman who was killed at Auschwitz in 1942, only a year after she finished the first two of what were supposed to be five segments of Suite Française. It is not a book about horrors of the concentration camps. It is set in occupied France and provides a first-hand perspective. It is not just a modern story using the war as a backdrop. It was written contemporaneously (in 1940-1941). Here’s my attempt to convince them to at least consider this one: I have read reviews that say some people are tired of books set in World War II. The second is set in rural France during the German occupation and tells of how the families of the town interacted with the German soldiers. The first is a story of the attempt to flee France in advance of the German invasion in 1940. This novel contains two separate parts related through setting and time period. I was definitely GLAD I read it - so thanks to the many PBTers who picked it for me this month!!! However, it really is a terrific book - made more astounding by the background story of the author (which is included in an extensive end note). You meet many characters, and you do get a picture of who they are, but you don't get to know many of them well.
If this book was a movie, it would be described as an "ensemble" cast. And somehow, I just wasn't really feeling them like I did in say - The Road or The Book Thief. This book has a lot of sad, and what should have been touching, events in it.
Unfortunately, for me, sheer enjoyment plays a factor in my ratings, and I think I didn't quite get to know the characters well enough to feel emotionally attached to them. She's just that type of writer - truly gifted. To me, had she been able to continue to write, she probably would have been a writer of some great classics. And she sustains the level of prose throughout. Her details are specific, important, and immediately give you a perfect sense of place, person, or time. Goodness, this woman can craft a sentence. If I were merely evaluating this book on the writing alone - well it would be five star PLUS. It then moves on to a single town and paints a detailed portrait of what it was like to live in a village with the Nazi soldiers right there beside the French. It focuses on the lives of various different people - wealthy, poor, and middle class - as they react to the prospect of Paris being bombed. Suite Francaise takes place in Nazi occupied France in the 1940's.
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