I have now finished 'I, Lafayette,' a narrative non-fiction in the form of an autobiography. Lafayette recounts his life, tracing his path through three revolutions, the Napoleonic years and the Restoration. Factual, detailed, often dramatic, historically accurate, Lafayette's conversations, thoughts and actions are always referenced from original sources in French and English. The present tense ensures a vividness of time and place. It is history, but it is happening now.
A son of the wild Auvergne, he wants to follow in the footsteps of Vercingetorix who took up arms for the liberty of all. He sees Washington as his adopted father and the United States as his adopted country; in death he has his grave covered with earth from Bunker Hill.