Named a "Notable Fiction Debut" by Poets & Writers
"Stewart writes the sort of sentences that punch holes in a 140-character ceiling and sail out corkscrewing across the bay. From its first pages, which describe the laborious morning ritual of Esmeralda Van Twinkle - a persnickety, ravenous and extremely large cashier in a copy shop - the novel fondly recalls John Kennedy Toole's 1980 classic 'A Confederacy of Dunces.'" - San Francisco Chronicle (recommended reading)
"Stewart’s zany debut cleverly reimagines the central events of the French Revolution in a thrilling novel that explores the meaning of success and the unlikely bonds that unite a family...Deep-cutting and full of cartoonish surprises, Stewart’s hilariously bawdy satire casts fresh light in a dark corner of the past while portraying a family whose members have somehow survived history." - Booklist
"Whimsically allegorical...amusing and quite clever." - Boston Globe
"A wildly imaginative novel of family and out-sized dreams. A book that embraces San Francisco's contradictions - and then some. The French Revolution is over-the-top and I for one am grateful." - Peter Orner, award-winning author of The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo
Long-listed for the 2023 Indie Booksellers Choice Awards
Selected as Best of the Bay 2023 - SF Bay Guardian
"His language and his passion for this story are just explosive...a great talent." - KFOG
"Matt Stewart wants to revolutionize literature." - CNN
"Best of all, Stewart's language sparkles, sometimes riffing like Bob Dylan, always moving the narrative forward....easy entertainment in book form." - Kirkus Reviews
"Matt Stewart wrote one very impressive debut novel." - Bookslut
"Stewart's real achievement is not just the creation of a family you will never forget. This is also the family and the novel that feel like home." - The Agony Column
Long-listed for the 2023 Tournament of Books - The Morning News
"Matt Stewart is a brilliant storyteller. He crafts a character like nobody else. The French Revolution had me engrossed for hours." - Meredith Norton, best-selling author of Lopsided
"An excellent achievement of storytelling and a unique perspective on family drama. Matt Stewart serves up a delicious dark humor that had me laughing out loud. The French Revolution is a great novel that will stay in your head for years, like a soft cut to the jugular from a sharp guillotine." - Tony DuShane, well-mustached author of Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk
"Stewart's command of rhythm and descriptive detail sometimes astounds. His handling of character and tone [is] a cocktail of absurdity, whimsy, and occasional brutality." - SF Weekly
"With a main character named Esmerelda Van Twinkle, you’d think Matt Stewart wouldn’t have much trouble attracting attention to his new novel, “The French Revolution.” - Wall Street Journal
"[A] whimsical debut." - Publisher's Weekly
"[A] satirical and cleverly funny allegorical novel." - Largehearted Boy
"So good that I wanted to be where I was going so I could just read it." - Examiner.com
Read an excerpt - Discussion guide
