Recent acquisitions - 4

    

Like many, I discovered Irene Nemirovsky through Suite Francaise, and then went on to read her beautifully controlled novella set in rural France, Fire in the Blood. That book has a wintery intensity about it, balancing the "blazing dreams and desires" of its subject matter.
Now I have two more of her books to read over the coming week: All Our Worldly Goods is described by its translator Sandra Smith as "about love: forbidden love, married love, unrequited love....Nemirovsky offers us entry into the lives of people who belong to another world, one long gone [France, 1911-1940] but whose emotions - desires, fears, suffering, pride, happiness and determination to live fulfilled lives - remain universal".
The Courilof Affair, in contrast, is set in 1903 and concerns a political assassination. It is "an unsparing observation of human motives and the abuses of power, an elegy to a lost world and an unflinchingly topical cautionary tale".

Comments

[carol]

There have been some wonderful book recommendations this week. Thank you.

[Hannah]

I recently read your post about Irène Némirovsky and wanted to let you know about an exciting new exhibition about her life, work, and legacy that opened on September 24, 2008 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage —A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City. Woman of Letters: Irène Némirovsky and Suite Française, which will run through the middle of March, will include powerful rare artifacts — the actual handwritten manuscript for Suite Française, the valise in which it was found, and many personal papers and family photos. The majority of these documents and artifacts have never been outside of France. For fans of her work, this exhibition is an opportunity to really “get to know” Irene. And for those who can’t visit, there will be a special website that will live on the Museum’s site www.mjhnyc.org.

The Museum will host several public programs over the course of the exhibition’s run that will put Némirovsky’s work and life into historical and literary context. Book clubs and groups are invited to the Museum for tours and discussions in the exhibition’s adjacent Salon (by appointment). It is the Museum’s hope that the exhibit will engage visitors and promote dialogue about this extraordinary writer and the complex time in which she lived and died. To book a group tour, please contact Tracy Bradshaw at 646.437.4304 or tbradshaw@mjhnyc.org. Please visit our website at www.mjhnyc.org for up-to-date information about upcoming public programs or to join our e-bulletin list.

Thanks for sharing this info with your readers. If you need any more, please do not hesitate to contact me at hfurst@mjhnyc.org

[Erika]

Having just bought "All Our Worldly Goods," I wondered if you were going to offer us a post with your thoughts on it, or if perhaps you didn't really enjoy it and thus were skipping this? I wouldn't want to waste my time on something you didn't like as you've always been spot on before!