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And The Show Went On: Cultural Life In Nazi-Occupied Paris (2010)

by Alan Riding(Favorite Author)

3.62 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0307268977 (ISBN13: 9780307268976)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Knopf

review 1: It's dizzying b/c of the plethora of names that bombard you throughout, and Riding does repeat himself sometimes, but what a wealth of information is afforded here. I always want to read everything I can about wartime France, the Vichy government and Petain, the collaborationists, French anti-Semitism, the Resistance, the arrival of the Allies, the Free French, deGaulle ... everything about WWII France/Paris. Riding's research is superb, and his focus on cultural figures in art, music, theatre, literature does not in any way cause him to gloss over the governmental, political, diplomatic, or military history. There is so much here that it is almost impossible to digest it all, and so many individual things stand out. I am more impressed than ever by the bravery shown b... morey Piaf and more totally disgusted than ever by the vicious, evil, and virulent anti-Semitism of like Celine. I deeply admire the American Varian Fry and his brave, indefatigable efforts to bring writers and artists to the United States after the 19490 Armistice and the establishment of occupied France and Vich. I have more hatred than ever for Petain (and I didn't think that was possible) and more respect than ever for pre-war and wartime deGaulle. Riding lets the facts speak for themselves. I know a lot about the sordid history of French anti-Semitism, about its flourishing immediately before the war and intensification when war broke out, and about the horrible round-ups of Jews conducted by the French during the war, and still, Riding's presentation, with all its details, brought me to tears and fury. A memorable and apparently honest quotation from Sartre from more than 30 years after the war: "In 1939, 1940, we were terrified of dying, suffering, for a cause that disgusted us. That is, for a disgusting France, corrupt, inefficient, racist, anti-Semite, run by the rich for the rich - no one wanted to die for that, until, well, until we understood that the Nazis were worse."
review 2: Pretty interesting book. Talks about how the cultural life in Paris and a little in Vichy during World War 2. It references the Vél d'Hiv several times, which was the premise of 'Sarah's Key'. In several places it focuses on Irène Némirovsky, the author of 'Suite Française', and her experiences. Very interesting to hear about what was happening with people like Sartre, Beauvoir, Becket, Edith Piaf, Josephine Baker, CoCo Chanel and even Picasso; I never realized how active he was in the French cultural scene during that time. less

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