Two Things Literary

You can't say that I didn't warn you, and be glad I'm sparing you my WWII perpetrator thesis research!

Recently, I read Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise and was captivated by her two novellas which focus on the chaos surrounding the French as the Nazis invade France and later as the occupying force begins the assault on the Eastern front. All the more impressive is that Nemirovsky wrote the book contemporaneously and had an ex post facto view of mere months before dying in an infirmary at Auschwitz in 1942. Recently, Pierre Assouline took a new look at Irene Nemirovsky via a new biography.

Last month, Doris Lessing was announced as the recipient of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature. The Guardian has compiled a list of reviews and criticism of Lessing here. If you are short on reading material, pick up a copy of Lessing's The Golden Notebook.