April 2008: Suite Française (Némirovsky)

Post date: Jan 07, 2010 10:20:42 PM

Thank you to Monica for hosting our April 16th discussion of Suite Française, by Irène Némirovsky. While Maggie felt the book did not give a very balanced view, focusing as it did on a relatively small segment of the French population, all were impressed by her writing (and perhaps just as important, the work of her translator), and her ability to capture her characters' experiences so vividly. The effects of war and occupation on ordinary people and their differing reactions are illustrated very well. The fact that it was written contemporaneously to the events, and our knowledge of Némirovsky's fate, made reading the book much more intense.

The topic of military occupation led us to a discussion of our own occupation of Iraq. Janet, Nancy and Monica have been attending a course offered by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, titled Conversations in History. They were especially struck by host Harry Kreisler's recent interview with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, U.S. Army (ret.) Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State (2002-2005), discussing the break down of the national security process in the administration of George W. Bush. They highly recommend the video of the interview (duration 58:25) in which Colonel Wilkerson offers an insider's view of the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal that drove American policy in the wake of the Al Qaeda attack on 911. The Vice President's manipulation of the policy process, he argues, led to a lack of a post conflict planning for Iraq and the failure to abide by the Geneva conventions. Wilkerson also analyzes the motives of Cheney and Rumsfeld, their penchant for secrecy, and speculates on the long term costs to American democracy, power and prestige.

On a related subject, Sarah spoke up for the dismissal of law professor John Yoo from UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall Law School as advocated recently by the National Lawyers Guild. In a memorandum written the same month George W. Bush invaded Iraq, John Yoo said the Department of Justice would construe US criminal laws not to apply to the President's detention and interrogation of enemy combatants. According to Yoo, the federal statutes against torture, assault, maiming and stalking do not apply to the military in the conduct of the war. Academic freedom and grounds for dismissal of tenured professors were warmly discussed in our group. Christopher Edley, Jr., Dean of UC Berkeley School of Law expresses his position on the subject (and John Yoo) in this essay.

As usual, our discussion touched on a wide range of topics, many politically focused, which led us to our book selection for May: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama. (At least one person said she'd bought the book awhile ago but not gotten around to reading it yet, and it certainly is topical, so we decided it was time.)