Sena Jeter Naslund: Abundance, A novel of Marie Antoinette

Historical fiction has always been one of my favorite genres. It's blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction and usually makes moments of time or people of the past stand still long enough to be examined and appreciated. I didn't really know much about Marie Antoinette other than the whole "Let them eat cake!" thing. And as it turns out, she never said that. That was Louis the XIV's wife and it was said about 200 year's before MA. I also didn't know much about the Reign of Terror or Robespierre. I feel like a learned a lot.

Abundance is written in the first person from Marie's perspective. It was really interesting to gain some perspective on what life at Versailles was like. What opulence and riches! The writing was quite good and the book was obviously well-researched. The author chose to feature excerpts from letters between Marie Antoinette and her mother, the Empress of Austria. She also referenced the many paintings made of the Queen during her lifetime and used them to illustrate the changing roles and political environments the Queen was living in. It was a unique way of intertwining fact and fiction.

As strange as it sounds, this book led me to thinking a lot about modern-day Africa. I have been involved in several conversations/debates as of late about Africa and the situation they are currently in. The violence and the seemingly inhuman behaviour that so many people seem to be involved in. As racist as it is I have heard people argue that there is something inherently violent about the people of Africa and that they are resistant to "civilization". Admittedly, if you read of some of the atrocities going on there and hear of the utter disregards for human life, be it black or white, it is hard to maintain hope for the countries left desperate and ruined by consistent violence. Because we know so many people from South Africa it is those stories we hear most often and it is truly disheartening. How can people cut off heads and burn children alive, like they were nothing more than garbage?

Abundance re-introduced me to the notion of European violence. My generation has not been witness to the kind of violent uprisings and revolutions that shaped Europe, and for that matter, North America. We forget too easily how "uncivilized" and brutal the Europeans have been. During France's Reign of Terror, the people of France chopped of heads and paraded them on sticks. They invented the guillotine and used it voraciously while children and fishwives cheered and danced in blood. They burned people alive and killed each other without hesitation or remorse. And they did all of this less than 200 years ago.

We think we are so far removed from that aspect of our history and we sit upon our lofty perch and criticize the continent of Africa. The continent that was essentially retarded from growth and development by an oppressive colonization. They are, though no fault of their own, hundreds of years behind where they should be. We are naive to think that our own history won't be repeated or that the African continent does not mirror where we have been or where we could easily revisit.

Abundance was a good book but it wasn't a great book. It did not create the sense of friendship and attachment to the characters that I would have liked and I often felt like I was missing some information. Having said that, maybe that was intentional. Marie Antoinette was often missing all the information (sometimes out of purposeful ignorance and sometimes because she was a woman in a man's world) and never seemed to really understand the climate she ruled under or the danger she was in. She was not stupid but she was not informed and that, along with an incredible disregard for finances and a staunch (and widely accepted) dedication to the idea of Holy ordination, led to her violent death.