Suite Francaise: Appendix II & Preface

[Sara W]

Please discuss Appendix II: Correspondence 1936 - 1945 and Preface to the French Edition here.

[Mandy]

So, so tragic. This part left me with a stomach ache...wandering around my house. I just didn't quite know what to do with myself. I ended up reading lots of excerpts from letters to my husband. The one where Michael asks if it would be possible for him to exchange places with Irene just broke my heart - left me in tears. What a heart breaking story - and only one of millions. Awful to think about.

I was happy to see that her daughters were taken care of.

Her history (in the preface) was fascinating. Her relationship with her mother sounds awful, sort of a mommy-dearest thing. Her life in France sounds crazy - so much fun. It's nice to know that she lived it up when she was young.
Her writing habits seen unique. Her ego seems to have been so much smaller than you would expect from someone so talented and successful.
She was incredibly practical - her will was amazing. I would hope to have the same presence of mind.
Her poor husband and daughters...thank God they had friends that were willing to help their girls. Reading about them waiting on the platform for their mother, and Denise chasing a woman that looked like Irene...again, heartbreaking.

I really enjoyed this book.

[Kristine]

Reading the correspondences made me feel like I was there but useless. At times I wondered if having email and the internet back then would've helped in some way, at least in expediting the news of Irene and Michel's deaths to their loved ones and friends. I really felt for the ones left behind who, after 3 years, were still left wondering of the demise of the couple.

As for the Preface, I cannot believe how Irene's mother treated her grandchildren when they came to her for help! I can't fathom a mother and grandmother so self-absorbed. I found it weird that in her safe were two of Irene's works, yet she didn't help her grandchildren!

[Sara W]

This part of the book was extremely powerful to me. So much emotion and anguish went into those letters, and when the translator (daughter? editor?) let you know when Irene had died, but they still were frantically trying to help her, it just broke my heart. And then to have the father taken away as well! You make a great point though Mandy that this was just one family out of millions which is simply astonishing when you sit back and really think about it in terms like this - real mothers, real fathers, real children, real fear, etc. It's so easy to hear the number and the facts but not really think about the impact on the real individuals who lived it, especially being this far removed from the events of WWII. I had no idea there were even concentration camps in France. I was just blown away by this book - the novel itself was great, but these appendices and the preface added so much.