Search - Suite Francaise

After all the media hype over the discovery of this manuscript following the author's tragic death, I was really looking forward to reading this book. Alas, this was one of the most boring and difficult books I've attempted to read in the past few years.

I don't know if something was lost in translation, but the prose was flat, dull and the characters were not likeable. I tried, giving it the 100 page rule, but in the end I put it back in the bag and took it back to the bookstore to exchange.

I think the backstory of the author's experience, her deportation to Auschwitz and subsequent death, and then the 'discovery' of this manuscript would have made for a more interesting novel. Perhaps others will enjoy this, but it didn't live up to the hype for me.

I had high expectations for this book. Several times in the beginning I almost quit reading it. I found the book to be hard to follow and not very captivating. However, the last 100 - 150 pages did get better. At the end of the book I did find myself satisfied and glad I had read it. All in all it was a good glimpse of a very difficult time in history.

This was a very powerful read for me. Nemirovsky's prose is so beautiful and full; she wrote with such detail that I could picture the characters in my mind just perfectly. The little twist at the end really caught me off guard and made the awful situation all the more real. I loved this book and it will be on my mind long after I've shipped it away to another reader.