This novel contains two separate parts related through setting and time period. I was definitely GLAD I read it - so thanks to the many PBTers who picked it for me this month!!! However, it really is a terrific book - made more astounding by the background story of the author (which is included in an extensive end note). You meet many characters, and you do get a picture of who they are, but you don't get to know many of them well. If this book was a movie, it would be described as an "ensemble" cast. And somehow, I just wasn't really feeling them like I did in say - The Road or The Book Thief. This book has a lot of sad, and what should have been touching, events in it. Unfortunately, for me, sheer enjoyment plays a factor in my ratings, and I think I didn't quite get to know the characters well enough to feel emotionally attached to them. She's just that type of writer - truly gifted. To me, had she been able to continue to write, she probably would have been a writer of some great classics. And she sustains the level of prose throughout. Her details are specific, important, and immediately give you a perfect sense of place, person, or time. Goodness, this woman can craft a sentence. If I were merely evaluating this book on the writing alone - well it would be five star PLUS. It then moves on to a single town and paints a detailed portrait of what it was like to live in a village with the Nazi soldiers right there beside the French. It focuses on the lives of various different people - wealthy, poor, and middle class - as they react to the prospect of Paris being bombed.
Suite Francaise takes place in Nazi occupied France in the 1940's.
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