Forward.com

Books

New Manuscript, Same Conundrum
Steven G. Kellman | Wed. Oct 24, 2007
Three years ago, a newly discovered manuscript became the talk of France. “Suite Française,” an uncompleted novel about the German invasion and occupation of France, attracted widespread interest in its author, Irène Némirovsky, who wrote in French and died because she was a Jew but never felt entirely French or Jewish. Indeed, as many critics have pointed out, for all its range of characters — urban and rural, peasant, bourgeois, and aristocrat, French and German, male and female, young and old — “Suite Française” lacks any Jewish character.
Read more
Beyond ‘Fear’: Tips on Chutzpah
Elissa Strauss | Fri. May 26, 2006
Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life By Erica Jong Tarcher, 304 pages, $22.95. At the end of “Fear of Flying,” Erica Jong’s 1973 best-selling novel, the lead character lists potential female heroes. Simone de Beauvior? Too obsessed with Sartre. Sylvia Plath? Stuck her head in an oven. Doris Lessing? Her female characters
Read more
Shattering a Peaceful Facade
Saul Austerlitz | Fri. May 26, 2006
The Attack By Yasmina Khadra Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 272 pages, $18.95. * * *The comparisons are inevitable, so let’s get the ball rolling: Yasmina Khadra’s new novel, “The Attack,” is a successor of sorts to the 2005 art house hit, “Paradise Now.” Like Hany Abu-Assad’s mournful, despairing film, “The Attack” is
Read more
More in Books