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24/05/2007, 20:00 ali-cat Joined on 15/12/2005 Charente Maritime Posts 1,047 Re: Suite Francaise I've just started reading it - & keep asking myself  "am I actually supposed to like any of these characters?"!! I borrowed it from another forum member - along with Anne Franks Diary.  I'm in for a cheery few weeks........ Many years ago, cats were worshipped as gods. Cats have never forgotten this.    Report

24/05/2007, 21:24 Russethouse Joined on 23/08/2004 Forum Moderator Posts 9,489 Re: Suite Francaise  Yes, I have a copy, I started it and then got side tracked between Liz Smith's autobiography and Philippa Gregory's Bread & Chocolate (short stories), but I will get back to it. www.quimperclub.org 99    Report

25/05/2007, 0:06 Tresco Joined on 23/08/2004 Charente Maritime. Posts 4,635 Re: Suite Francaise  ali-cat wrote: I've just started reading it - & keep asking myself  "am I actually supposed to like any of these characters?"!! I borrowed it from another forum member - along with Anne Franks Diary.  I'm in for a cheery few weeks........ Yes, that's right. Visit Tresco, take a week to recover from alcohol poisoning and then relapse into depression when you can see well enough to read the books Anne Franks' diary isn't depressing, apart from in the very obvious way.  Some of the characters in Suite Francaise are unsypmathetic, yes, but not all of them, and anyway, I don't think she set out to engender liking or even sympathy, just a description of various realities in wartime/occupation. Sometimes even with the 'unlikeable' characters, I felt sympathy for them...that's not something I generally feel for a character someone has gone out of their way to stage as a 'baddie'.  I'll need to read it again to work out how/why she did that... All that said, I do think it was hyped. I really need to read one of her finished novels to get a better feel for her. Sorry if this is garbled. I have tried to reply three times and lost it to gobbledygook computer madness.    Report

25/05/2007, 9:00 Blanche Neige Joined on 07/12/2005 Surrey / 17 Posts 688 Re: Suite Francaise Tresco I agree with your comments about the characters in Suite Francaise, I think the author  gave a good insight to life as it really was during the occupation. BTW I don't think the book was hyped but each to his own.................I read it in the original French and felt it was one of the best I had read for a long time.    Report

25/05/2007, 9:19 Tresco Joined on 23/08/2004 Charente Maritime. Posts 4,635 Re: Suite Francaise I didn't mean to imply it wasn't a very good book, Blanche N; just that due to the circumstances it got a massive amount of publicity. It was the best (by a long shot) of the books I picked up last time I went to England.      Report

25/05/2007, 10:14 Blanche Neige Joined on 07/12/2005 Surrey / 17 Posts 688 Re: Suite Francaise  Tresco wrote: I didn't mean to imply it wasn't a very good book, Blanche N; just that due to the circumstances it got a massive amount of publicity. It was the best (by a long shot) of the books I picked up last time I went to England.   ah, now I am with you Tresco. I heard a revue on BBC radio 4 and reviewers were critical of the translation and thought expressions etc. were too modern day.   Think I might buy it for my sister.    Report

25/05/2007, 15:23 LisaJ Joined on 17/10/2004 Posts 106 Re: Suite Francaise I thought it was a wonderful book. It might almost be worth reading the notes at the end first, as the circumstances under which it was written, kept safe and finally published give it an extra dimension. Of course by doing that you are in danger of spoiling the story, but the fact that she died before it could be finished makes the direction of the plots in the finished volumes and her plans for the characters in the final, unwritten volumes really fascinating. (Sorry this is a bit of a convoluted sentence, hope you understand what I mean!) regards Lisa    Report

25/05/2007, 15:29 Blanche Neige Joined on 07/12/2005 Surrey / 17 Posts 688 Re: Suite Francaise Lisa ".................the fact that she died before it could be finished makes the direction of the plots in the finished volumes and her plans for the characters in the final, unwritten volumes really fascinating." You have made a good point I think it is essential to know the background and also to realise how she wrote the story in secret in a tiny book and how it finally came to light years later. For me it was one of those books that I couldn't stop reading yet I didn't want it to end.    Report

25/05/2007, 15:38 Tresco Joined on 23/08/2004 Charente Maritime. Posts 4,635 Re: Suite Francaise  LisaJ wrote: ...the fact that she died before it could be finished makes the direction of the plots in the finished volumes and her plans for the characters in the final, unwritten volumes really fascinating. (Sorry this is a bit of a convoluted sentence, hope you understand what I mean!) Lisa, I haven't got the book with me, but from the comments she made on what she had already written, and her plans for the rest, I got the impression she planned to re-work the parts now published. Did you?    Report

26/05/2007, 10:05 LisaJ Joined on 17/10/2004 Posts 106 Re: Suite Francaise Yes I think she would definitely have revised it - but I marvel at how much foresight and understanding she showed, given how close to the actual events it was written. I think if she had lived (and used her foresight to get out of France in time?) then it could have been one of the great literary works of the century, on a War and Peace scale. Does anyone else think that it seems that she almost resigned herself to her fate in staying put? regards Lisa    Report

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