Chaleur du Sang
by Irene Nemirovsky
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Read in July, 2008
I never did finish Irene Nemirovsky’s Suite Francaise but have felt it is my duty as a reader to actually complete a book by this recently-popularized and -acclaimed author. As such, I tackled something a little smaller: Fire in the Blood.
Fire in the Blood is a short novel that takes place in provincial France, among farmers and millers. The narrator is Silvio, an older man who finds himself involved in the scandalous love affairs of several neighbors in his community,...more
Fire in the Blood is a short novel that takes place in provincial France, among farmers and millers. The narrator is Silvio, an older man who finds himself involved in the scandalous love affairs of several neighbors in his community,...more
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Read in July, 2007
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A long short story or a short novel that is a quick read. My only complaint is that it's too short! After reading Nemirovsky's stunning (on my all-time fav list) Suite Francaise, I was hoping for a novel as rich, compelling and alive as that one. Fire follows the musings of an older French "paysan" ("peasant" for lack of a better term) who is in the early twilight of his life back. After traveling the world, he is back in his native village, surrounded by family and the peopl...more
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About ten years ago I took a course in French Women Writers (in translation). Irène Némirovsky wasn't included, but we read a lot of Colette, de Beauvoir, Duras, and Yourcenar.
There's a particular tone of writing they all have in common -- maybe it's a fundamental to the way women write in French, or maybe it's fundamental to the experience of being a French woman (although Yourcenar immigrated to eastern Canada). I don't know. But this fit in beautifully with what I read and loved befo...more
There's a particular tone of writing they all have in common -- maybe it's a fundamental to the way women write in French, or maybe it's fundamental to the experience of being a French woman (although Yourcenar immigrated to eastern Canada). I don't know. But this fit in beautifully with what I read and loved befo...more
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Read in August, 2008
"Fire in the blood, how quickly it burns out."
This extremely short novel is narrated by Silvio. He spent most of his life roaming the world and having exotic mistresses. Now he has come home to roost in a hovel near a small French village. Looking back on his life, he wonders why he ever felt the need to wander. All he wants now is to be left alone to drink his wine, write, and watch the seasons pass. He tells the stories of youth and passion and betrayal among some of the lo...more
This extremely short novel is narrated by Silvio. He spent most of his life roaming the world and having exotic mistresses. Now he has come home to roost in a hovel near a small French village. Looking back on his life, he wonders why he ever felt the need to wander. All he wants now is to be left alone to drink his wine, write, and watch the seasons pass. He tells the stories of youth and passion and betrayal among some of the lo...more
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Read in August, 2008
This short novel is yet another of Nemirovsky's works which highlights her ability to develop characters and scenes in a short amount of time. Once again this manuscript was only recently discovered and published. It is amazing to understand this piece of work was written in long hand with little or no editing while in exile in the early 1940's. The beautifully written story centers around the aging French peasant Silvio in his tiny farming village. The place and time described as "the ye...more
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Read in September, 2008
Nemirovsky's prose, translated from French into English, made me want to retake high school French all over again so I could read this beautiful novella in its original language. In Fire in the Blood, Nemirovsky explores the transition from the passion of youth to the wisdom of old age. The novella's narrator is an old french farmer who has lived out his adult life in the same rural french village. I found it interesting that Nemirovsky decided to tell the story from a male's pers...more
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Read in February, 2008
Otra pequeña joya a descubrir de Irène Némirovsky. En este caso está narrada y protagonizada por un hombre que un día había sido un gran aventurero y un gran seductor, pero que ahora se ha convertido en un viejo arruinado y huraño que vive recluído en su caserón. Él es espectador de como el secreto de una pequeña tragedia protagonizada por unos jóvenes sale a la luz. Y esto le hace recordar su propia pequeña tragedia del pasado. Escrita como una intriga sentimental, engancha, a pesa...more
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Read in April, 2008
Another of Nemirovsky's books (author of Suite Francaise) published posthumously. Written in 1941, the manuscript was entrusted in pieces to family and a friend when the auther was sent to her death at Auschwitz. ".... the intertwined lives of an insular French village in the years before the war when peace was less important as a political state than as a coveted personal condition: the untroubled pinnacle of happiness." Tale centers around Salvio. "He fled the boredom of the vi...more
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Read in October, 2008
I admit that I became interested in Irene because of our parallel stories.
1. She's female
2. She's Jewish
3. She was born in Kiev (ok...I was born outside of Kiev,
but not too far out).
4. She fled her home to Paris (a nice place to run away to).
5. Her name is Irene.
I guess it ends there.
But beyond our similarities, I find her writing rich with scenic details of places and people, that, for some reason, I find unbearable with other authors (ahem, McEwan, cough, ahem). A...more
1. She's female
2. She's Jewish
3. She was born in Kiev (ok...I was born outside of Kiev,
but not too far out).
4. She fled her home to Paris (a nice place to run away to).
5. Her name is Irene.
I guess it ends there.
