Suite Francaise (Irene Nemirovsky, 1941)

This book is really unusual, though in large part for reasons the author (Irene Nemirovsky) would not have anticipated. Nemirovsky was a Russian of Jewish descent who had lived in France for quite a few years with her husband (Michael Epstein) and their two children. All were Catholic, the children were French citizens.

Nemirovsky lived in occupied France following the Nazi roll-over of the French army in June 1940. During the occupation, she conceived the idea of a five-part story describing the flight from Paris, life in an occupied town, etc. She finished two parts (or at least had handwritten manuscripts).

These were dangerous times for folks like her, and eventually she was sent to Auschwitz, where she died shortly thereafter.
One of her daughters found the manuscripts in a suitcase a few years ago, and the book was published.

I didn't think the book itself was all that great, though who knows how it may have worked if it had been completed. The part about the occupied town seemed almost idyllic. I did find interesting her description of the way that French soldiers - in the aftermath of WWI - weren't all that anxious to knock themselves out just a few years later in WWII.

The most compelling parts - and they are compelling indeed - are the two appendices. Appendix I - a series of notes - discusses her goals and insecurities for the novel. Appendix II consists of correspondence generated in trying to get her out of Nazi custody. Her family was pretty well connected and they tried everything. Including looking for snippets of anti-Bolshevik or anti-Jewish text in her books, and trotting out a letter of recommendation from billeted Nazi soldiers.

Her husband eventually volunteered to take her place in the camps, which was impossible. Anyway, he was caught up and also died in the camps within months.

Appendix I made you feel like you knew the author, her fears, uncertainties, plans. Appendix II is heartbreaking.

Anniversary

This website is now one year old.

An Illustrated History of The First World War (John Keegan, 2001)

As can be quickly told from looking at the list of books during the past year, I don't ever get tired of reading about World War I. (I also like Keegan's stuff, including this book.)

Keegan is a British war historian who is a good writer and knows lots about WWI. I took this book off the shelf for the pictures, but the overview of the entire war, pretty much all theaters, turns out to be highly useful.

But the photos make the book. I had never seen the vast majority of these. Going from the early days of optimism, through the trenches, through end of war, up to the cemeteries and memorials erected worldwide. The photos are stunning, and bring the written materials to life in a way that easily justifies the "worth a thousand words" cliche.

This war was simply amazing. It's been summed up far better than I can hope to do. The unbelievable trench system in the West; centuries-old empires breaking down; emerging airplane and tank technology; poison gas; 19th century infantry tactics against entrenched machine guns; millions of artillery shells altering landscapes; a devastated populace left behind in most countries, and an amazingly quick trip into WWII. Etc. Wow.

Take a close look at Otto Dix's triptych for one post-war German look at things. Or read this book.

The Origin of Species (Charles Darwin, 1859)

I have read descriptions of this book so often that I thought I just as well take a tour through it. My impression is that Darwin was a thoughtful, kindly, grandfatherly type of scholar with tons of field experience; he knew his book would spark a strong reaction, I'm guessing he had no idea how strong.

He actually uses phrases like "survival of the fittest." Probably didn't foresee eugenic and other applications. Probably did foresee the potential theological debate, though for the life of me I can't figure out why it matters so much to so many.

I don't read natural history at all, and don't intend to. So lots of what he talks about is not of much interest to me. I did find the degree of detail pretty surprising. He discusses how bees build cells in hives; drones; lots of details about pigeons (a special interest of his); hybrids (and resulting sterility); all in the context of natural selection. The guy clearly spent a lot of time in the field and wasn't just theorizing.

He addresses, in detail, what remain the major objections to his theory - issues like the evolution of sophisticated organs such as the eye, and the lack of transitional creatures in the fossil record.

I found quite interesting his comparisons of natural selection and "breeding" by human intervention. There are some useful comparisons.

The volume included "The Voyage of the Beagle," but I took a pass. In fact, I skipped about 100 pages (or 20%) of the book.

I don't think the importance of the book can be exaggerated, so I'm glad to have spent some time with it.