Adieu, Volodya

About this book

This novel by the celebrated French actress, published here posthumously, follows the fortunes of some Jewish emigre families. Set in Paris between the world wars, her story is of people who find ways to survive both the memories of past persecution in Eastern Europe and the threats of Nazism on the rise in France. Numerous characters, most connected with the garment and theater industries, are brought in, but only Nicole, the nouveau riche neurotic who has created both a new identity and a new past for herself, seems to be flesh and blood. The others, despite some lively dialogue, are two-dimensional and unreal. But a sense of the era does emerge, with political events skillfully interwoven. --Laurie Spector Sullivan, Library Journal.