Festival of the Oppressed
Flanders in the 13th century sees Jehanne la Flèche and Guillem d’Avignon, two musicians, seeking patronage. With enforced curfews making paying jobs at taverns risky, they find themselves at the mercy of a particularly stingy merchant who prefers to only employ Guillem, cursing any woman performing in public as demeaning and sinful. But their patron also causes some workers to ignore the jongleurs. As unrest begins to boil, Jehanne and Guillem are asked to “sing out” in defense of merchants, using sarcastic songs aimed at specific people or events. However, Jehanne and Guillem will have to confront their own personal battles as the tension heats up.
There are some editing issues, including duplicate sentences in a paragraph and missing punctuation, but these errors are few. Wallace has pulled together a well-balanced clutch of perspectives from a time period of strife for laborers and women. The title harkens to the Germaine Greer quote, “Revolution is the festival of the oppressed,” and the book takes us into taverns as talk about standing up for fair wages and hours are born anew in ideas and plans. This book is over 500 pages long, and, unfortunately, the length is felt. The research is well-detailed and includes all aspects of life, but after multiple chapters of non-impactful and highly detailed moments, the plot drags. For the first 50% of the book, our main characters are outside of the brewing conflict, more often listening to stories about the frustration and unrest. The first and second half of the book feel like two different novels as the jongleurs become more and more separated in their journeys. While there are many nuanced setting details that will delight readers interested in this time period, sadly the plot gets lost along the way.
