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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
I am exploring Pulitzer Winners, which is the only reason I even heard about this book, it seems. I'm trying to be better about checking bestseller lists prize lists instead of going exclusively off of friend reccomendations. My goal with reading these Pulitzers is to see why they get the award - like what the similar vein is. I'm not there yet, so I have no answers.
I loved this book because it was based on the March family from Little Women, which was my favorite book when I was a kid. The characters were familiar to me and not unlike how I always imagined them. Of course, before I was focused on the children of the family, and now I was focused on the adults of the family.
My favorite thing that I learned: the Allcott (sp?) family really did join/create a "Utopian society" called Fruitland or something like that. It failed because they refused to kill the worms/mites that were destroying their friut crops because they were so against killing any animal.
It tied in nicely for my life because I've been watching the Ken Burn's Civil War series while I work. I was much more familiar with several specific battles and minor players that were mentioned in the book as a result of the documentary.
I loved this book because it was based on the March family from Little Women, which was my favorite book when I was a kid. The characters were familiar to me and not unlike how I always imagined them. Of course, before I was focused on the children of the family, and now I was focused on the adults of the family.
My favorite thing that I learned: the Allcott (sp?) family really did join/create a "Utopian society" called Fruitland or something like that. It failed because they refused to kill the worms/mites that were destroying their friut crops because they were so against killing any animal.
It tied in nicely for my life because I've been watching the Ken Burn's Civil War series while I work. I was much more familiar with several specific battles and minor players that were mentioned in the book as a result of the documentary.
I now feel like I have to read Little Women again (I haven't since I was young). This is the story of the father in Little Women that goes away to "fight" in the civil war (he is a chaplain).
Interesting in terms of history and the fact that it tied in with the Little Women story - yet, this novel was missing something. I think because I wasn't smitten with the main figure, the at-war dad in LW, I just found this a bit of a struggle to get through quickly.
Don't be shocked, but I haven't read Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. (I tried it once, as a adult, and didn't get into it.) However, I have seen one of the movies, and enjoyed it. So that's my background approaching this book. A reader's familiarity with, and fondness for, Little Women probably makes a big difference to how they read this book.
Mr. March is the father of the fictional Little Women. He's a chaplain and goes off to serve the army during the American Civil War. He doesn't do a great job of it, so is then sent off to a Union-leased plantation, where he's chaplain to the ex-slaves.
I liked the first two thirds of this book, which is from Mr. March's point of view. (Although I didn't feel the story had the brilliant characterization of Caleb's Crossing, which I loved.) March did irritate me a bit, but that's just me. Of course, I like complex characters that feel real, but indecisive, unsure, and tentative characters tend to get on my nerves. It's a personal failing of mine. March was a bit too navel-gazy and uncertain of himself to be my cup of tea. (I also found a crucial coincidence in the story too unbelievable.)
The last third of the book is from the point of view of Marmee, the mother of the Little Women. I didn't like this part of the book as much. But, first, what I did like: seeing how misunderstandings could arise between Marmee and her husband, because we see the same event through the eyes of both of them (at different times). That was well done.
But I wasn't a fan of getting inside the details of their marriage. I just didn't really care enough, to be honest. I like the idea of filling out fictional characters and making them more three-dimensional and subtle than the original, making them have flaws or qualities we perhaps didn't see the first time around. (Longbourne did a great job of this. And I'm a HUGE fan of Pride and Prejudice, so approached that book with a large degree of skepticism.)
SPOILER COMING UP...
Not only wasn't I invested in the details of their marriage, but I also have a 'thing' about unfaithfulness. I just find it an uninteresting way to add 'interest' to a fictional relationship. I don't enjoy reading about it. Again, this is just my personal preference.
So, overall, I liked this — but didn't love it, unlike Brooks' Caleb's Crossing, which was beautiful, moving, and had brilliant characterization.
Mr. March is the father of the fictional Little Women. He's a chaplain and goes off to serve the army during the American Civil War. He doesn't do a great job of it, so is then sent off to a Union-leased plantation, where he's chaplain to the ex-slaves.
I liked the first two thirds of this book, which is from Mr. March's point of view. (Although I didn't feel the story had the brilliant characterization of Caleb's Crossing, which I loved.) March did irritate me a bit, but that's just me. Of course, I like complex characters that feel real, but indecisive, unsure, and tentative characters tend to get on my nerves. It's a personal failing of mine. March was a bit too navel-gazy and uncertain of himself to be my cup of tea. (I also found a crucial coincidence in the story too unbelievable.)
The last third of the book is from the point of view of Marmee, the mother of the Little Women. I didn't like this part of the book as much. But, first, what I did like: seeing how misunderstandings could arise between Marmee and her husband, because we see the same event through the eyes of both of them (at different times). That was well done.
But I wasn't a fan of getting inside the details of their marriage. I just didn't really care enough, to be honest. I like the idea of filling out fictional characters and making them more three-dimensional and subtle than the original, making them have flaws or qualities we perhaps didn't see the first time around. (Longbourne did a great job of this. And I'm a HUGE fan of Pride and Prejudice, so approached that book with a large degree of skepticism.)
