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shoelessmama 's review for:
March
by Geraldine Brooks
For the most part I really enjoyed this but I had my qualms (of course I did, it's Brooks and I always do...). My biggest issues were with how she wrote Marmee, and then in the afterword I read this-
"As with so many things in my life, this book owes its being to my mother, Gloria Brooks. I was about 10 years old when I read Little Women for the first time, at her suggestion. Though she recommended the book, she also counseled that I take it with a grain of salt. 'Nobody in real life is such a goody-goody as that Marmee,' she declared. Louisa May Alcott's real family was far less perfect, and therefore much more interesting, than the saintly Marches."
Now, even before reading this passage I knew why Brooks had written her the way she did and the depth of feeling and some of my favorite ideas in the end would not have come about if she had written Marmee the way that I prefer to see her. It's not that I really believe that she was as flawless as she seems in Little Women (just pretend with me for a moment that Marmee was a real person) but I still think she would have been above some of the thoughts that Marmee in March had. I definitely think that she would have been flawed and she would have been humble with a good understanding of those flaws but always striving to be her best. I think she would have had more honor, less likely to jump to conclusions (in that instance I think Brooks injected too much of the modern woman into her), more trust and less vanity. I DID enjoy how Brooks wrote her abolitionism and anger problem as a younger woman and how she struggled to overcome her temper through the years.
So, even though I really liked this if Geraldine Brooks were to write about Atticus Finch I wouldn't touch it. I don't think I could handle ALL of my idols being toppled.
"As with so many things in my life, this book owes its being to my mother, Gloria Brooks. I was about 10 years old when I read Little Women for the first time, at her suggestion. Though she recommended the book, she also counseled that I take it with a grain of salt. 'Nobody in real life is such a goody-goody as that Marmee,' she declared. Louisa May Alcott's real family was far less perfect, and therefore much more interesting, than the saintly Marches."
Now, even before reading this passage I knew why Brooks had written her the way she did and the depth of feeling and some of my favorite ideas in the end would not have come about if she had written Marmee the way that I prefer to see her. It's not that I really believe that she was as flawless as she seems in Little Women (just pretend with me for a moment that Marmee was a real person) but I still think she would have been above some of the thoughts that Marmee in March had. I definitely think that she would have been flawed and she would have been humble with a good understanding of those flaws but always striving to be her best. I think she would have had more honor, less likely to jump to conclusions (in that instance I think Brooks injected too much of the modern woman into her), more trust and less vanity. I DID enjoy how Brooks wrote her abolitionism and anger problem as a younger woman and how she struggled to overcome her temper through the years.
So, even though I really liked this if Geraldine Brooks were to write about Atticus Finch I wouldn't touch it. I don't think I could handle ALL of my idols being toppled.