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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
I'm a little torn about this book. Brooks' prose was undeniably beautiful—she has a real gift for elegant, exact descriptive prose, and I could certainly have read a much longer book by her without any qualms. The broadening of scope she gave to Little Women was impressive; yet I thought some of the aspects and angles Brooks chose to pursue jarred uneasily with the original work. The Marmee she writes here, while a vibrant character, was certainly not a woman I recognised from all the times I had read Little Woman when I was younger. Alcott's family of Marches may have been too good to be true at times, but I think Brooks over-corrected here at points. I'm really not sure where the vegan thing came from either—surely I remember them eating sausages at one point, though my memory might well be faulty in that respect. It was the way the book dealt with race, gender and the intersections with the two that troubled me, though. The African-American characters never seemed to make their way beyond the point of stereotype, and the most prominent of them all, Grace, could hardly have been less discomfiting to me. Some of the dialogue that was put into her mouth, particularly in one scene towards the end... ugh, the non-white characters should not all be there to provide Learning Moments for the white ones.
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Violence, War
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Racial slurs
Minor: Child death
Brooks is the most pretentious writer I have ever experienced. I think she wrote the book out of the thesaurus. There is no way people during the Civil War era spoke that way. The vocabulary distracted from the content of the story. The story itself turned out to be not too bad once I was able to ignore the fancy words. One Pulitzer Prize book read this year. 4 more to go.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The first half of this books was very hard for me to get thru. I was so tempted to put it down and give up on it. I am glad that I stuck with it. It did get much batter in the second half.
Brooks is truly a special talent. Once again, she takes the historical fiction genre and elevates it to something unique and superior. This is the story of Peter March, the father from Little Women, who is serving as chaplain in the Union Army during the Civil War. It took me a little while to get into the story; I had to give myself permission to dislike the main character before I could really be captivated. As a Little Women fan, I had expected to admire Mr. March, but he was an extremely faulty and (forgive the overused adjective) clueless dolt, who very often did much more harm than good with his cotton-headed views of good works and morality. Brooks' incredibly evocative prose, superior character development, and keen sense of place were all, as usual, extremely fine. When I pick up a book by her, I know I'm in very good hands. That all said, however, I had more admiration than affection for this book and it was not a particularly pleasurable read for me.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated