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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. At times it was terrifying in descriptions of the Civil War. What a gruesome war it was. Although [b:Little Women|1934|Little Women (Little Women, #1)|Louisa May Alcott|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309282614s/1934.jpg|3244642] spoke nothing of Mr. March's affair with Grace, it had a strong effect on the story here. I am very glad to have read this book.
Some thoughts. . .
1. I've hiked Ball's Bluff Battlefield (where the book begins) so that was kind of cool.
2. I appreciated Ms. Brooks's research and interweaving, but then she confesses to not sticking to the dates LM Alcott gives in the book? What the heck?
3. And then the March house is a stop on the underground railroad? Um, no. That's not in the original. And I get it, the Alcotts did, but not the March family.
4. And last: why did that story need to be told? Mr. March was at turns whiny, preachy, and weak, and I couldn't find anyone else to like in the story.
5. I'm sorry -- I know it's a Pulitzer Prize winner, but it's still "meh."
1. I've hiked Ball's Bluff Battlefield (where the book begins) so that was kind of cool.
2. I appreciated Ms. Brooks's research and interweaving, but then she confesses to not sticking to the dates LM Alcott gives in the book? What the heck?
3. And then the March house is a stop on the underground railroad? Um, no. That's not in the original. And I get it, the Alcotts did, but not the March family.
4. And last: why did that story need to be told? Mr. March was at turns whiny, preachy, and weak, and I couldn't find anyone else to like in the story.
5. I'm sorry -- I know it's a Pulitzer Prize winner, but it's still "meh."
This book was devastating. I couldn't read another book for about a month. It was so powerful, so intense and I had no idea I was so invested emotionally until the end of the book when I was just blown away. I tend to have emotional reactions after particularly intense books but this takes the cake. I think the next book I picked up after that was a romance or something light. It was a GREAT book - highly recommended. I could't read it again, though.
A novel as dark as it is beautiful. This book will utterly transport you into the Civil War and the morally conflicted mind of Mr. March, chaplain in the Union army. This literary journey into the war and its ambiguities is stunning.
Geraldine Brooks is the queen of historical fiction.
Geraldine Brooks is the queen of historical fiction.
I’m a Louisa May Alcott fan, but you don’t have to be one to enjoy this tender, engrossing historical novel. The author has borrowed Mr. March, the father of Alcott’s “Little Women”, and imagined what could have befallen him during the year when he left his family to be a chaplain in the Civil War. Mr. March himself was based on Bronson Alcott, Louisa’s father, an interesting character who lived according to his beloved, progressive, marginally crackpot ideas. How would the experience of war change such an idealist, such a true believer? It’s worth the telling.
I enjoyed reading of the perspective from Mr. March the father of the girls in Little Women and how it might have been to be away from family during the Civil War,
This book is beautiful. It earned it's Pulitzer. It also absolutely killed my soul, and I can't rate or review it in good conscience.
I thought that because the tragedy here isn't disease based that it would be okay to read. However, the supremely real depictions of the Civil War and the tragedies behind the scenes, while compelling, were too much for my current mental state.
I'd love to give this another go during a less tumultuous time.
I thought that because the tragedy here isn't disease based that it would be okay to read. However, the supremely real depictions of the Civil War and the tragedies behind the scenes, while compelling, were too much for my current mental state.
I'd love to give this another go during a less tumultuous time.
We know the story of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy and Marmee; this is the story of Father, away at war, and a clever, engaging book on many levels. The first part is a richly woven backstory, alternating between letters home from Mr. March (he has no first name in Little Women, and none here) to his Marmee, and flashbacks to incidents in March's past. We see allusions to the story we know, but this is a very different lens: Marmee is not the sweet, patient soul (and Marmee isn't a cutesypie name for Mommy, either), and March himself is a complex character rather than a half-seen cardboard cutout. The second part of the book alternates in viewpoint between March and Marmee, in a side story directly from Little Women: Mr. March in the military hospital, with Marmee at his side.
The first part is particularly excellent in the sections dealing with the Marches' life in Concord; it was hard for me to remember that they were not, in fact, historical characters like the others in those chapters. The sections where March is in the South, on the other hand, reminded me a bit too strongly of Gone With the Wind and other ante- and post-bellum literature and film: they were evocatively written and in many parts very compelling, but I felt I'd seen many of the scenes before, and others seemed too melodramatic.
The best part of the book, however, is Brooks' clever twisting of the familiar story (and a familiar character) into something completely different. It's like seeing The Sixth Sense after you know the twist - everything in the story can still be seen either way, but once you know the second way of looking at it, everything is changed.
The first part is particularly excellent in the sections dealing with the Marches' life in Concord; it was hard for me to remember that they were not, in fact, historical characters like the others in those chapters. The sections where March is in the South, on the other hand, reminded me a bit too strongly of Gone With the Wind and other ante- and post-bellum literature and film: they were evocatively written and in many parts very compelling, but I felt I'd seen many of the scenes before, and others seemed too melodramatic.
The best part of the book, however, is Brooks' clever twisting of the familiar story (and a familiar character) into something completely different. It's like seeing The Sixth Sense after you know the twist - everything in the story can still be seen either way, but once you know the second way of looking at it, everything is changed.