Source of book: I own this.
This is already the most unexpected book I have read this year. I will explain, but first, a bit about how I got this book.
As readers of my Christmas Books series will know, this year I ended up at several used book stores around the holidays, and found myself (by some strange magic) in possession of a number of new (well, used…) volumes in my library.
Since my wife and I started dating nearly 25 years ago, we have regularly visited California’s central coast (remember to take the left turn at Albuquerque if you want to get to Pismo Beach…) Back in the day, the delightful town of San Luis Obispo was home to two used book stores, which we made sure to visit along with the farmers’ market.
Alas, Leon’s closed over a decade ago, but at least Phoenix Books is still there, with its always-quirky selection and vintage lesbian erotica high up on the walls. We stopped there on a rainy morning over the New Years holiday this year. And, well, came back with a stack of books.
I had put Nemirovsky’s recently published final book, Suite Francaise, on my library list a few years ago, but wasn’t familiar with her other books. Lo and behold, not only did Phoenix have a copy of Suite Francaise, but also a hardback edition of her other four novels, for only eight bucks! You bet I got it.
I decided to start reading one of the shorter books on my trip, and started at the beginning, with David Golder.
In order to understand the rest of this post, however, some background is needed. To crib from Dickens, “This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.”
Who was Irene Nemirovsky?
She was Jewish, born in what is now Ukraine, but then part of the Russian empire. When she was a teen, the family fled Russia ahead of the Bolsheviks, who were none too fond of either Jews or wealthy bankers. Eventually, the family settled in Paris.
Irene married Michael Epstein, another banker, and they had two daughters. She started writing at a young age, and by age 26 had won acclaim for David Golder, her first novel.
More success followed, but then catastrophe. She had always walked a bit of a fine line, having some of her works published by a far-right and antisemitic magazine, and cultivating relationships with people who were prejudiced against her ethnicity. She, like many other Jewish people in Europe over the centuries, formally converted to Catholicism in the 1930s.
Unfortunately, none of this saved her. She and her husband were denied French citizenship. When the Nazis overran France, they were sent to Auschwitz, where she died of disease, and he was murdered in the gas chambers. Their daughters were able to escape with the help of friends - and took with them the manuscript for Suite Francaise which was written in notebooks. Strangely, they never examined the notebooks until 1998, only then realizing what they had. The book was finally published in 2004.
I relate all of this because one of the most apparent issues with David Golder is its antisemitic stereotypes.
I mean, the book is all about a Jewish banker, who has made his money unscrupulously, has a wife who doesn’t love him but always wants money, and who dies in part because of overwork, trying to chase that last deal.
And there are red-headed Jewish stereotype characters too - Fagan is pretty much the rule here throughout the book. It’s definitely uncomfortable.
But on the other hand, Nemirovsky is writing about her own people, and indeed, about her own family. She had a difficult relationship with her mother, who resented her closeness to her father, she was raised around bankers and investors, and so on.
And of course, the fact that she literally died in the Holocaust.
The book was written before Hitler came to power, and in France, which, for all its typical European antisemitism, was a pretty safe place to be Jewish at the time. (Arguably less hostile than either England or the United States.)
Did she pander to popular taste to sell books? Perhaps. She did say later, after Hitler came to power, that she would have written the book very differently had she foreseen the future.
Despite the stereotypes, the book is worthwhile. It is short - just a novella - and focuses on the title character and his decline and death. Aside from the main character, we don’t get much insight into the psyches of the other characters - although the depth of characterization for David Golder is impressive.
Considering the youth and inexperience of the author, the level of writing is surprising - supposedly the publisher was shocked to discover that the author (hidden behind a pseudonym) was a young woman, not a middle-aged man.
Readers of Tolstoy will notice a number of deliberate nods to The Death of Ivan Ilyich, although, apart from the idea of a greedy man dying, the books are very different stories.
The genius of the book is that, while the reader starts out hating Golder, as the book progresses, he becomes more and more sympathetic. He isn’t merely a greedy capitalist, but a man driven by his early poverty, the demands of his ungrateful family, and his alienation as an immigrant who will never be permitted to assimilate, to seek security in the only thing he has: his business abilities.
His wife marries him as an escape from her impoverished and violent home life. She never loves him, and instead carries on with a series of lovers at his expense. His daughter has been raised in that environment, and is likewise spoiled and money-focused. And, as it turns out, she probably isn’t even his biological daughter.
The circles that his wife chooses to run in cost them a lot of money, but win them no respect or friendship. They will always be “those rich Jews,” no matter where they go. Accepted only so long as they are spending money.
The book slowly unfolds all that he has lost over the years: his happy childhood in Russia, before the pogroms forced his family out, his youthful idealism, his hopes of a loving marriage from a woman who deceived him, his idolization of his beautiful daughter, his friends who die off as he ages, and eventually his vitality. His only true friend is Soifer, his last connection to his youth, who comes and plays cards with him even as he is dying.
Over the course of reading the book, I went from wincing at the stereotypes to a genuine sympathy for the central character and an appreciation of Nemirovsky’s writing. It felt like every chapter unpeeled another layer, progressively revealing a more nuanced and complex life, a true tragedy rather than a comeuppance.
I make a point of reading books in translation regularly, and this is the first of the year for me. You can look at the list of books in translation I have blogged about here. This book and the others in the collection were translated from French by Sandra Smith, who I think captured the unique cadence of Nemirovsky’s writing. There are a lot of ellipses, for example, a use of sentence fragments, and quotes embedded in the stream of consciousness. It isn’t difficult to read, but definitely distinctive.
There are three quotes that I think illuminate the themes of this book perfectly.
And the others…His wife…His daughter…Yes, even her, he was no fool. He was nothing more than a money machine…Good for nothing else…Just pay, pay, and then, drop down dead.
His wife, Gloria, justifies her use of him this way as follows:
“But my dear, men like you and Marcus don’t work for their wives, do they? You work for yourselves…Yes, you do,” she insisted. “In the end, business is a drug, just like morphine is. If you couldn’t work, darling, you’d be as miserable as sin…”
Joyce, his daughter, is no better.
“Oh!” Joyce said suddenly. “It’s just that I have to have everything on earth, otherwise I’d rather die! Everything! Everything!” she repeated with an imperious, feverish look in her eyes. “I don’t know how the others do it! Daphne sleeps with old Behring for his money, but I need love, youth, everything the world has to offer…Money…Money too, of course, or rather beautiful dresses, jewellery! Everything. I mean it, poor Dad! I’m so madly in love with all of it. I so want to be happy, if only you knew! Otherwise, I really would rather die, I swear….But I’m not worried. I’ve always had everything I’ve ever wanted…”
I have many reasons to be grateful for my life - but a wife who loves me and doesn’t need my money, and children who are resourceful and thoughtful people are high on the list. And also, a career situation that isn’t based on competition with others, but on helping people.
I am looking forward to reading the other novellas in this collection, and eventually Suite Francaise. Nemirovsky is a unique voice, with a distinctive writing style. And also, fuck the Nazis for killing her. They deprived the world of so much goodness to feed their hate.
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