Jennifer Donnelly’s newest book for young adults, Revolution, is a revelation (October 2010 from Delacourte Press). It’s an enticing, enchanting blend of transformation story, historical fiction, mystery, and good, solid storytelling.
Two smart, artistic, reckless young women are linked across the centuries by their love for the young boys in their care: Andi, in 21st century Brooklyn is on a self-destructive bent after the tragic death of her younger brother Truman 2 years ago; and Alex, in Paris in 1795 during the French Revolution, is determined to save her young charge, the Dauphin of France, young Louis-Charles. When Revolution opens, Andi’s self-loathing, grief, and hatred for life resonate off every page. Since her brother died, she’s blamed herself for his death and has done everything she can to destroy her own life, with the one exception of her devotion to music. Playing the guitar is her only solace and escape from the continuous hell of her life. In a last ditch attempt to get her back on track, Andi’s estranged father takes her with him to Paris over winter break. She’s reluctant to go but soon finds herself immersed in a haunting, riveting centuries-old mystery when she discovers a hidden diary and miniature portrait in a late 18th century guitar case.
The diary is the last record of a young woman, Alex, whose family of puppetiers and street actors find themselves at the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinetteon the verge of the French Revolution. Alex, an ambitious and driven young woman who longs for a life on the stage, is charged with caring for young Louis-Charles and at first she uses her appointment as a means to an end. But as the country falls into the horrific depths of the Revolution, Alex’s charge becomes more to her and in the end she risks everything, including her life, to help Louis-Charles. And as Andi reads more of Alexi’s diary and immerses herself in her own research into a Revolutionary-era French composer, the lines of time and reality, love and grief, and hope and despair blur.
Alex’s story is exquisetly crafted: its so engaging and enthralling that the reader, along with Andi, are sucked into the horrific world of Revolutionary France. Two strong young women face the difficult, almost unfathonable question, of how to have hope and retain one’s humanity in a wretched, ruthless, cruel world. Eventually they both find an inner strength and a reserve of love within themselves that allows them to come to terms with their individual hardships and to choose to see the good in the world despite the sorrow, pain, and cruelty. In Revolution, Donnelly brilliantly illustrates that by undertaking our own personal revolution to change how we interpret and exist in the world, we can transform our lives and the lives of those around us in ways we never thought possible.
- Posted by Cori
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