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From New York Times bestselling author Eliot Schrefer comes an exuberant YA historical coming-of-age novel about a rising star French pianist, navigating his way into high society as he explores his sexuality. Perfect for fans of Last Night at the Telegraph Club and The Gentleman’s Gide to Vice and Virtue. They say Léon Delafosse will be France’s next great pianist. But despite his being the youngest student ever accepted into the prestigious Paris Conservatory, there’s no way an impoverished musician can make his way in 1890s Paris without an outside patron. Young gossip columnist Marcel Proust takes Léon under his wing, and the boys game their way through an extravagant new world. When the larger-than-life Count Robert de Montesquiou-Fézensac offers his patronage, Léon’s dreams are made real. But the closer he gets to becoming France’s next great thing, the further he strays from his old country life he shared with his family and his best friend Félix . . . a boy he might love. With each choice Léon makes, he must navigate a fine line between two worlds—or risk losing them both.
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0 0**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.**
Eliot Schrefer presents his newest novel, Charming Young Man, a YA historical fiction following the imagined life of Leon Delafosse. Leon was a piano prodigy in late 19th century France, who, at one point, was meant to be the next Mozart. Schrefer's story is a coming-of-age in part, following Leon as he leaves the poverty of his farming hometown and enters the conservatory in Paris to study piano. Leon grapples with social climbing and the need to secure a patron even as he is beginning to realize and explore more about his sexuality.
Schrefer goes more into the historical facts of Leon's life in his author's note, whereupon Leon tends to be a "side character" in the lives of famous figures including Count Robert de Montesquiou and Marcel Proust. I was grateful for the author's note in giving historical context, but also found that it made Schrefer's novel more impressive for its inclusion.
Schrefer was sensitive to the historical context of sexuality in the 1890's while also doing a solid job of avoiding placing modern interpretation of sexuality on those historical figures. I was not previously aware of Leon Delafosse, and was grateful for the opportunity to meet him first as Schrefer's character. Leon is a character that is easy to root for and easy to have emotional investment in, mostly due to Schrefer's attention to character development based on the limited historical context we have for his life.
I overall enjoyed my time with this book, bittersweet as the story had to be, and am happy to say that I would be interested in reading more about Leon in historical record based off of Schrefer's work.
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