But beyond our similarities, I find her writing rich with scenic details of places and people, that, for some reason, I find unbearable with other authors (ahem, McEwan, cough, ahem). A...more
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I came upon this author while listening to NPR one day. They were interviewing the daughter of the author, who was a Jew and a well regarded author in France. The author was eventually killed in Auschwitz, but her book survived...in pieces. Not until the daughter found a missing portion of the novel was it complete, and now the book is able to be published, posthumously, in its entirety.
The novel is told from the perspective of an old man who lives alone and takes little pleasure in life ...more
The novel is told from the perspective of an old man who lives alone and takes little pleasure in life ...more
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Read in September, 2008
Though "Fire in the Blood" is not as compelling as Nemirovsky's previously published "lost" book, "Suite Francaise," this novella is a marvelously written, highly perceptive story about the intertwined lives within a French village in between the two world wars. The title refers to the hidden passions that complicate various characters' lives and relationships with one another. As with her writing in "Suite Francaise," Nemirovsky can capture highly emotio...more
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I think I'll finish this in one sitting....I'm realizing how I've missed my French writers. "Of course it was madness to have another man in your husband's house,but on the other hand, what pleasure, on a night like this, to walk arm in arm
with your lover while the water flows and the fear of being caught clutches at your heart. Who WAS the man she was expecting?"
Hhmmm....this book is dripping with secret trysts. But with all the love affairs, I keep coming back to the author's...more
with your lover while the water flows and the fear of being caught clutches at your heart. Who WAS the man she was expecting?"
Hhmmm....this book is dripping with secret trysts. But with all the love affairs, I keep coming back to the author's...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
everyone
Dans un village des années 1930, Silvio se souvient des amours passées de François et Hélène. Leur fille Colette épouse Jean Dorin, mais celui-ci se noie accidentellement en rentrant chez lui. Mais était-ce bien un accident? Ce roman qui commence comme un récit paysan assez traditionnel finit par soulever les secrets des divers protagonistes, ceux que l'on croyait bien enfouis, mais que Silvio connait sur le bout des doigts.
J'ai bien aimé ce roman qui monte en puissance petit à pet...more
J'ai bien aimé ce roman qui monte en puissance petit à pet...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Daniel by:
Jen Thomas by way of the other bookrecommends it for: Everyone!!!
I really love Irène Némirovsky's books. I thought Suite Francaise was really wonderful and insightful and far more generous to the Germans than they deserved, but certainly reflective of the time and situtation that many French people found themselves in. Without firing a shot, she was able to depict an amazing and subtle view of the second world war.
In this book, she's once again at her best with the very insightful views into the hearts and minds of the people who inhabit her French cou...more
In this book, she's once again at her best with the very insightful views into the hearts and minds of the people who inhabit her French cou...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
all
Irene Nemirovsky, author of Suite Francaise, wrote another winner in 1941 before her death at Auschwitz.The story takes place in an isolated French village before WW11. Silvio, a solitary person in his older years, is drawn into a scandal in this small village. "As his narration unvolds, we are given an intimate picture of the loves and infidelities, the scandals, the youthful ardor and regrets of age that tie Silvio to the long-guarded secrets of the past." This 129 page novel left m...more
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At the opening of this delicious little book there is a passage where the narrator says all he wants is to sit by the fire, alone on a winter evening, drinking his wine. Although I disagreed with one condition of his (no books), it still does such a good job evoking the feeling of wintertime in the country that it made me want to savor every word. (Actually, in developing suspense, a sense of place, and intriguing characters, it seems that this book did everything that the other I was reading ...more
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Read in January, 2008
This is a charming little novel set in France prior to World War 2. The story is of a man who has traveled and let an interesting life away from his home. He returns later in life and is quite content with the solitary life he is presently leading. But he is slowly drawn into the lives of his friends and neighbors, and quite a few secrets unfold. The author was born in Russia in 1903, and died in Auschwitz in 1942. The book was published for the first time in French in 2006, and translated ...more
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Read in March, 2008
Suite Francaise was one of my favorite books I read last year so I am giving this a whirl.
3/11/08: finished. The main character, Silvio, is an old man who has moved back to his small farming community after a life spent traveling the world. Silvio watches the romantic entanglements of the next generation and is reminded of his youth and the 'fire in his blood." It is a meditation on youth, love, lust, and old age. An interesting story with throught provoking ideas but like her oth...more
3/11/08: finished. The main character, Silvio, is an old man who has moved back to his small farming community after a life spent traveling the world. Silvio watches the romantic entanglements of the next generation and is reminded of his youth and the 'fire in his blood." It is a meditation on youth, love, lust, and old age. An interesting story with throught provoking ideas but like her oth...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Ginette by:
Erika
I enjoyed the book in that it gave me another glimpse into French life. Reading Nemirovsky has also brought surprising light onto why I am the way I am because of having grown up in France. I also had a really heavy wave of homesickness at one point in the story, I think when the author was describing the French countryside.
I didn't like it as much as Suite Francaise--The ending was a bit abrupt. Don't know whether I would have felt differently if I hadn't read the books so closely together....more
I didn't like it as much as Suite Francaise--The ending was a bit abrupt. Don't know whether I would have felt differently if I hadn't read the books so closely together....more
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