About this title: In 1929, 26-year-old Irene Nemirovsky shot to fame in France with the publication of her first novel David Golder. At the time, only the most prescient would have predicted the events that led to her extraordinary final novel Suite Francaise" "and her death at Auschwitz. Yet the clues are there in this astonishingly mature story of an elderly Jewish businessman who has sold his soul. Golder is a superb creation. Born into poverty on the Black Sea, he has clawed his way to fabulous wealth by speculating on gold and oil. When the novel opens, he is at work in his magnificent Parisian ...
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Description: Good. Ships from the UK. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Your purchase also supports literacy charities. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: VINTAGE Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780099493969ISBN:0099493969
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 176 pages. (256 pages) presents the portrait of the frenzied capitalism of the 1920s and a universal parable about the mirage of wealth. (Paperback) read more
Description: Good. Dust Cover Missing. Minimal damage to cover and binding. Pages show light use. With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, Best Prices. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of only minimal use. All pages are undamaged with no significant creases or tears. With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, Best Prices. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780099513339ISBN:0099513331
Description: New, Publisher overstock, may have small remainder mark. Excellent condition, never read, purchased from publisher as excess inventory. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780099513339ISBN:0099513331
Description: New, Publisher overstock, may have small remainder mark. Excellent condition, never read, purchased from publisher as excess inventory. read more
"L'histoire d'un "businessman" vieillissant que ses proches pensent tout juste bon à faire de l'argent. Un court livre d'une puissance et d'une justesse stupéfiantes sur la richesse et le désir. Les décors sont d'un autre âge mais le livre n'a pas pris une ride. Quel bonheur que la découverte d'un manuscrit inachevé et le prix qui l'a couronné aient sorti Irène Némirovsky d'un oubli injuste."
"Wonderfully written story about the last part of the life a rich business man when he is forced to reflect on his life, values and relationships. it's set in Europe of 1920s. It is amazing that it is written by a young female author when the main character is a man in his late 60's."
"If Suite Francaise was known more for its chequered 64-year journey of as a manuscript seeking a publisher, David Golder is the book that launched Nemirowsky's career and is a much more powerful novel.
A short engrossing semi-autobiographical read, David Golder proves that good novels do not need sympathetic characters in order to entertain and enlighten. Everyone in this book is a pretty wretched person, almost caricaturish in their enslavement by money, except perhaps for the young Jewish man who is the last to see Golder alive, but even there we do not know if he will also "take the money and run" and not deliver on his promise to the dying anti-hero.
Golder is a tragic character, unbscrupulous in his drive to acquire wealth due to his impoverished origins, but also the only one who sees through lucre's fleeting nature, and is weighed by the burden of the breadwinner, while his family members lavishly spend, cheat on him, and openly blame him for falling ill and not being able to keep the money machine running.
I also liked the fact that the business deals that are central to Golder's character but could be boring in their minutia, were concluded off-stage, except for the final negotiation where Golder adopts Russian negotiating tactics (temper tantrums and threats to walk out) with his counterparts - the Russians themselves.
Short chapters, incisive dialogue that resemble lines from a play as they paint action and character, a tight plot that moves to is inevitable end, and the gratings of Golder's failing heart, grip the reader in a page-turner.
Having recently visited Auschwitz, the message was re-iterated while reading this book that the world lost many brilliant minds and artists in that holocaust - Nemirowsky: reluctant Jew, assimilated Frenchwoman and Catholic convert, included."
"A sad commentary about money and its effects on human relationships. While I can imagine that the main character might not have always been the most likeable person, by the time that the reader meets him, he is eminently sympathetic and perhaps more than a little pathetic. A cautionary tale for those with their heads too buried in business to see the world clearly around them, but also a portrait of a time and place. It reminded me of Balzac in terms of her portraiture of a milieu and the acuity of her analysis of that milieu."
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