Suite Francaise

“Hot, thought the Parisians. The warm air of spring. It was night, they were at war and there was an air raid. But dawn was near and the war far away.”

This opening sentence at the beginning of Storm in June frames the subsequent myriad narratives under the shared experience of the weather and wartime. Némirovsky’s highlighting of the experiences that her diverse characters share provides a counterpoint to the differences between them. The unusual beginning of a sentence with an adjective follows the stream of consciousness of someone waking up and being affronted by a multitude of sense impressions.

“I keep telling you, you don’t pay enough attention to the minor characters. A novel should be like a street full of strangers, where no more than two to three people are known to us in depth. Look at writers like Proust. They knew how to use minor characters to humiliate, to belittle their protagonists.”

Through novelist Gabriel Corte’s lecture to his mistress, Némirovsky hints at her own writing philosophy in Storm in June. She too will feature numerous minor characters who illuminate the actions of their protagonists. By referencing modernist master Proust, she implies that such attention to detail is the method of the best writers.

“There was more humility in bragging atheists, in hardened blasphemers, than in the eyes and words of these children. Their superficial obedience was terrifying. Despite being baptized, despite the holy sacraments of Communion and penance, no divine light illuminated them […] they didn’t feel it; they didn’t want it; they didn’t miss it.”

Philippe Péricand’s feelings about the children are in part a projection of his own. Despite all that it takes to become a priest, despite the duties the priest takes on, he has spiritually written them off.