Donnelly, Jennifer. Revolution. New York: Delcourte, 2010. 481p.
Audience: High School, 14+
Genre: Historical Fiction
Topics of Focus: Grief, Mental Health, Parental Expectations, Coming of Age, French Revolution, Resiliency, Louis XVII, Paris
Jennifer Donnelly once again provides the reading world with a phenomenal mix of history, romance, intrigue, violence, and deep human issues.
Set in shifting time periods of modern Paris and the violent city of the French Revolution, the main character Andi Alpers must learn to cope with immense loss. Her brother, Truman, was killed by a mentally-unbalanced man, an incident for which Andi feels deeply responsible. Her artist mother suffers from significant clinical depression and is unable to care for Andi and provide the adult guidance she needs. Her father, a DNA expert, is always away at work, avoiding his family and his own grief. Andi finds no comfort in school and faces expulsion unless she can complete an outstanding senior thesis during her winter break. Her only real solace is in music, musical history, and musical theory. Her father thinks her interest is creative fluff and of no value. He’s a science man, after all. Thinking he knows what is best for his daughter, Lewis Alpers, commits his wife to a mental institution and whisks his daughter away to Paris. She doesn’t go willingly. As Andi and her father settle in with “G,” a rock-star expert on the French Revolution, she solidifies her determination to do her thesis her way or no way at all. With the assistance of a diary hidden in the case of a guitar belonging to Louis XVI, Andi and the reader begin to discover that Andi’s study of Amade’ Malherbeau’s (a fictional composer of revolutionary France) musical lineage parallels the more traditionally-scientific quest conducted by her father and G. Their highly publicized project seeks to determine if a preserved human heart actually belongs to the lost king of France, Louis-Charles, son of the doomed Louis XVI, or if a rightful heir to the throne exists.
Set in shifting time periods of modern Paris and the violent city of the French Revolution, the main character Andi Alpers must learn to cope with immense loss. Her brother, Truman, was killed by a mentally-unbalanced man, an incident for which Andi feels deeply responsible. Her artist mother suffers from significant clinical depression and is unable to care for Andi and provide the adult guidance she needs. Her father, a DNA expert, is always away at work, avoiding his family and his own grief. Andi finds no comfort in school and faces expulsion unless she can complete an outstanding senior thesis during her winter break. Her only real solace is in music, musical history, and musical theory. Her father thinks her interest is creative fluff and of no value. He’s a science man, after all. Thinking he knows what is best for his daughter, Lewis Alpers, commits his wife to a mental institution and whisks his daughter away to Paris. She doesn’t go willingly. As Andi and her father settle in with “G,” a rock-star expert on the French Revolution, she solidifies her determination to do her thesis her way or no way at all. With the assistance of a diary hidden in the case of a guitar belonging to Louis XVI, Andi and the reader begin to discover that Andi’s study of Amade’ Malherbeau’s (a fictional composer of revolutionary France) musical lineage parallels the more traditionally-scientific quest conducted by her father and G. Their highly publicized project seeks to determine if a preserved human heart actually belongs to the lost king of France, Louis-Charles, son of the doomed Louis XVI, or if a rightful heir to the throne exists.
Donnelly deftly weaves Andi’s modern story together with the significant personalities of the French Revolution through the discovered diary of Alexandrine, companion to the young Louis-Charles. While some readers might be confused by the shifting narration and the non-chronological presentation of the diary entries, the chosen order brilliantly complements the psychological journeys of both young women. It allows the characters effective negotiation of both the historical mysteries and the psychological challenges they face in moments of violence and loss. Donnelly’s text is not perfect, but it’s pretty close. The fictional Malherbeau listening to an iPod is a little too much to believe, and the closeness of names past and present is cliché. But, the historical possibilities!! This text will make any reader want to seek out more information about the French Revolution and perhaps to visit the catacombs below Paris just to smell the dark history. This is a text that all teachers and librarians should put on display, along with non-fiction texts to support the history. It’s a monster of a book, so I doubt that reluctant readers would gravitate toward it, but the strong readers certainly will.
Annotation by Denise Aulik
Annotation by Denise Aulik
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