The Mirador: Dreamed Memories of Irène Némirovsky by Her Daughter

Gille "rediscovers her lost voice by restoring that of her mother" in this unusual first-person imagined autobiography of Ir%C3%A8ne N%C3%A9mirovsky, (Suite Fran%C3%A7aise). N%C3%A9mirovsky witnessed the pogroms of her native Russia and Ukraine, and lived the high life of an %C3%A9migr%C3%A9 in 1920s Paris before being sent to Auschwitz (her children were saved) during WWII. Elegantly written if a bit mechanical (the author was five when her mother was arrested), this new translation of a work published almost 20 years ago in Europe will add to the fascination with N%C3%A9mirovsky. We are compelled anew as N%C3%A9mirovsky asks through the facing mirrors of a fictionalized self-portrait once removed, "What could one say of the times I was living in, plagued by revolutions, pogroms, and interminable wars?" It is fascinating to ponder a daughter's occupying her artist-mother as a young woman haunted by the strained relationship with her own mother%E2%80%94a woman self-centered to the point of passing off Ir%C3%A8ne as her younger sister. (Sept.)