Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Monday, July 27, 2015

The Wine of Solitude by Iréne Némirovsky (1935, translated by Sandra Smith, 2011) A Post for Paris in July # 6)

My great thanks to Max u for the Amazon Gift Card that allowed me to read this book 


French Dining in The Trinoma Mall in Quezon City




Paris in July # 6. , hosted by Tamarra of Thyme for Tea, a blog I have followed for years,is one of my favorite book blog events.  It covers much more than literature and there are lots of wonderful participant posts online.

Paris in July # 6. has motivated me to read some very interesting works.

1.  "Baum, Gabriel, 1935" by Mavis Gilbert - A wonderful set in Paris short story

2.  "Two Friends" by Guy de Maupassant- Paris in July # 6. Requires reading de Maupassant!

3.  "Mildred Larson" by George Moore- What Paris Meant to the Irish

4.  "The Parisian Stage" by Henry James - an illuminating essay

5.  "The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls" by Marcel Aymé- a new to me writer I will return to

6.   Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris, 1932 by Francine Prose - interesting 

7.  Shocking Paris Soutine, Chagall and the Outlaw Art of Montaparrne by Stanley Meisler-a 
     Well done account of Yiddish emigre artists in Paris

8.  Short Stories about Cats by Three Classic French authors 

9.  Suite Francaise by Iréne Némirovsky- a true masterwork. Paris under the Germans

10.  The End of Evil Ways by Honoré de Balzac

11.  Mademoiselle Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History by Rhonda K. Garelick- brilliant bio.

12.  The Horla by Guy de Maupassant, translated by Sandra Smith

13.  "A Peice of Bread" by Francois Coppee 



In the spirit of Paris in July # 6. I wrote this post in The French Baker Cafe in Trinoma Mall in Quezon City.  The mall is huge on top of huge with I guess 100 dining options.  My favorite casual place is The French Baker Cafe. The staff are very nice and the food is decent.  It has macaroons and artesian bread but nothing too fancy.. You can get a decent lunch for under $5.00.   I also saw a pastry shop with a French name which I have not seen before.  



The Wine of Solitude is considered the most autobiographical of the novels of Iréne Némirovsky.  It begins in a city in the Ukraine, probably Kiev where Némirovsky was born in 1903 and lived with her parents until the family moved to Paris. Her father was a wealthy banker with close ties to Tsarist powers so it as deemed prudent to leave the country.  Most of the novel deals with the female lead character adjusting to changes she does not quite understand and her perpetual difficulties with her mother, a recurring theme in Némirovsky's work.  She has a teenage romance but it could be better developed.  She blames her mother for the family having to move, they first go to Finland, stay there a year or so then about seventy five percent through the novel the wind up in Paris.

The Wine of Solitude is, as I see it now, a work for Némirovsky lovers, I count myself one now.

I am in possession of four other works by Némirovsky as I hope to read them soon.

Mel u

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I should have said this long ago, but your postings are always so interesting. I especially admire your eclectic reading interests and your compelling postings. Even though it is one of those deadly sins, I am envious. And I wonder how you have come by such an eclectic range of reading interests. I sense a kindred spirit.

Mel u said...

R. T. Thanks so much for your kind remarks. My reading interests have evolved over decades, as you know one writer leads to another. One interest expands the value of another.

Karen K. said...

Great review! I love Nemirovsky also and this one is on my list! If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend Dimanche and Other Stories, which is just wonderful. I've also read Fire in the Blood, Suite Francaise, and All Our Wordly Goods, and loved all of them. I've checked out Jezebel from the library, but I don't think I'll get to it before the end of the month.

And I loved reading about your French lunch at a mall in the Philippines!

Mel u said...

Karen K. Thanks very much. I acquired Jezebel also. I really liked also her David Golder about White Russians in Paris and her novella, The Ball,about a teenage daughters revenge on her mother. Nice to have met you via Paris in July # 6. Eventually I hope to read her in full