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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.