posted on 07 May 2018

Reason in Revolt by Alan Gibbons

You have to admire the commitment and sheer chutzpah of Alan Gibbons: an established author who normally writes brilliantly for a young adult audience, he has decided to make his first foray into the older reader market a trilogy that commemorates the centenary of the Russian Revolution.

I have already reviewed the first instalment – Winds of October – that covered the time immediately before the revolution and took us through the tumultuous events of the uprising. Now we have Book Two, Reason In Revolt,  which focuses on the weeks and months after the seizing of power. And although I had one or two reservations about Book One, I have to say that I thought this second book was an absolute cracker that had me gripped from beginning to end.

In Winds of October Gibbons made the important decision to keep to a limited cast of characters so that we could follow the progress of the revolution through their eyes and their experiences. That cast is back again in Reason in Revolt  and, now that we know them and care about their fates, their stories take on a more human dimension and they stop being just vehicles for carrying forward political messages or pushing forward the narrative and become fully-rounded individuals.

The heart-breaking story of Raisa and Elena and their battle to save the street children caught-up in aftermath of revolution; the uncomfortable love triangle of Svetlana, Kolya and Klara; and, the emergence of new characters like the brutal and reptilian Leonid or the stoical, loyal Abram all make the book a rich emotional experience, especially when their lives are acted out against the backdrop and chaos of a revolution of a kind the world had never seen before.

Alan Gibbons has also done his homework on the history of the revolution and he handles the factual details brilliantly I think – it would have been so easy to lose control of the material when so many things jostle to be centre stage. Somehow he keeps major events in balance with the human stories – splits within the Left, hunger and the threat of starvation as the Bolshevik’s struggle to deal with the logistics of government, counter-revolutionary threats, bureaucratic corruption and the growing sense of unease around the seemingly inevitable logic of fighting opposition with increasingly repressive tactics.

Compared to Winds of October, the canvas on which Gibbons is painting his action is much bigger in Reason In Revolt. The counter-revolution is being fought out on a national scale and, something I hadn't anticipated, Gibbons shows himself a dab-hand at writing excitingly and engagingly about conflict and civil war. And of course, in war people die – a truth for our cast of characters too. Revolutionary times are also tragic times, not only because lives get lost but because ideals and values can also get compromised so easily.

Gibbons is chilling in his portrait of how sadists and opportunists – like Leonid – can emerge in times like this and their influence is poisonous. Their propensity for brutality and violence, especially when mixed with a sort of amoral cunning, can steer even the most idealistic into behaviour they should be ashamed of.

In the activities of the new security agency known as the Cheka are the seeds of the repression that would characterise the iron rule of the man of steel, Joseph Stalin, and which would disfigure the noble aims and objectives of the revolution.

I’m all fired up now and I can’t wait for the final book in the trilogy. I simply have to find out what fate Gibbons has in store for those who have made it through this far. Not all of those we’d taken to our hearts have made it and some of those who deserved their violent ends won’t be mourned. There’s still time for you to get your copy, catch up and get ready for Book Three.

If you want to order a copy, go to http://www.circaidygregory.co.uk/Revolution%20Alan%20Gibbons.htm

 

Terry Potter

May 2018