Join the "Revolution"!

"It goes on, this world, stupid and brutal.

But I do not.

I do not."

I'm really excited to share this book for my first review on this blog.  It's the latest addition to my favorites list: Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly.

This part-realistic, part-historical fiction novel centers around two teenage girls who spend their lives in completely different worlds, centuries apart.  Andi Alpers is a high school senior living in Brooklyn.  A talented musician, Andi lives with her artist mother and attends the prestigious St. Anselm school.  Music is Andi's outlet, her source of expression, and one of the few things that gets her through her pain-filled life.  She's still carrying around immense guilt and trauma from the death of her younger brother, Truman.  When Andi's Nobel Prize-winning geneticist father hears that she is failing out of St. Anselm, and finds that Andi's mother spends her days trying to paint the perfect portrait of Truman, he decides that Andi must go with him to Paris for her holiday break while her mother is hospitalized.  Andi doesn't share his opinion, but is forced to go.

In Paris, Andi and her father stay with friends G and Lili. G is a historian and an expert on the French Revolution.  He has enlisted Andi's father's help in conducting DNA tests on a heart believed to be the heart of Louis-Charles, the young son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.  G explains that Louis-Charles was imprisoned by the Jacobins following the death of Louis XVI, and there were theories that the young prince may have survived the Revolution and grown up under an alias.  Andi's interest in the story of Louis-Charles deepens when she discovers a diary in a hidden compartment in an 18th century guitar case.  The writer of the diary, Alexandrine, was Louis-Charles' companion and entertainer, hired by Marie Antoinette to keep her young son happy.

Alex's story begins in the early days of the Revolution.  Her family works as puppetteers, putting on shows for money.  But she wants to be more.  She wants to be a star actress on the Paris stage.  When a chance encounter with the royal family gives her a position near to the Queen, she decides to use it to her advantage, believing that if she does her job well, Antoinette will help fulfill her dream.  What Alex doesn't understand is how her life will change over the course of the Revolution, how she will grow to truly love the young prince, and how she will sacrifice herself for him.

As Andi works to complete the outline of her senior thesis on French guitarist and composer Amade Malherbeau, she is simultaneously immersed in Alex's story.  The similarities between Alex's relationship with Louis-Charles and Andi's with Truman are striking.  Alex's diary brings the Revolution to life, and begins to help Andi do the one thing that she couldn't do before: heal.

I never realized how little I knew about the French Revolution until I read this book.  The only thing I really knew was that Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were guillotined.  I didn't know about the thousands of others who met the same fate, or how the catacombs were filled with stacked bodies with no heads, or how the children of the king and queen were treated after their deaths.  Louis-Charles' story is especially gut-wrenching.  A small boy torn from his parents and put in a tower with no care, only to go insane and die there two years later.  This book has motivated me to learn more about the French Revolution and the people involved.  As a librarian, I really appreciate the research that went into writing it.  Donnelly lists the many resources she used at the end of the book, and I'll be reading a couple of them in the future.

Another thing I loved about this book was the music references.  Donnelly traveled all over the music spectrum: Beethoven and Radiohead, Wagner and The Ramones.  The musical ties are amazing, whether you know the music or not.  It's clear that Donnelly did her homework.  She also provided a complete song list on her website.  It's quite extensive and the choices fit the story perfectly.

But the most amazing thing about this book is watching Andi travel through her struggle with pain and depression.  She tries to medicate it, tries to end it all, but eventually finds her way...her own revolution.  I couldn't help but think about the young people that will be helped by Andi's journey.  Those that will realize that they are not the first and only to feel the way they do.  Being able to follow and relate to a character that is experiencing that kind of pain will be very helpful for many.  Seeing the people around Andi who try to love her, even when she doesn't want them to, is a powerful thing.

Overall, I can't say enough about this book.  I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a great historical fiction novel...and to everyone else as well.  There is a reason that it was named to the Best Books of 2010 lists for Amazon.com and School Library Journal.  Revolution is not to be missed!

(Photo from rhapsodyinbooks.wordpress.com)