History, revisited

Until the day of her arrest on July 13, 1942, Russian-Jewish author Irene Nemirovsky was busy writing her last novel, realizing that she would probably never see her work in print. She died one month later in the Auschwitz concentration camp, aged 39.

Today, the interest in her work is closely associated with her tragic fate. A new biography by Olivier Philipponnat and Patrick Lienhardt, published in French and now translated into English, reveals the details about the life of this talented writer. Titled "The Life of Irene Nemirovsky: Author of Suite Francaise," the book is woven from diaries and archives.

Nemirovsky was born in 1903 in Kiev - then part of the Russian Empire - as the daughter of a wealthy Jewish banker. The family fled to France at the start of the Russian Revolution in 1917. With her first novel, "David Golder," she became an overnight sensation on the French literary scene in 1929.

"Young French women usually don't have the life experience that I have due to my circumstances," said Nemirovsky in a 1930 radio interview in Paris.

'A beautiful book that stinks'

In a direct manner, "David Golder" tells the story of a greedy Jewish businessman who loses the sympathy of his family as he faces ruin. One critic described the novel as "a beautiful book that stinks."

Despite Nemirovsky's own Jewish ancestry (she later converted to Catholicism,) Jewish cliches are abundant in the story, which is why it has often been considered an anti-Semitic text, and why the author herself has been referred to by some critics as a "self-hating Jew."

But biographer Olivier Philipponnat claims that such descriptions are unjust. He points out that from the very start Nemirovsky replied to these accusations by saying, "I only portray what I know - and that's the Jewish business world." She didn't want to write a satire about a religious community, but about life in a world of finance.

She later said herself that if Hitler had already been in power at the time, she would have toned down the plot a lot more.

A foreigner in France

Like many of her protagonists, Nemirovsky was a foreigner in France. She was refused French citizenship, even though she described herself as a French writer and was supported by prominent literary figures.

From 1940 on, with the German army occupying France, she could only publish her books under a pseudonym. Disillusioned by the situation, she wrote: "My God! What is this country doing to me? We are cold-bloodedly observing as it pushes me away and seeing how it's losing its honor and its life."

The mass of people fleeing from the Germans, as well as the occupation, were things that Nemirovsky wanted to capture in a novel. By this stage she had left Paris and was living in a small village, in close proximity to German soldiers.

Her novel "Suite Francaise" has been described by biographer Philipponnat as one of the "most accurate portrayals of the perfidy of the French and of individual acts of civil courage in 1940." He also finds Nemirovsky's references to the Germans remarkable: "They were our enemies, but above all they were humans." She wrote this even though she knew that she was in danger.

A posthumous historic novel

The unfinished novel was not published until 2004, but it became an international bestseller. Its success was only strengthened by the poignant fate of the manuscript itself. Nemirovsky's two daughters, who managed to survive the war in hiding, guarded the thick folder with the manuscript like a treasure for 62 years. They first thought that it was a diary.

"When we decided to give it away to an archive, we wanted to finally find out what was in it," said Denise Epstein, the older daughter. "While analyzing the contents we were careful to not overlook a single comma or crossed-out passage. At this time I had no idea that I was transcribing a novel."

The biography manages to trace Nemirovsky's unique path to fame, endowing her with late but honorable recognition, despite her complex and often troubling associations with her Jewish heritage.

Author: Guylaine Tappaz (ew)
Editor: Jennifer Abramsohn