All Our Worldly Goods (1947)

This author has a wonderful ability to paint a whole picture with just a few carefully chosen words. ( )

Those who enjoyed Fire in the Blood and/or Suite Francaise will most likely enjoy All Our Worldly Goods, which is set in France; it begins before WWI and ends during WWII, spanning the time in between. Beautifully written as always, it carries a much more hopeful message than Suite Francaise (which was unfinished, due to the author's murder in Auschwitz). Pierre and Agnes' love is constant, and their belief in true love for themselves helps them support their son, Guy.

Quotes:
The gutted earth spewed forth its insides - a yellowish slimy mud mixed with scrap iron, boots, tins of food, wood, steel debris, all tangled up, twisted, lumped together with wood, bones and stones. (100)

After all, I lived in hell for four years. But Lord, at least I knew where I was, whereas now, it's this sort of limbo, this fog, this mirage. That's what is unbearable. (Pierre, 143)

They were how you imagine the dead: in a pure, warm place, while on earth you burn and devour your own heart. (Guy re his parents Pierre and Agnes. 155-156)

Each of us remains faithful to the idea we have of our true nature, our spirit and our character. (Pierre and Simone, 161)

The memory of the first betrayal wounds the pride more than the heart and fades more slowly. (Guy, 171)

Everyone waited for the war to start the way people wait for death: knowing it is inevitable, asking only for a little more time. (178)

Twice in one lifetime, it was too much. But everyone was bowed beneath the same destiny, and courage was born out of their communal ordeal. (202)

"Collective memory is a terrible thing. They say that people tend to forget; yes, they do, but the way animals forget: they remember having suffered, but not why....And now? What will happen? Some of them, the good ones, the really good ones, won't even have the illusions they need to die a more or less decent death..." (Pierre to Agnes, 213)

Of course, during the other war, Saint-Elme had been destroyed, but we consider everything that happens before we are born as mythical, with no true link to reality. (Rose, 230) ( )

But then, I think all of Irène Némirovsky's work is amazing. ( )

All Our Worldly Goods is a wonderfully rich novel of “love between the wars.” It is an easy read driven largely by the plot which follows the Hardelot family through its ups and downs from 1911 to 1940. It is filled with an intriguing cast of characters whom I wished to know better. The prose is beautiful, vivid, and succinct creating appeal across many genres of literature. Although I can only base what Europe was like during the wars through reading, All Our Worldly Goods has rendered the most realistic picture I have seen to date. While Némirovsky spoke of hope, the underlying tone was one of great dread; yet, during the war, life moved on for the civilians, a detail often missing in literature. Némirovsky's words were prophetic, predicting not only the ravages of World War II, but her own death two years later at the death camps. This made the novel all the more real. Touching. And relevant.

The novel is underwhelming in two areas: focus and depth. It's never quite clear who or what the focus of the novel is; perhaps it is love, but this is a bit too ethereal to sustain a novel with such an epic-like scope. Once I became invested in one character another was introduced who seemed to become the prime focus and I was never quite sure who to root for; this shifting happened a few times. Similarly, I was never quite sure who the antagonist was; the character creating the greatest obstacles for our protagonist family suddenly changes face and doesn't seem so bad after all. As far as depth, I felt Némirovsky could have really gone deeper into this story. Quite a bit of ground is covered in a limited number of pages. Years and decades are skipped in paragraphs. Character development is often brushed aside in haste. Greater detail and a more specific focus really could have solidified All Our Worldly Goods as a novel of the highest grade.

Perhaps Némirovsky felt she didn't have the time left on earth to delve into All Our Worldly Goods more than she did. The fact that she managed write an additional one and a half novels after this—the immensely popular Suite Française and Fire in the Blood—was an impressive feat. And I look forward to reading both of those, and maybe other works of hers.

