Dimanche and Other Stories

Starred review from February 1, 2010
Ten luminous and newly translated stories by Némirovsky (Suite Française
), who died at Auschwitz, expose the miseries that undermine happy families. Set mostly in France, where the author immigrated after the Russian revolution, these accomplished tales create worlds full of secrets and treacheries, such as in the title story, set on one typical Sunday at a bourgeois Parisian home where the middle-aged wife and mother, Agnes—once embittered by her husband's taking of a mistress, but now apathetic to his wanderings—remembers her own lost love. “Flesh and Blood” is a masterpiece of familial subterfuge revolving around an aged matriarch who falls ill and tries to keep peace among her three self-absorbed sons and their grasping wives. In “The Spell,” a young visitor to a messy Russian household gleans dark mysteries around a lovelorn aunt's romantic sorcery; several of the tales, such as “The Spectator” and “Monsieur Rose,” capture aloof, prosperous gentlemen fleeing Paris in advance of the Nazis. In this superlative translation, Némirovsky's characters emerge full-fleshed, and her voice remains timeless and relevant.

August 30, 2010
Cassandra Campbell offers a fine, straightforward reading of the 10 stories Némirovsky wrote between 1934 and 1942, when she died at Auschwitz. Némirovsky’s themes are those of her bestselling Suite Française: the disintegration of France’s upper-class society, families, and individuals in Paris before the arrival of the Nazis, and Campbell’s portrayals of self-absorbed bourgeois Parisians are well defined without exaggeration and with an impeccable accent. A Vintage hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 1).

Starred review from September 15, 2010

Nemirovsky, whose posthumously published Suite Francaise (2004) won the Prix Renaudot, wrote these ten stories between 1934 and 1942. Never before translated, they are vignettes of the French middle class, unsentimental and piercing looks at family life that end abruptly, leaving readers/listeners with few answers but much to consider. Director/narrator Cassandra Campbell's clear, melodious voice is a good counterpart to the text; cool and detached, her voice emphasizes the hypocrisy, disconnectedness, and implicit irony that permeate the stories. She gracefully alters her pitch, pacing, and accent for every new point of view she adopts. Strongly recommended.--Juleigh Muirhead Clark, Colonial Williamsburg Fdn. Lib., VA

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