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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
I found the exploration of Mr. March's interior life very poignant and insightful. I'm sure devotees of Little Women find this version maddening and maybe even sacrilegious, but I thought it was an interesting thought experiment about the evolution of character through difficult times and the sacrifices required in marriage. And Ms. Brooks writing is beautiful.
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Excellent historical novel about the life of Mr. March from Little Women--abolitionist, minister, and passionately committed to justice.
Amazing! Beautiful and starkly realistic at the same time. The March family and their story now feels complete and real.
I am fairly stumped by the fact that this book won a Pulitzer Prize-- I found it to be very bland and mediocre. The first half of the book is narrated by Mr. March and the second half by Mrs. March. I think Brooks might have pulled off the story better if she hadn't used first person, which is very difficult to do well. I found both voices to be "off" and somewhat exaggerated and affected. Consequently, I found both Marches to be quite unlikeable in this book. The overall inspiration for the book is an interesting one - when the gentle and placid Mr. March returns at the end of Little Women there is no indication of any of the effects of the Civil War on his psychological and emotional health-- he is simply portrayed as healing from a wound and a fever. I think it was an idea worth exploring, but I think Brooks' execution was poor. I did appreciate the way she explored some of the nuances of the Civil War (particularly the fact that many if not most Union soldiers were not abolitionists and didn't particularly care about the slaves-- the slavery dynamic of the Civil War seems to me to be routinely oversimplified so I liked that Brooks addressed this).
This is such a charming book of historical fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the authors writing style, character development and ability to seemlessly segue between time and events to tell such a great story. I loved how she developed characters and themes together: fatherhood, love, moral certainty, the war. This is such a great read and Brooks is a great writer. I am motivated to check out her other reads.
Found this a bit of a drag really. March is a neurotic, nieve, silly man. I also dont like how the author throws in all the famous people. Not sure what it does for the story except annoy (me anyway). Made it to the end only because Id couldnt face not reading another book Id paid good money for. Ah well.
This is a thoughtful journey of Mr. March as he serves during the Civil War, far from his Little Women. The horrors of war are on full display and take a toll on Mr. March. Additionally, we see his youth, his courtship of Marmee, and the early years of his children's childhood. At times a difficult read, this is a well done tale of the March girls' missing father.
3.5 stars rounded down to 3, because I was tempted to DNF it from its slow pace. While it was as well written as I've come to expect from Brooks, I generally felt I was enduring it more than enjoying it.