Judging her by this work only, Irène Némirovsky reminds me considerably of [a:Taylor Caldwell|33384|Taylor Caldwell|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1235579869p2/33384.jpg]. Although lacking in the scope of Caldwell's works, All Our Worldly Goods contains the same historical based story of adversity with a wonderful cast and a plot-centric story with romantic flavoring. If a reader of Némirovsky would like to try a different time period and a novel likely longer than 600 pages, I'd recommend Caldwell. ( )

He said nothing more: he was at a loss for words. But he was thinking, ‘All this in spite of what you might think, is what is truly important. The war will end, we will all disappear, but these humble and innocent gifts will remain: the cool air, the sun, a red apple, a fire in winter, a woman, children, the life we lead each day…The crash and din of war all fade away. The rest endures…But will it endure for me, or for others?’ – from All Our Worldly Goods, page 85 -

The Hardelots live in the small French village of Saint-Elme where they own a large paper mill. The Florents also live in Saint-Elme, right next door to the Hardelots, but they are “brewers” and of a lower social class. So although the two families interact politely, it is clear they are separate and not the same. In the early part of the the twentieth century, these two families will create a scandal when Pierre Hardelot refuses to marry the woman who has been chosen for him and instead marries the woman he loves: Agnes Florent. In doing so, Pierre goes against the wishes of his parents and his tyrannical grandfather and loses his job at the family factory. Meanwhile, Simone (Pierre’s former fiance) finds herself left behind without a husband.

Irene Nemirovsky’s sweeping novel begins in 1910 and moves through the unsettled years of WWI and WWII. Pierre and Agnes find themselves pulled between the village in which they grew up, and the bustling streets of Paris as WWI descends upon France and sweeps Pierre onto the battlefield.

It was the very beginning of the war, when the heart bleeds for everyone who dies, when tears are shed for each man sent to fight. Sadly, as time goes on, people get used to it all. They think only of one soldier, theirs. But at the start of a war the heart is still tender; it hasn’t hardened yet. – from All Our Worldly Goods, page 55 -

Nemirovsky explores the themes of social class, family feuds, war, and the enduring power of love. Her prose is poignant and creates a character study of two families over several decades. She succinctly captures the fault line between the bourgeoisie and the lower middle classes in early twentieth century France.

Beyond this street lived a few families not related to the Hardelots, but no one paid any attention to them; it was almost as if they didn’t exist. It was like horses and cows, who can live side by side in the same field for their entire lives without seeming to notice each other. – from All Our Worldly Goods, page 23 -

All Our Worldly Goods is aptly titled. Nemirovsky demonstrates the struggle between love of property and the pull of family. Pierre finds himself shunned by his wealthy family when he chooses love over the interests of the family business and yet he is happy in spite of it all. His former fiance, Simone, on the other hand, gains wealth but finds her emotional life in tatters.

The Hardelots had lived for this factory. They had married ugly women; they had skimped and counted every last penny; they had been rich and had enjoyed fewer pleasures than the poor. They had stifled their children’s interests, thwarted their loves. All this for the factory, for their possessions, for something that was, to their eyes, more durable and faithful than love, women or their own children. – from All Our Worldly Goods, page 168 -

The novel is not without its faults. By choosing to cover such a large period of time in less than 300 pages, Nemirovsky’s prose sometimes feels rushed. The reader is catapulted through time through the birth of several babies who grow into adults and through two world wars. There were moments I longed for Nemirovsky to pause and give me time to catch up with the characters before they moved on to the next phase of their lives.

One of the fascinating aspects of this novel has less to do with the story, and more to do with the author. Irene Nemirovsky wrote this book as history was unfolding. The novel was not published until 1947, five years after she was murdered by the Nazis. I found myself wondering how much of the author’s own history was wrapped up in the fiction of her book. I think it takes courage, along with amazing insight, to craft a book set during the author’s own time. And because of this, I found the book to be more heart-wrenching. When Irene Nemirovsky writes about the uncertainty of Pierre and Agnes’ lives, she is also writing about the uncertainty of her own life.

Readers who have read previous novels by this author will find similarities in style and theme. I have read Suite Francaise and Fire in the Blood, both of which I enjoyed. I recommend All Our Worldly Goods to readers of historical fiction and those who enjoy translated literature (this novel was translated from the French by Sandra Smith). ( )