Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
I wasn't sure about this one and was ready to give up after the first few chapters. The premise of being based on Little Women seemed hokey and wasn't working for me. But I'm glad I stuck with it. It ended up being very moving. And the writing is so good!
Reading for June Book Club! Really enjoyed it. Thought I would go back and read Little Women again, but on further reflection, I'm much more interested in Alcott's life and history than I am in the "goody-goody Marches". Very well written.
I was really looking forward to reading this one given its acclaim and ambitious premise, but unfortunately almost all of Brooks' choices just didn't sit right with me. I found the novel to be drenched in white saviorism and furthermore woefully insensitive, from its questionable application of racially-charged diction to its depiction of Marmee's hysterical temperament. I could go on, but I'd rather start another book and hope for a better reading experience.
I gave this 4 stars but then reconsidered because I can honestly say it was amazing. To weave together history and beloved fictional characters as a jumping off point for another story usually leads to failure, but this book succeeds. The story is very strong on its own as well, and the writing is flawless.
Note from "future me": last year (2025), I started using Storygraph and ported over my GoodReads info. I'm glad it included reviews but am puzzled it doesn't show dates. I can't remember when I read this, and can't remember anything about the book other than knowing I wouldn't typically enjoy a Civil War setting, even if it's about a doctor instead of a military story. So if it impressed me it was in spite of the setting, not because of it. Sometimes I wonder if a book can truly be 5 stars if you can't remember it a few years later. I remember the title because in childhood I loved Little Women, but that's all.
Note from "future me": last year (2025), I started using Storygraph and ported over my GoodReads info. I'm glad it included reviews but am puzzled it doesn't show dates. I can't remember when I read this, and can't remember anything about the book other than knowing I wouldn't typically enjoy a Civil War setting, even if it's about a doctor instead of a military story. So if it impressed me it was in spite of the setting, not because of it. Sometimes I wonder if a book can truly be 5 stars if you can't remember it a few years later. I remember the title because in childhood I loved Little Women, but that's all.
Technically I'm not finished--I got about three-quarters of the way through. But I am now doing what I have never done before: I am putting down this book permanently with no intention of finishing it.
Don't get me wrong, it's very well-written. But I cannot abide the protagonist--a man who is supposed to be admirable, moral, a hero to his wife and daughters. I can't stand him. He is colorless, depressing, and dull. He has absolutely no sense of humor. He's a bore--to both me and the other characters in the book (with the exception of Marmee, seemingly).
Surely there will be many who will say this was the intention of the writing. Perhaps the art of the book was that he is meant to be a good man that no one likes. That's highly possible and even probable.
But I eventually asked myself why I was reading this book, and found no good answer and no good reason to continue.
Don't get me wrong, it's very well-written. But I cannot abide the protagonist--a man who is supposed to be admirable, moral, a hero to his wife and daughters. I can't stand him. He is colorless, depressing, and dull. He has absolutely no sense of humor. He's a bore--to both me and the other characters in the book (with the exception of Marmee, seemingly).
Surely there will be many who will say this was the intention of the writing. Perhaps the art of the book was that he is meant to be a good man that no one likes. That's highly possible and even probable.
But I eventually asked myself why I was reading this book, and found no good answer and no good reason to continue.
5 STARS
This is the story of Mr. March during his absence from the March family home in LITTLE WOMEN, away as a chaplain with the Union army. An ardent abolitionist and transcendental thinker, March is driven to enlist out of a sense of deep duty. When faced with the horrors of war, slavery, and the barbaric racism that exists on both sides of the war, however, March must reckon with his own beliefs. When the conditions of war lead to March contracting a near-fatal illness, he's transferred to D.C. to recover and met there by his wife, who attempts to nurse him back to health. In and out of fever and hopelessness, March must reconstruct his life and his conception of the goodness of humanity.
This is not a cozy read like LITTLE WOMEN, but it was an excellent and realistic look at what happens when ideology meets brutal reality. Brooks won the Pulitzer in 2006 for this book and it was well-deserved.
This is the story of Mr. March during his absence from the March family home in LITTLE WOMEN, away as a chaplain with the Union army. An ardent abolitionist and transcendental thinker, March is driven to enlist out of a sense of deep duty. When faced with the horrors of war, slavery, and the barbaric racism that exists on both sides of the war, however, March must reckon with his own beliefs. When the conditions of war lead to March contracting a near-fatal illness, he's transferred to D.C. to recover and met there by his wife, who attempts to nurse him back to health. In and out of fever and hopelessness, March must reconstruct his life and his conception of the goodness of humanity.
This is not a cozy read like LITTLE WOMEN, but it was an excellent and realistic look at what happens when ideology meets brutal reality. Brooks won the Pulitzer in 2006 for this book and it was well-deserved.
My first encounter with Geraldine Brooks was her novel, [b:People of the Book|1379961|People of the Book|Geraldine Brooks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1442955497s/1379961.jpg|3020568]. I loved the in-between stories the most, the stories of the characters told in and around the main character's story, which I had zero interest in, and I wanted more of those exceptional stories.
In [b:March|13529|March|Geraldine Brooks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327935441s/13529.jpg|2643796], Ms. Brooks goes deep into the psyche and backstory of the absent father from the acclaimed classic [b:Little Women|1934|Little Women (Little Women, #1)|Louisa May Alcott|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388269517s/1934.jpg|3244642], which I loved as a little girl. You do not need to have read that book to appreciate this interpretation of Mr. March while he's at war.
The writing is engaging, the story fascinating, and I so appreciated the character development of both Mr. March and his wife, Marmee, since access to their world doesn't exist in [b:Little Women|1934|Little Women (Little Women, #1)|Louisa May Alcott|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388269517s/1934.jpg|3244642].
I didn't read this book for its historical relevance. I was actually slow to read at the beginning because I was never enamored with the main character, himself. I found him to be pompous and a bit of a bore. But once he left his own day-to-day details to share with us his courtship of Marmee and their early years together, the story really picked up its pace for me, and then turned the corner completely when Marmee took over narration. Wow. She's the character to whom I had the greatest emotional connection.
I admire Ms. Brooks' ability to get in the heads of her characters; that is her gift. The characters live and breathe on these pages through Ms. Brooks' well-practiced pen and I can't wait to read more of her work.
In [b:March|13529|March|Geraldine Brooks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327935441s/13529.jpg|2643796], Ms. Brooks goes deep into the psyche and backstory of the absent father from the acclaimed classic [b:Little Women|1934|Little Women (Little Women, #1)|Louisa May Alcott|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388269517s/1934.jpg|3244642], which I loved as a little girl. You do not need to have read that book to appreciate this interpretation of Mr. March while he's at war.
The writing is engaging, the story fascinating, and I so appreciated the character development of both Mr. March and his wife, Marmee, since access to their world doesn't exist in [b:Little Women|1934|Little Women (Little Women, #1)|Louisa May Alcott|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388269517s/1934.jpg|3244642].
I didn't read this book for its historical relevance. I was actually slow to read at the beginning because I was never enamored with the main character, himself. I found him to be pompous and a bit of a bore. But once he left his own day-to-day details to share with us his courtship of Marmee and their early years together, the story really picked up its pace for me, and then turned the corner completely when Marmee took over narration. Wow. She's the character to whom I had the greatest emotional connection.
I admire Ms. Brooks' ability to get in the heads of her characters; that is her gift. The characters live and breathe on these pages through Ms. Brooks' well-practiced pen and I can't wait to read more of her work.
There were parts of this I really enjoyed and parts I found that dragged. March’s voice was very whining, I thought, which I personally didn’t particularly like..
