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A review by bluestjuice
Ribbons of Scarlet: A Novel of the French Revolution's Women by Laura Kamoie, E. Knight, Heather Webb, Kate Quinn, Sophie Perinot, Stephanie Dray
4.0
I always think, before I begin a piece of historical fiction that is a collaborative interwoven narrative, that I'll be disappointed by the whole. I think this is because I tend to lump them together with anthologies in my mental catalogue, but this turns out not to be at all accurate, particularly where this piece is concerned. I'm not an enormous fan of the French Revolutionary period, which means I know the broadest strokes and that's really about it. So I had fun getting to sink my teeth in a little bit deeper with this novel of six plaits. Although each chapter had a focal character, the other characters wove throughout the narrative, and the whole was situated well in time to help keep track of the greater arc of the Revolution's trajectory as the narration focus shifted from character to character. Of course, the changing focal lens did mean that many secondary characters were lost sight of once the chapter in which they figured became deemphasized: this was a disappointment in some cases but a relief in others. And I never entirely felt like Élisabeth fit into the story completely - the authors made efforts to link her to the other characters, and her chapter itself was an interesting short story, but it was difficult to see her story fitted alongside the other focal characters, all participants in some capacity on the side of the revolutionary movement. Her presence supported the thematic aims of the narrative - that women are significant movers in great historical moments, while at the same time often thwarted or redirected or martyred in the court of public opinion - but unfortunately stood out a bit awkwardly otherwise.
This took me longer to read than I anticipated, but I think actually it just lured me into a false sense of its scale, as the whole thing weighed in at a substantial 500+ pages. As I've become accustomed to seeing from historical works by Stephanie Dray and other writers here, there was a fascinating set of author's comments outlining their research process, what parts of the story are supported by the historical record (far more than I ever expect is reasonable!) and what parts are fabricated or adjusted to suit narrative flow. I always love reading these notes because I think the art of writing historical fiction is rather magical, like mending a sock by painstakingly picking up the remaining stitches and replicating the missing stitches until the hole is covered and inconspicuous.
Also, uh, this would make a delightful historical drama television series, someone needs to option it stat.
Merged review:
I always think, before I begin a piece of historical fiction that is a collaborative interwoven narrative, that I'll be disappointed by the whole. I think this is because I tend to lump them together with anthologies in my mental catalogue, but this turns out not to be at all accurate, particularly where this piece is concerned. I'm not an enormous fan of the French Revolutionary period, which means I know the broadest strokes and that's really about it. So I had fun getting to sink my teeth in a little bit deeper with this novel of six plaits. Although each chapter had a focal character, the other characters wove throughout the narrative, and the whole was situated well in time to help keep track of the greater arc of the Revolution's trajectory as the narration focus shifted from character to character. Of course, the changing focal lens did mean that many secondary characters were lost sight of once the chapter in which they figured became deemphasized: this was a disappointment in some cases but a relief in others. And I never entirely felt like Élisabeth fit into the story completely - the authors made efforts to link her to the other characters, and her chapter itself was an interesting short story, but it was difficult to see her story fitted alongside the other focal characters, all participants in some capacity on the side of the revolutionary movement. Her presence supported the thematic aims of the narrative - that women are significant movers in great historical moments, while at the same time often thwarted or redirected or martyred in the court of public opinion - but unfortunately stood out a bit awkwardly otherwise.
This took me longer to read than I anticipated, but I think actually it just lured me into a false sense of its scale, as the whole thing weighed in at a substantial 500+ pages. As I've become accustomed to seeing from historical works by Stephanie Dray and other writers here, there was a fascinating set of author's comments outlining their research process, what parts of the story are supported by the historical record (far more than I ever expect is reasonable!) and what parts are fabricated or adjusted to suit narrative flow. I always love reading these notes because I think the art of writing historical fiction is rather magical, like mending a sock by painstakingly picking up the remaining stitches and replicating the missing stitches until the hole is covered and inconspicuous.
Also, uh, this would make a delightful historical drama television series, someone needs to option it stat.
This took me longer to read than I anticipated, but I think actually it just lured me into a false sense of its scale, as the whole thing weighed in at a substantial 500+ pages. As I've become accustomed to seeing from historical works by Stephanie Dray and other writers here, there was a fascinating set of author's comments outlining their research process, what parts of the story are supported by the historical record (far more than I ever expect is reasonable!) and what parts are fabricated or adjusted to suit narrative flow. I always love reading these notes because I think the art of writing historical fiction is rather magical, like mending a sock by painstakingly picking up the remaining stitches and replicating the missing stitches until the hole is covered and inconspicuous.
Also, uh, this would make a delightful historical drama television series, someone needs to option it stat.
Merged review:
I always think, before I begin a piece of historical fiction that is a collaborative interwoven narrative, that I'll be disappointed by the whole. I think this is because I tend to lump them together with anthologies in my mental catalogue, but this turns out not to be at all accurate, particularly where this piece is concerned. I'm not an enormous fan of the French Revolutionary period, which means I know the broadest strokes and that's really about it. So I had fun getting to sink my teeth in a little bit deeper with this novel of six plaits. Although each chapter had a focal character, the other characters wove throughout the narrative, and the whole was situated well in time to help keep track of the greater arc of the Revolution's trajectory as the narration focus shifted from character to character. Of course, the changing focal lens did mean that many secondary characters were lost sight of once the chapter in which they figured became deemphasized: this was a disappointment in some cases but a relief in others. And I never entirely felt like Élisabeth fit into the story completely - the authors made efforts to link her to the other characters, and her chapter itself was an interesting short story, but it was difficult to see her story fitted alongside the other focal characters, all participants in some capacity on the side of the revolutionary movement. Her presence supported the thematic aims of the narrative - that women are significant movers in great historical moments, while at the same time often thwarted or redirected or martyred in the court of public opinion - but unfortunately stood out a bit awkwardly otherwise.
This took me longer to read than I anticipated, but I think actually it just lured me into a false sense of its scale, as the whole thing weighed in at a substantial 500+ pages. As I've become accustomed to seeing from historical works by Stephanie Dray and other writers here, there was a fascinating set of author's comments outlining their research process, what parts of the story are supported by the historical record (far more than I ever expect is reasonable!) and what parts are fabricated or adjusted to suit narrative flow. I always love reading these notes because I think the art of writing historical fiction is rather magical, like mending a sock by painstakingly picking up the remaining stitches and replicating the missing stitches until the hole is covered and inconspicuous.
Also, uh, this would make a delightful historical drama television series, someone needs to option it stat.