Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky was recommended to me in 2006 when the hardcover was released. The book was on all the major bestseller lists. It was picked up by countless bookclubs. It was a Heather’s Pick at Indigo. For these very reasons, I avoided reading it.

Books to me are not like movies. I don’t want to read what everyone else is reading. I do like bestsellers, but I like to read them before they become bestsellers. That’s why I love getting advance review copies from publishers. I like to determine before the book hits the market whether it’s great or not. Stuck up, I know.

But I also like to read books that are never going to make a bestseller list but should. The small, quiet books that find a place in the market because someone recognized their greatness.

Suite Francaise was one of those books that I missed reading at an early stage, and once it became big, I wanted to wait until the hype died down.

In many ways, I think Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky became such a hit because of the back story.

When I teach online book marketing, I always talk about publishers and booksellers being storytellers. We have to go beyond the book. The book itself is not the product we’re selling. We’re selling entertainment, education, storytelling.

Here’s the story.

Irene Nemirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903. In 1918, her family fled the Russian Revolution and ended up in France, where she later became a bestselling novelist. When Germans occupied France in 1940, Irene was in the precarious position of being Jewish and Russian. It did not matter that her children were born in France, that they were baptized as Catholic, that Irene had no sentiments towards her Jewish heritage or the Bolshevics. No matter. She was arrested on 13 July 1942, deported to Auschwitz and sent to the gas chamber.

What remained of Irene’s last novel was carried across France and eventually to North America by her two surviving daughters. What they thought was the personal diary of their mother ended up being the notations for a novel in 5 parts.

Irene intended for the novel to be composed much like a piece of music, hence the name Suite Francaise. She wanted the experience of reading about the occupation of France to be like music “when you sometimes hear the whole orchestra, sometimes just the violin.”

Irene was writing about the history of the world, in particular the relationship between charity and greed that befalls even the best of us in dire times. The 2 parts of the novel that exist portray the mass exodus of refugees from Paris. The mass invasion of France by the German army, and the tyranny that followed. That tyranny was, for the most part in the novel, amongst the French. The betrayals in the war that interest Irene are of the government to the people, the army officers to the soldiers, the greedy boss to the impoverished servant, the wealthy landowner to the tenant farmer, the mother-in-law to the daughter-in-law, the pious neighbour to the anti-German neighbour.

Suite Francaise is the beginnings of a masterpiece. It is unfinished. There are chapters that Irene, no doubt, would have continued to modify, and there are 3 sections missing. What makes it a masterpiece are the appendices that fill in the missing sections, that show the parallels in the novel to Irene’s life, and that give us an insight into Irene as a character in this great epic novel.

The appendices by far are what make this book feel whole.

I will likely read Suite Francaise again in a couple of years. It’s almost too much to think about after only one reading.

Zoe Elias dreams of playing the piano.

Quote: The piano is a beautiful instrument. Elegant. Dignified.
With the piano, you could play Carnegie Hall.
People wear ball gowns and tuxedos to hear the piano.

Instead of buying her a piano, Zoe’s dad gets conned in by the Perfectone salesman and brings home an organ instead of a piano.

Quote: I play the organ.
A wood-grained, vinyl-seated, wheeze-bag organ.
The Perfectone D-60.

The organ isn’t Zoe’s only problem. Wheeler Diggs has started following her home from school. He’s become a fan of her dad’s baking. Mr. Elias, having troubles with the outside world, prefers to stay in the safety of his home, acquiring Living Room University certificates. So far he has 26 framed diplomas for courses such as “Roger, Wilco, Over and Cash! Learn to Fly Like the Pros” and “Rolling in Dough: Earn a Dolla’ Baking Challah”.

With dad and Wheeler in the kitchen baking cookies, Zoe is left alone to master the Perfectone D-60, in preparation for the Perform-O-Rama.

Quote: When you play piano, you don’t go to Perform-O-Ramas. You give recitals.
A recital is a dignified affair.
There are candelabras at a recital.
People site in velvet chairs and sip champagne and look over the program. There are always programs at a recital.
At a recital, you play Mozart and Beethoven and Strauss and Bach.
You do not play Hits of the Seventies.

Zoe is too funny for words, my words any way, Linda Urban has managed to perfect capture the sense of hilarity in all of her words.

A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban is perfect for readers 8-12, but I say Zoe’s perfect for anyone with a sense of humour and a recollection of the Perfectone organ. If you’re from the Prairies, you’ll know what I’m talking about for sure, boom-pa cha-ka, boom-pa cha-ka.

Zoe in A Crooked Kind of Perfect is the next Little Miss Sunshine.

I’ve been reading Alexis Kienlen’s LiveJournal blog for several years now, and I was excited when she announced that her book of poetry had been accepted for publication by Frontenac House. Having worked for a book publisher I know how difficult the acquisition stage is, how much work goes into deciding whether a book is the right fit or not, and here was a wonderful example of someone I knew making it through that process–a process, which at times, can be as hard as writing the book in the first place.

Maybe Alexis will re-tell the story in the comments about what that process was like and how excited she was to hear that her book was going to be published.

I was determined to blog about her book, and because Alexis is my friend, I wanted to do a good job. Instead I procrastinated and now She Dreams in Red is published and several people have reviewed it and I’m still working out the best way to talk about it.

I don’t know why I try to make thing harder than they need to be. She Dreams in Red is a beautiful book of poems.

In university I never understood poetry, and I still feel nervous about it. But I have found poets whose work I enjoy, Dennis Cooley in particular. Alexis’ poems are as inviting and as evocative.

The poems are divided into the following sections: Chinese Cafe, Indonesia, Mongolia, Tibet, and Love and Lust.

Each time I pick up the book, I find a new favourite. I’ve been reading the poems in chronological order because I feel there is a greater story that the collection is telling, at the same time, every time I wander by my book stack, I pick it up and randomly flip to a new poem. It’s a great way to discover this book, and I’m very glad that Alexis has published a book of poems because it gives me an entry back into the world of poetry.

If you haven’t picked up a book of poetry in a while, I suggest She Dreams in Red. It’s good to re-discover this writing form and I guarantee you’ll find something that grips your imagination in this collection.

You can purchase a copy from Frontenac House by emailing the editor or by visiting one of the stores listed. I say, get on it though, poetry runs are often small so if you want a copy, now is the time. I found the fastest, non-procrastinating way was to email the editor and send in a cheque. Old school, I know. But we’re talking about poetry. In some ways I think it demands a handwritten note.

No quite a book review.

I can’t tell you about this book yet because it’s not in the stores. But really, once it’s there, you must go get it.

Todd Babiak is my one of my favourite Canadian authors. He is satirical in a Canadian way. Not too British, not too American. Just plain Canadian funny. I’ve tried to describe this book to others as “Gabriel Garcia Marquez meets Michael Winter”. I hope that’s flattering to all involved.

I am a huge fan of The Garneau Block, Babiak’s first novel, which is now out in paperback.
Here’s my review.
Buy it on Amazon: The Garneau Block in paperback.

I was really excited to meet Todd at Book Expo Canada. And I was even more excited to open up the book.

Stanely Moss is an average man. That is until God tells him to go to Banff. Of course, it’s much more complicated than that. But the short and long of it is that Stanley goes to Banff looking for answers and finds a hell of a lot of questions.

If you want an early peak, it won’t make much sense but you can watch some LeapTV.com or watch my teaser.