The Némirovsky Question: The Life, Death, and Legacy of a Jewish Writer in Twentieth-Century France

Professor Suleiman's excellent exploration of Irene Nemirovsky's relationship to her Judaism in the context of her life, her work and her death is fascinating, thoroughgoing and well argued. The reduction of Nemirovsky to the epithet of a "self hating Jew" as some have termed her, is simplistic and reductionistic, says Suleiman. She examines Nemirovsky's Russian origins, her expatriate life with other Russian Jewish exiles, her difficult relationship with her parents, her marriage to another Russian Jewish exile and her collegial and professional relationships with other writers and publishers in France. Suleiman has researched previously unknown correspondence and records, interviewed Nemirovsky's family, friends and neighbors who knew Nemirovsky when she sought refuge in the French countryside. She subjects Nemirosky's writings to extended analysis vis a vis her attitudes toward Jews and Judaism through the complicated lens of subtle social and family hierarchies and her ongoing dilemma at being a double outsider, as a foreigner and a Jew. She references the literature of childhood trauma, of Holocaust studies, the fraught historical record of France during the German occupation and examines, in turn, the writing of other Jewish writers, such as Philip Roth and Mordecai Richler. who have also been accused of being self hating Jews. Her argument, that Nemirosky's relationship to Judaism was more ambivalent, complex and subtle than has been acknowledged especially when considered in light of the grim historical epoch in which she lived, is convincing and sympathetic.

This is a great book for the fans of Iren Nemerovsky . Really gives you insight into her life and the times. I especially enjoyed the sections about her daughters.

This is not a novel with a plot: it is a biography of the author of many, many novels.