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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
Probably would not have finished this other than it was a book club read. Difficult to slog through, and then, about the 70 percent mark, it came alive.
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
So, so, so good. This book is a masterpiece. Took a bit to get into but then I couldn’t put it down
If you love Little Women, this is the father's side of the war. Enjoyable if you never read Little Women.
I confess to not having finished this book. I just couldn't get into it despite numerous attempts. Probably just my own lack of enthusiasm more than the writing.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Geraldine Brooks is an excellent writer, so you know that anything she writes will be well crafted and enjoyable. I almost didn't read this book, because it takes many of its characters from the popular book, Little Women, which I found rather saccharine with characters that didn't have much depth. But in this book Brooks takes the mostly absent father and the perfect mother, Marme, and makes them flesh and blood. Here they are not perfect. She uses these characters to give some insight into some of what happened during the Civil War, and the disillusionment that comes to those who experience war first hand. I enjoyed the switch partway through to Marme's point of view when we learn that her husband's perceptions of her feelings were not always accurate. A deep, but enjoyable read, with so much more substance than the sentimental Little Women.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
I enjoyed this historical fiction set in the early 19th century and in the early years of the U.S. Civil War. I liked reading about the Underground Railroad, John Brown, and the transcendentalist movement (Thoreau, Emerson). I think it helps to have read Little Women first so March's descriptions of his wife and daughters become more familiar.
(I read a copy of the 'Advance Uncorrected Proofs' that I found in a bookstore in New Mexico in 2006 (the store gave it to me) so I was left wondering what might've been different in the published version, but I wasn't enough interested to read it again to find out.)