After the Barricades
The French art of protest comes vividly to life in this novel set in the volatile spring of 1968 in Paris. It tells the story of a young American university exchange student who becomes not only a witness to the student and worker protests exploding then, but also a participant and a recorder. There to study art history, she finds these social upheavals end up shaping her future career as a scholar of protest art.
Intertwined with her story is also the story of a café waiter she falls in love with, who is much more than he appears to be. His personal and artistic past and her future work and family life intersect at a seminal moment in French history. It is a time that melded ongoing trauma from Nazi atrocities with burgeoning hopes for a more socially equitable future.
Bookended by her journalist daughter’s quest during the Yellow Vests protests of 2019 in Paris to learn more about her mother’s time there, this story sheds a light on French cultural protest attitudes past and present.
Written in a style that is both descriptive and flowing, the narrative captures the reader’s attention in a way that is simultaneously haunting and hopeful. The details of the story will remain embedded long after the story is over, as will a deeper understanding of and appreciation for just how French a barricade in city streets can be.
