CBR3 Book 79: "The Wild Rose" by Jennifer Donnelly

Publisher: Hyperion
Page count: 640 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: October 2nd, 2011
Date finished: October 8th, 2011

The Wild Rose is the third book in Jennifer Donnelly's Rose trilogy, and while it can be read independently of the other two, it will be best appreciated if the reader has read the other two novels in the series, The Tea Rose and The Winter Rose, first. As these two books are among my absolute favourite books of all time, I advise everyone to run out and read them, then come back and read this review.

On the eve of the First World War, Seamus "Seamie" Finnegan is a famous polar explorer, and the toast of the Royal Geographical Society. He's been on expeditions with Shackleton and Amundsen, and his sister Fiona wonders when he will finally settle down. Yet Seamie can't seem to forget the woman he loved, and lost eight years earlier, when they attempted to climb Kilimanjaro together. Willa Alden, little sister to his best friend, nearly died, and ended up losing one leg just below the knee. She disappeared shortly after, and he believes she's never forgiven him for having her leg amputated. When he meets the charming and kind minister's daughter, Jennie Wilcott, who attends suffragette's marches with his sister, Seamie convinces himself that he loves her, and that she's the right person to finally make him forget Willa.

Willa is numbing the her physical and emotional pain with morphine in a little village at the foot of Mount Everest, dreaming of climbing it, and taking spectacular photographs of the landscape that she sends back to the RGS. She supports herself by guiding European explorers in the area, and tries to forget her old life as best she can. When she finally gets a pile of letters letting her know her father is dying, she has no choice but to return to England, and facing the family and the man she left.

The Wild Rose concludes the trilogy about the Finnegan siblings, begun in The Tea Rose. As well as the story of Seamus and Willa, the book features Seamie's older siblings Fiona and Sid, and their families, and chronicles their lives in the period just before, during and after the First World War. The main story line concerns Willa, Seamie and the German playboy and industrialist Max von Brandt, who also loves Willa. Seamie becomes a captain in the Navy, and Willa travels through Egypt and North Africa with Tom Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia.

To say that this book was eagerly anticipated by me would be an understatement. I absolutely adored the two previous novels in the series, and waited for years for this concluding volume to be released. The two previous books, especially The Winter Rose, engrossed me so much I would forego food and sleep to get through them, I loved the story and the characters so much. The Wild Rose was not quite so gripping, but it was still a very comforting read, and Donnelly is a wonderful writer. While I found Seamie's story the least exciting of the three Finnegan siblings, it was very nice to be able to see how the lives of Fiona and Sid and their families had progressed, and I'm glad the story was concluded in a satisfying manner. Like the previous novels, the book depicts life in working class London at the turn of the century excellently, and Donnelly clearly does excellent research, with her strong, capable heroines travelling to a number of exotic locations and living adventurous and interesting lives.

"Revolution" by Jennifer Donnelly

Publisher: Bloomsbury
Page count: 486 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Date begun: December 3rd, 2010
Date finished: December 6th, 2010

Andi is a genius declared teenager failing her prestigious prep school because she's bent on self-destructing after her little brother died. Alexandrine is a French street performer trying desperately to save the life of a young boy from a horrible fate during the French revolution. This book runs their stories in parallel, and through reading about Alexandrine, Andi gains perspective on her own life and realizes that she may have something to live for after all.

Andi's father is a Nobel prize winning geneticist, now living with a younger woman. Her mother is a mentally unstable painter, who has painted nothing but portraits of her lost son since she died. Andi is failing all her subjects except music at her expensive private school, because music is the only thing that helps dull the pain and desperation she feels, blaming herself for the death of her brother Truman, and the subsequent disintegration of her entire family. She's heavily medicated, and plays her guitar until her fingers bleed, and constantly wonders if she'll have the nerve to end it all.

When her father discovers that she has not even submitted an outline for her senior thesis, and may fail all her courses, he steps in and forces her to come to Paris with him, after her mother has been committed to a psychiatric hospital. He is taking part in a large authentication project, where his historian friend wants to prove that he is in possession of the heart of the Dauphin Louis Charles, also known as the lost King Louis XVII, who was locked up and slowly neglected to death during the French Revolution. Seeing the pictures of the young boy, and hearing the story of his gruesome death does nothing to help Andi process the death of Truman, and she makes a deal with her father to be allowed to return home to New York as soon as possible.

While working frantically on her finishing her outline, Andi finds an old diary in a guitar case belonging to her father's historian friend. This diary is written by a young woman during the worst days of the French Revolution, and the writer, Alexandrine, is beseeching the reader to help save the lonely Dauphin of France from his doom. In the diary, Alexandrine tells the story of how she, the member of a poor acting and puppet show troupe, became the close companion of the Dauphin and chronicles the events leading up to and during the bloody and terrible revolution of France.

Alexandrine starts out wanting only to make money and notoriety so she can become a famous actress, but grows to love the sad, young royal she is hired to entertain. As the royal family are taken prisoner, she does her best to stay with him and tries to save him from the horrible fate the revolutionaries have in store for him. Andi is engrossed by her story, and unable to keep reading the diary, even when it takes precious time away from her thesis work. There are clear parallels in the story of the two young women, and having been unable to save her own brother, Andi desperately wants to see if Alexandrine will succeed in her mission, all the while knowing deep down, having seen the tiny heart her father is performing tests on, that she must surely be doomed.

Through Alex' diary, and her quest to if not save the Dauphin, then at least make sure he does not die alone and utterly abandoned, Andi gains more perspective on her own situation. While in France, she also befriends a bunch of musicians, who show her that despite the tragedy in her life, there may things to live for if she will only persevere.

I absolutely adore all three of Jennifer Donnelly's previous books, and they are among my all time favourite reads, which is unusual. So to say that I had high expectations for this book is an understatement. It is probably her weakest book so far, but considering the absolute brilliance of her previous three, her weakest effort is still miles beyond that of many other writers. She excellently portrays the despair of both young women, and vividly describes their situations. The historical parts of the novel are especially gripping, but Andi's journey through grief towards self-discovery is also fascinating. I found myself wishing that the subject of Andi's thesis, the fictional composer Amadé Malherbeau actually existed, as his music and the musical influences that Donnelly ascribes to him, sounded wonderful. I can happily recommend this book, as well as A Gathering Light, The Tea Rose and The Winter Rose to anyone in search of a good story.