leia222 reviewed on + 8 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This book is often called a timeless masterpiece, and while I'm not sure I would put it quite on that level, it is definitely a captivating and emotional story.
I'd recommend reading the actual book first (actually 2 novellas), before the introduction and appendixes. This way you can really appreciate the story for what it is, a well-written, often heart-wrenching, story of Paris and it's inhabitants during the Nazi invasion and subsequent occupation. Aside from the backdrop, Irene Nemirovsky's characters are amazingly written. She brings across the emotions, strengths and shortcomings of her characters to make them real, both the likable and the detestable. It is my personal opinion that the story itself isn't very good, but her writing makes it so.
The book also has an introduction and excerpts from Nemirovsky's notes and correspondence, reading these are an added bonus. Her unfinished notes and plans for the rest of the novellas in the series, and the tragic story of her own life, make the book an even more poignant story of one of our world's most horrific times.
I'd recommend reading the actual book first (actually 2 novellas), before the introduction and appendixes. This way you can really appreciate the story for what it is, a well-written, often heart-wrenching, story of Paris and it's inhabitants during the Nazi invasion and subsequent occupation. Aside from the backdrop, Irene Nemirovsky's characters are amazingly written. She brings across the emotions, strengths and shortcomings of her characters to make them real, both the likable and the detestable. It is my personal opinion that the story itself isn't very good, but her writing makes it so.
The book also has an introduction and excerpts from Nemirovsky's notes and correspondence, reading these are an added bonus. Her unfinished notes and plans for the rest of the novellas in the series, and the tragic story of her own life, make the book an even more poignant story of one of our world's most horrific times.
