Instruct: Classify a review as either positive or negative.
Query: A fantastic novel...

Frank Yerby is a master storyteller, and the best author you have never heard about. The Devil's Laughter is a sweeping epic set during the French Revolution chronicling the odyssey of Jean Paul Martin. The perfect auxiliary tale told in a similar fashion toRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, it is the unknown story of a forgotten hero of the French Revolution. Yerby is clearly influenced by Victor Hugo in the best possible way; a tribute any author would approve of. He takes the essence of Hugo and melts it into Voltaire, laid over the ecstatic sanguine frenzy of French Revolution told as noir fiction. Martin is a compelling protagonist; you are with him the entire way. And when Martin realizes that the Revolution has lost its way you suffer the same despair. A fantastic novel.