Winner of the Pulitzer Prize–a powerful love story set against the backdrop of the Civil War, from the author of The Secret Chord.
From Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story “filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man” (Sue Monk Kidd). With “pitch-perfect writing” (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs. A lushly written, wholly original tale steeped in the details of another time, March secures Geraldine Brooks’s place as a renowned author of historical fiction.
I enjoyed this story from the perspective of Robert March, the father in Little Women. It shows the cruelty and suffering during the Civil War of both slaves and soldiers. Interesting characters are layered and well developed. March himself is idealistic and driven by his principles to the point of foolishly losing his fortune and leaving his wife and daughters in poverty. It’s difficult to like him at times for his relentless self-flagellation, but he is well-matched with Marmee, who is much more practical, albeit hot-headed. I enjoyed Brooks’s Year of Wonders as well, so I will look for another of her books to dig into.
While anyone who has read Little Women will be familiar with the March family, and specifically Mr. March, Alcott did not expand his character to any extent. This book takes the basics of his life from Alcott’s writing and makes Mr. March a central character in his life during a most difficult time in our history. I love Geraldine Brooks book, and while this was not my favorites, I still enjoy her writing.
I have enjoyed all of this author’s books that I have read so far. She is well informed and writes with intelligence and empathy about the lives of her characters and the time period in which they lived.
A great way to learn some history.
Some many things happen in this book. I loved it
Perfectly executed- and what a great concept.
Love Geraldine Brooks. This one not her absolute strongest.
March is an invitation to another engrossing journey from Geraldine Brooks, whose books always challenge and entice. This many- layered experience of the horrors of Civil War as endured by Reverend March— father-in-law of the Little Women he has left behind in penury and a false haze of hope and glory. Through his eyes, we see the war as it is lived—brutally, and not as he beautifully pens it in his letters home to Dear Marmie and his Little Women. In this many- layered take, we meet him as the young man he once was: an amorous young peddler who fell in love with an extraordinary slave girl… and as the older man who cannot stand up to the insane cruelties of battle. We watch him break down as his illusions about the “holiness” of battle for The Right are shattered until he can no longer know what is right and what is wrong: human love, for example.
Brooks finds profound meaning in probing the meanings of war and of peace, of slavery and of the Abolitionist Cause by choosing a character from the margin of a well-beloved book and by creating his story helping us begin to grapple with the war that raged just out of sight of the Little Women we know and loved. By widening the frame of this story, Brooks may be suggesting that we begin to do the same elsewhere.
I was intrigued by the concept and decided it’s not a bad idea to read a Pulitzer winner now and then. While not all the story elements were things I would have done, I can understand the author’s reasoning. Overall, this is a story that stirs the imagination and helps readers appreciate what war can do to a good man.
I did not finish this one. I was eager to read it because the Little Women books were such a part of my childhood. However. I was highly disappointed in the portrayal of Marmee as a screaming, angry activist. THAT bothered me so much that I refused to read it to the end.
Now that I’ve read the book, I understand why critics like it. Masterfully weaves the story of Father March into our existing Little Women tale. Well=written and satisfying. Deep and fulfilling.
Totally absorbing. I first read this book more than a decade ago and I enjoyed it just as much, if not more, the second time. If you love Little Women by Louisa May Alcott you may love this account of Mr. March while he served as a chaplain for a year during the Civil War. There is a lot of backstory folded into this tale, too, so we get to see him as a bachelor, then his courtship and early marriage years with Marmee. The pace is deliberate and thorough. This character-driven book has plenty of plot. It’s full of feeling without being sentimental, and full of truth without being preachy.
Enjoyed it so much!
A lovely midrash-esque retelling of Alcott’s story.
I enjoyed this book but it was fairly lackluster; not up to the calibre of “Little Women.” Good information on life as a Civil War soldier.
Did not like it at all.
Essential reading for fans of Little Women
I will read anything this author writes.
A good friend recently recommended Geraldine Brooks to me and, while I haven’t yet gotten to Year of Wonders, I did just finish March, historical fiction centered on the experiences of Mr. March, the absent father from Little Women. Brooks has conjured the person of Mr. March from the diaries and other writings of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott’s father, although his experiences at war derive from Brooks’s pen and mind.
On the whole, I enjoyed March. I liked the way Brooks weaved in scenes from Little Women, as well as the (true) backstory of the Alcott-Marches. I also appreciated that there were enough characters to people the story, without being so many as to send me searching through previous chapters for the most recent appearance of some minor soul. I also appreciated the style in which it is written; the flowery words often sounded straight from the nineteenth century. My one complaint is that I found the violence of some scenes to border on the gratuitous.
The only question remaining, of course, is whether I should dig out my old copy of Little Women and refresh my memory of the four March girls and their dear mother, Marmee?
(This review was originally published at http://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2014/01/march.html)
I was never a great fan of Little Women, but I am a big fan of Geraldine Brooks. Her twist of taking the perspective of Mr. March adds a more interesting dimension to the story. I might have to go back and try Little Women again!