Customer Reviews

The French Revolution: A Novel

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The French Revolution holds a mirror up to society and makes us all take a look at ourselves. Matt Stewart captures food culture, San Francisco narcissism and the seditious nature of municipal politics with flair and a decidedly unique voice. Once you meet his bizarre-but-believable characters and visit the world they inhabit you won't want to leave. I couldn't put this book down and when I finished reading it I seriously considered starting at the beginning again.

The French Revolution is a hilarious account of an only-in-San Francisco kind of adventure. It's entertaining and creative -- you certainly won't find another story out there that's remotely similar. The book is chock-a-block with lively and abundant descriptions that conjure up hilarious images. Matt Stewart is not afraid to have fun with words. Read this book!

The French Revolution was a lot of fun to read and I was sorry every time I had to put it down. The characters are vividly drawn and compelling. The core family of mother Esmerelda, kids Marat and Robespierre, and grandmother Fanny are totally wacky but very real. I loved Stewart's narrative style, which is exuberantly rich with details. Every little aspect of life is exploded open and celebrated. I'm recommending this book to all my friends. Oh, and you don't have to know a thing about the French Revolution to enjoy or "get" this book.

The French Revolution pulled me in right from the beginning. It reads like a cross between a Tom Robbins novel and something out of the mind of Michel Gondry. The characters are memorable, the situations are wildly unpredictable and the story races along at a great pace. The undercurrent of tying characters and events to the French Revolution reminds us that the often perverse tendencies of human nature extend throughout time.

An exciting debut novel! The French Revolution combines a hyper-kinetic plot, extraordinary family dysfunction, and some seriously splashy word-play without ever losing its characters' humanity. Think Oscar Wao in San Francisco meeting an obese Lenore Beadsman. Then add equal parts 18th century French history and Dennis The Menace into the mix. Enjoy the ride, protect your neck.

This morning, I had to experience one of the necessary thrills familiar to those of us who have recently entered our 6th decades: the routine colonoscopy. The nurses told me that rarely had they seen someone laughing with delight on their way into the procedure room. I was, of course, finishing off The French Revolution. It was a LOT better than the procedure! And funny enough to take my mind off..... well, what it is not easy to take one's mind off of. I give you this blurb:

"Takes the edge off a colonoscopy".

Matt Stewart's The French Revolution melds gastronomical satire, political prophecy, hysterical realism, and all the San Francisco flavor you can swallow. This rollicking, Rabelaisian saga of a dysfunctional dynasty is as funky and full of surprises as a vat of crawfish jambalaya -- a burst of orgiastic creativity, full of gourmet spices and grasping pincers. Great beach reading as Messidor gives way to Thermidor...

I moved to the SF Bay Are a few years ago and until I read this book, I don't know that I completely grasped the feel of my new home. Against all expectations, this absurdist tour through the streets, lives and dramas of my city opened my eyes to its true nature. The characters stuck with me and had me doing my own research on the French Revolution, upon which the stories are VERY loosely based. And though I can't say I completely knew where the author was going with all his wild scenarios, I was always glad to be along for the ride.

Can anything calling itself The French Revolution end well for anyone involved? Revolutions rarely do: it's only the descendants who will prosper.
This is a story about ordinary people living in extraordinary times far removed from its namesake's. It's not even set in France, but San France-isco. So when I say "ordinary" I don't mean Midwestern Average. These are quirky people. One starts literary life weighing roughly a full quarter ton, while her scrawny paramour ekes out his life one step above homeless. The resulting surprise offspring she names Marat and Robespierre.
What makes me think of them as "ordinary", then, is that they're protagonists rather than heroes. Although the scope of their lives carries them to powerful and even worldwide celebrity, this in and of itself does not make someone heroic. Their most epic struggles are not against external demons, but their own shortcomings, borne of oppressive underdogginess. These aren't people I want to call friend, but I was swept into the minutiae of their lives and I wanted them to win.
I can't decide whether I like the way it ended. I do know it has stuck with me. I read it 3 weeks ago, and I think about this book all the time. It haunts me. Read it.

Matt Stewart writes like Tom Robbins with more soul, Zadie Smith with less angst, and Thomas Pynchon without the arrogance. If any of that sounds appealing to you, you will love the French Revolution. Even if it does not sound appealing to you, you will love the French Revolution. In fact, if you do not love the French Revolution, I suggest you immediately stroll over to the nearest hospital because it is likely that you have suffered a gaping head-wound that severely impairs your ability to recognize a great book.