Suite Francaise

Last month, we had a wonderful meeting at Karine's home (Thank you, Karine!) discussing Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise. Most everyone was touched by Nemirovsky's beautitifully written two-part novel focusing on the French people's reaction to the German invasion and subsequent occupation of France. We had a thoughtful discussion delving into many aspects of the book: the author's incredible talent in writing a rich, clear-eyed account while actually experiencing such a catastrophe; Nemirovsky's plan for Suite Francaise to be her own War and Peace epic and whether the two-part novel she completed before her arrest stands on its own. (I believe most of us agreed that it does); Nemirovsky's own heartbreaking story and the book's improbable and amazing publication.

The book rating: 3.8 (one of the highest our discerning group has ever bestowed)

happy new year to all!

Ox (Yin, 2nd Trine, Fixed Element Water): Dependable, calm, methodical, patient, hardworking, ambitious, conventional, steady, modest, logical, resolute, tenacious. Can be stubborn, narrow-minded, materialistic, rigid, demanding.

Korean New Year, commonly known as Seollal (Hangul: 설날; RR: Seollal; MR: Sǒllal), is the first day of the lunar Korean calendar. It is the most important of the traditional Korean holidays. It consists of a period of celebrations, starting on New Year's Day. The Korean New Year holidays lasts three days, and is considered a more important holiday than the solar New Year's Day. [1]

The term "Seollal" generally refers to Eum-nyeok Seollal (음력설날, lunar new year), also known as Gujeong (Hangul: 구정; Hanja: 舊正). Less commonly, "Seollal" also refers to Yang-nyeok Seollal (양력설날, solar new year), also known as Shinjeong (Hangul: 신정).

Korean New Year generally falls on the day of the second new moon after winter solstice, unless there is a very rare intercalary eleventh or twelfth month in the lead-up to the New Year. In such a case, the New Year falls on the day of the third new moon after the solstice (next occurrence will be 2033). Korean New Year is generally the same day as Mongolian New Year, Tibetan New Year, Chinese New Year and Vietnamese New Year.

From wikipedia

Irène Némirovsky 's Suite Francaise Discussion

Happy New Year! I hope all of you had a festive, lovely holiday. I know that I did! Not only did I enjoy my son Paul's homecoming from college, but I also savored reading our January book Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky. I hope all of you are also engrossed in this moving novel. Once you finish the book, please go on to read the appendices and all end material. This makes the book all the more poignant for the reader and will be helpful for our discussion.

I am looking forward to seeing all of you on Jan. 13, and discussing Suite Française. Take care, and as always, happy reading!

1.
The novelist, who herself fled Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion, wrote the book virtually while the occupation was happening, most likely making Suite Française the first work of fiction about World War II. How do you think she managed to write while she herself was in jeopardy? Do you think it was easier for her to capture the day-to-day realities of life under occupation? In what ways might the book have been different if she had survived and been able to write Suite Française years after the war?

2.
How does Suite Française compare to other World War Two novels you have read? How would you compare it to the great personal documents of the war (for example, those written by Anne Frank and Victor Klemperer), or to fiction?

happy new year!

Wishing you all a good health and happy new year!

directions to Karine Texier

If you come by public transport, come out of the subway exit 6 of the Seoul Nat'l University of Education (line 2 or 3) and walk up the street for 600 meters. Don't turn into the 1st entrance to Acrovista but walk a bit further up to the next traffic lights. There is the other entrance, between A house and B house, where I live.

If you drive, coming from Hannam bridge, go past New Core, leaving the big white Express Bus Terminal building on your right and over the junction. At this point, you can see Acrovista, way up the road. Keep driving, past Paris-Baguette, and Mr Pizza on the left. Go past the entrance into the Sampung Appartment. When you see the SK petrol station on the right and the Paris-croissant on the left, make sure you get in the far left lane, ready to turn into Acrovista at the next traffic lights. Park in the undergroung car park. You might have to leave an ID I'm afraid -security is a bit over the top!

Coming from Banpo bridge, turn left after the bridge towards Gangnam, going past the Gangnam St Mary's Hospital and the Marriot. Stay on the right lane. At the junction turn right and follow the directions given here above.

Book Club Members (Em, Karine, Nazli missing)

Thanks Diane for the nice food you have prepared and the pretty Christmas decorations along with the nativities, Christmas Carrols....

Happy Holidays to all! Happy Hanukah, Happy Dwavali, Ramadan! We did learn a bit about other BIG holidays.

List of Poems

List or our annual Poem reading and cookie exchange.

catherine smart (SHE WANTED TO BRING THE ONE SHE HAD PICKED WHEN SHE GOT MARRIED, THE A FAIRY ONE BUT DECIDED TO USE THIS OTHER ONE)
WE ARE MADE ONE WITH WHAT WE TOUCH AND SEE
Oscar Wilde (1854 –1900)

We are resolved into the supreme air,

We are made one with what we touch and see,

With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,

With our young lives each spring impassioned tree

Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range

The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change.

With beat of systole and of diastole

One grand great life throbs through earth's giant heart,

And mighty waves of single Being roll

From nerveless germ to man, for we are part

Of every rock and bird and beast and hill,

One with the things that prey on us, and one with what we kill

One sacrament are consecrate, the earth

Not we alone hath passions hymeneal,

The yellow buttercups that shake for mirth

At daybreak know a pleasure not less real

Than we do, when in some fresh blossoming wood

We draw the spring into our hearts, and feel that life is good

Is the light vanished from our golden sun,

Or is this daedalfashioned earth less fair,

That we are nature's heritors, and one

With every pulse of life that beats the air?

Rather new suns across the sky shall pass,

New splendour come unto the flower, new glory to the grass.

And we two lovers shall not sit afar,

Critics of nature, but the joyous sea

Shall be our raiment, and the bearded star

Shoot arrows at our pleasure! We shall be

Part of the mighty universal whole,

And through all Aeons mix and mingle with the Kosmic Soul!.

We shall be notes in that great Symphony

Whose cadence circles through the rhythmic spheres,

And all the live World's throbbing heart shall be

One with our heart, the stealthy creeping years

Have lost their terrors now, we shall not die,

The Universe itself shall be our Immortality!.





roseann rhoda(SHE HAD DISCOVERED THAT POEMS ARE A WHOLE NEW WORLD)
LOSS AND GAIN
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When I compare

What I have lost with what I have gained,

What I have missed with what attained,

Little room do I find for pride.

I am aware

How many days have been idly spent;

How like an arrow the good intent

Has fallen short or been turned aside.

But who shall dare

To measure loss and gain in this wise?

Defeat may be victory in disguise;

The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.


nancy stevenson
OPEN THE DOOR
Cindy Keil

Find what's inside
Discover the richness
That you've tried to hide

You really do matter
Take time to care
Mine your life's treasure
Your wealth to be shared

Don't hide your bright light
Let it shine thru
Step into the open
It's time for you.

Don't stay in the shadows
It's time to breathe free
It's time to proclaim it
I'm free to be me!

No music is sweeter
It just can't be wrong
Than someone who chooses
To sing her own song

No one does it better
No need to look
You are the author
of your own book.

So write it and read it
Live your sweet harmony
Claim your won truth
Say-The author is me!