Irene Nemirovsky by Jonathan Weiss
Although Irene Nemirovsky was Jewish, she frequented authors and politicians on the extreme right. This biography analyzes the discrepancy between Nemirovsky's real and imagined identities, and explores a literary work that revisits in a different way Jewish identity, exile, betrayal, and the solidarity of persecuted people.
"In Némirovsky's search to reconcile national, religious, and cultural identities, Weiss recognizes the struggle of many immigrants in France todayFor this reason, more general readers may enjoy this biography as much for the fresh perspectives it bring to questions of national and cultural identity currently under debate in the Francophone world as for the insights it brings to Némirovsky's life and literature. Scholars will value the complete bibliography of her published and unpublished works, Weiss's attention to the present controversy regarding Némirovsky's anti-Semitism, and his sensitive and well informed readings of her work, including Suite française. This critical volume provides solid evidence that Némirovsky should be included among the most important writers of twentieth-century French fiction." -- Hollie Markland Harder * French Review *
"[An] informative work, neatly structured to bring out the dramatic and tragic fate of a woman who, as [Weiss] puts it, 'died without ever having resolved the question of where she belonged.' It is a book well worth reading." -- Australian Book Review
"This short critical biography by Weiss, an expert on contemporary French literature, is a fine introduction to her work." -- Publishers Weekly
"Immensely clarifying . . . As Weiss's important and prodigiously researched biography makes clear, Némirovsky was the very definition of a self-hating Jew." -- The New Republic
"Jonathan Weiss's imaginative exploration of the complexities and ambiguities of this enigmatic writer are a commendable attempt to return to Irène Némirovsky some of the dignity that such reductive portraits have denied her." -- The Times Literary Supplement
"[A] brief, but intensely thought-provoking biography by Jonathan Weiss." -- The San Francisco Chronicle
"[An] informative work, neatly structured to bring out the dramatic and tragic fate of a woman who, as [Weiss] puts it, 'died without ever having resolved the question of where she belonged.' It is a book well worth reading." -- Australian Book Review
"This short critical biography by Weiss, an expert on contemporary French literature, is a fine introduction to her work." -- Publishers Weekly
"Immensely clarifying . . . As Weiss's important and prodigiously researched biography makes clear, Némirovsky was the very definition of a self-hating Jew." -- The New Republic
"Jonathan Weiss's imaginative exploration of the complexities and ambiguities of this enigmatic writer are a commendable attempt to return to Irène Némirovsky some of the dignity that such reductive portraits have denied her." -- The Times Literary Supplement
"[A] brief, but intensely thought-provoking biography by Jonathan Weiss." -- The San Francisco Chronicle
Jonathan Weiss is Professor of French Language and Literature at Colby College. In 1996, he met Irène Némirovsky's two daughters. With their help, he was able to consult all the documents that their mother had passed on to them. This biography is the result of that research and of close textual analysis of Némirovsky's literary work.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780804754811 |
| ISBN 10 | 0804754810 |
| Title | Irene Nemirovsky |
| Author | Jonathan Weiss |
| Series | Stanford Studies In Jewish History And C |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Stanford University Press |
| Year published | 2006-09-07 |
| Number of pages | 224 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |