Fire in the Blood by Irene Némirovsky

Fire in the Blood is a mostly enjoyable read, in part due to how quickly the short chapters move readers through the story. The plot is, for a long time, based on the infidelity of the young people in the book as observed by the old narrator and it's not till the end that you learn of his own youth, despite his frequent comments on the "fire" of the young. I can't say that I'm greatly impressed by the book, especially considering the positive reviews I read, and based on this work, I don't care whether I read any more of her work, but Fire in the Blood isn't a drag to read, either. (Otherwise, you know I wouldn't have bothered finishing it.)

Almost more interesting than the book itself, though, is the "Note on the Text" that prefaces the story; Irene Némirovsky died in 1942 in Auschwitz, and for a long time, all that existed of this book was the couple of pages; biographers later discovered the rest of the book entrusted to a family friend and editor in 1942.