SPOILER COMING UP...
Not only wasn't I invested in the details of their marriage, but I also have a 'thing' about unfaithfulness. I just find it an uninteresting way to add 'interest' to a fictional relationship. I don't enjoy reading about it. Again, this is just my personal preference.
So, overall, I liked this — but didn't love it, unlike Brooks' Caleb's Crossing, which was beautiful, moving, and had brilliant characterization.
This book brings to life the beloved absentee father from Little Women. I was really into the March sisters when I was a kid, but the missing father never interested me. So, as an adult, I was interested in the concept of March, but I wasn't sure if I would really like this book. Generally speaking, stories about war do not interest me. There is a lot of opportunity for a historical fiction spin-off to be a one-trick pony mired in boredom and tedious historic adjectives. I was surprised when the narrative absorbed me. The characters were compelling - interesting, complicated, flawed and human. March has this self-conscious precociousness that makes me not necessarily want to have dinner with him, but I did want to know how life unfolded for him. This book has moral conflicts and soapboxes that surprised me. Some are predictable based on the context, like slavery, education of lower classes, women's rights and education, marriage and love, etc. But March's reflections on war profiteering, interracial romance and vegetarianism caught me off-guard.
The story was altogether more than I expected.
The story was altogether more than I expected.
How fitting that I finished this book at the beginning of March! Oh, the puns one can make in this glorious third month of the year.
Quite frankly, I cannot quite see how this book won the Pulitzer Prize. It is better written, I thought, than the other books I've read by Brooks, The People of the Book and Caleb's Crossing. Though certainly well thought out and an interesting spin-off of Little Women, I somehow did not feel quite as engaged or invested as I might have hoped. Perhaps this is partly due to the brevity of the novel. Brooks does not linger very long on each chapter of Mr March's experiences, so it occasionally seems she is barely skimming the surface.
Despite this disappointing lack of development, the message gets across fairly well. If the range of characters March comes across is slightly disproportionate to the depth (or lack thereof) of his relationships with them, then the combined effects of the lessons he learns from his interactions with each, as well as the hardening with time of his strength of principle, offer some compensation. By the end of the story, I was quite exhausted by March's hard-headed idealism and it was a relief when someone finally got past his almost stifling desperation to do good.
Brooks begs the question of what it means to be virtuous. How much of what (or whom) March believes is good is just him projecting his own principles onto the externalities of someone else's lived experiences? But moreover, this book forced me to look more closely another aspect of growing up that I'm still coming to terms with. No matter how old you are, there are hard lessons to be learned. Grown ups are not infallible, and March reiterates this reality. If you loved the steady assuredness of Marmie and Pa in Little Women, you can be certain that March will quickly and sometimes mercilessly strip away the image of those reassuring literary figures of parental comfort and strength. Luckily for me, I read Little Women at the cynical and hardened age of 23, so there was less force of nostalgia to be reckoned with. But those who grew up with Little Women and love the picturesqueness of the March family, either steel yourself for a rude awakening or worse--that which some might deem high-brow fan fiction.
Quite frankly, I cannot quite see how this book won the Pulitzer Prize. It is better written, I thought, than the other books I've read by Brooks, The People of the Book and Caleb's Crossing. Though certainly well thought out and an interesting spin-off of Little Women, I somehow did not feel quite as engaged or invested as I might have hoped. Perhaps this is partly due to the brevity of the novel. Brooks does not linger very long on each chapter of Mr March's experiences, so it occasionally seems she is barely skimming the surface.
Despite this disappointing lack of development, the message gets across fairly well. If the range of characters March comes across is slightly disproportionate to the depth (or lack thereof) of his relationships with them, then the combined effects of the lessons he learns from his interactions with each, as well as the hardening with time of his strength of principle, offer some compensation. By the end of the story, I was quite exhausted by March's hard-headed idealism and it was a relief when someone finally got past his almost stifling desperation to do good.
Brooks begs the question of what it means to be virtuous. How much of what (or whom) March believes is good is just him projecting his own principles onto the externalities of someone else's lived experiences? But moreover, this book forced me to look more closely another aspect of growing up that I'm still coming to terms with. No matter how old you are, there are hard lessons to be learned. Grown ups are not infallible, and March reiterates this reality. If you loved the steady assuredness of Marmie and Pa in Little Women, you can be certain that March will quickly and sometimes mercilessly strip away the image of those reassuring literary figures of parental comfort and strength. Luckily for me, I read Little Women at the cynical and hardened age of 23, so there was less force of nostalgia to be reckoned with. But those who grew up with Little Women and love the picturesqueness of the March family, either steel yourself for a rude awakening or worse--that which some might deem high-brow fan fiction.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Better than I thought it would be (first chapter not so hot). Was able to read it quickly.
emotional
medium-paced