March by Geraldine Brooks Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of March
Book Review: "Little Women" From Another P.O.V
Summary: 5 Stars
"Little Women" is one book that is a big sentimental favorite with me. It's the first book I reviewed for Amazon and I still re-read it occasionally,because it's like visiting an old friend. I think Ms. Brooks has done a wonderful job with her back-story of Mr. March,the family patriarch,who is really a minor character in the original. He is shown as a highly idealistic man(especially for the times he lived in) A strict vegetarian,extremely intelligent ,unique in his spirituality(the real-life father was a Transcendentalist.) I also really liked how "Marmee" is portrayed. Almost saintlike in "LW",here she is shown as a smart,intense woman. Outspoken and at times,very temperamental,yet still likable,much like her daughter,Jo. Finally this book truly shows the horrors of war and slavery,a subject the original book lightly touched upon,as the LW was written a book for children,girls in particular. I wouldn't reccomend this book to anyone younger than 12 or 13 as there is a lot of graphic depictions of Slavery and the war itself,the injured especially,that are a far cry from Alcott's genteel writing. Overall,I found this book a fast,fascinating read and both a plausible and worthy successor to the original story.Book Review: 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Summary: 3 Stars
This book won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It was written by Geraldine Brooks, author of "The Year of Wonders," which is a wonderful book.
"March" is well written as can be expected. It is the story of Peter March, father of the "Little Women" (Louisa May Alcott). In "Little Women" the father is away while the girls anxiously wait for letters from him.
In this book, Ms. Brooks tells her version of where Mr. March has been and what he has been doing. In this account, Mr. March, a preacher, is off in the civil war, helping as much as he can spiritually. He can't help but get caught up in the fighting and gore, as well as the cause. Mr. March is an avid abolishonist and he finds the attitudes in the South appalling. He becomes a teacher of former slaves and becomes close to many of them.
At the end, Mr. March struggles with emotional uncertainty and guilt.
I recommend this book. It's fun to read an account of Mr. March from another reader's (albeit author's) perspective and imagination. I was just a little disappointed in that I was expecting more after reading "The Year of Wonders" and because this book won the Pulitzer Prize.
Book Review: A Beautiful Compliment to Little Women
Summary: 5 Stars
I read Little Women as a young girl (as well as all of Alcott's other books) and loved it dearly. This book wonderfully fleshed out some untold bits of Little Women. It was especially poignant to read it just before "Watch Night" (New Year's Eve.) Plantation owners added up their wealth and subtracted their debts on New Year's Day, then sold off land, homegoods and human property to balance the books. The slaves usually gathered on New Year's Eve to celebrate surviving the year gone by, and to have one more night together before some of their family may be sold. On December 31, 1862 slaves gathered in churches and homes and waited for happier tidings - January 1, 1863 was the day the Emancipation Proclamation was made and all slaves were free people. Obviously I'm still mulling the story over in my subconcious, because while I was listening to someone tell me about Watch Night, what came to mind was "Mr. March must have been so pleased!"Book Review: A Beautiful, Moving Story
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the story of Mr. March, the absent father of Louisa May Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN, and his experiences when he leaves Massachusetts to become a chaplain and teacher in the Civil War. It's such a rich story, starting with background when he was a young man in roughly the 1840's working as a peddler in the South through his wartime work ministering to the Union troops, teaching former slaves, and then recovering from his own illness. All the while, he explores his own philosophy on life, and freedom, and love. Brooks writes everything with such detail, but the characters are completely relatable and, while we know the framework of the story from LITTLE WOMEN, there is so much that is new about the real lives and conditions of people during the Civil War. It's just fantastic. And the coolest part is in the Afterword, when Brooks explains that she based the character on Louisa May Alcott's real father, who was a leading abolitionist and teacher. Now I find myself wishing for a long weekend to reread LITTLE WOMEN!Book Review: A Gallant March
Summary: 5 Stars
Ms Brooks has done an excellent job at researching the background for this novel. It was with great pleasure to me to see what could be made of the missing Mr. March from "Little Women." The horrors of slavery and war are all too realistically portrayed. I was pleased to see the father of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy become a fleshed-out character in such an artful manner.