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steelcitygator 's review for:
March
by Geraldine Brooks
A fair disclaimer to start the review, I have yet to read Little Women (though it has been on my TBR for a minute now). In fact, I didn't know this was based on any part of that novel going into it and didn't find out about it until about 1/3 of the way through when enough clues had really hit me to look it up.
That said, I found little about this work I really liked, it came offly close to a 1* review for me. I didn't really love much of what the main narrator has to say or actions. His relationships and interactions with those around him aren't really all that gripping and many of the pieces it sets up lack punch when they come through. I just really didn't enjoy much here.
The author clearly put in serious work to make it a believable portrait of the Virginia area right before and in the earlish period of the Civil War behind the frontlines (or, at least, mostly behind them). Pulling from many primary sources and high quality scholarship from experts and I do highly appreciate it. This type of "historical fiction" (a term I loath by-the-by but one I've seen associated with this so be it) is just extremely difficult to do right. This novel does better than most at representing the period but falls flat in the more literary portions of it.
That said, I found little about this work I really liked, it came offly close to a 1* review for me. I didn't really love much of what the main narrator has to say or actions. His relationships and interactions with those around him aren't really all that gripping and many of the pieces it sets up lack punch when they come through. I just really didn't enjoy much here.
The author clearly put in serious work to make it a believable portrait of the Virginia area right before and in the earlish period of the Civil War behind the frontlines (or, at least, mostly behind them). Pulling from many primary sources and high quality scholarship from experts and I do highly appreciate it. This type of "historical fiction" (a term I loath by-the-by but one I've seen associated with this so be it) is just extremely difficult to do right. This novel does better than most at representing the period but falls flat in the more literary portions of it.