March
by Geraldine Brooks
Award: Pulitzer Winner 2006
Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2007
Dates Read: March 8, 2008 & June 24, 2017
March is a lovely novel that expands on Louisa May Alcott's famous novel, Little Women, entirely from the perspective of the father, Mr. March. He leaves his family for the Civil War and they are forced to fend for themselves in his absence. Fighting on the Union side, he writes frequent letters home, yet omits many of the brutalities and horrors he experiences. While recovering from a prolonged illness on a plantation in the south, Mr. March meets Grace, a slave whom he had previously met as a young woman. Eventually, he returns home to his family, although he is forever altered by the war.
Brooks' enchanting creation is remarkable as it is well-researched. Modeling Mr. March on Alcott's father, Amos Bronson Alcott, she used his letters and journals to create this robust and very likeable character. He is human in every sense of the word - charming and intelligent, yet flawed and hesitant. Brooks' ability to switch between Mr. March's perspective and Marmee's allows the reader to more fully understand the challenges both face in their present circumstances and I fully appreciated the ability to identify with both.
I will readily admit that I have not read Little Women but, alas, have only ever seen the movie. Often, watching a movie first will deter me from reading the novel afterwards. Therefore, having only experienced Mr. March through his absence and through the lens of what the screenwriter chooses to reveal, I was pleasantly engrossed in this novel, so much so that I read it twice.
Dates Read: March 8, 2008 & June 24, 2017
March is a lovely novel that expands on Louisa May Alcott's famous novel, Little Women, entirely from the perspective of the father, Mr. March. He leaves his family for the Civil War and they are forced to fend for themselves in his absence. Fighting on the Union side, he writes frequent letters home, yet omits many of the brutalities and horrors he experiences. While recovering from a prolonged illness on a plantation in the south, Mr. March meets Grace, a slave whom he had previously met as a young woman. Eventually, he returns home to his family, although he is forever altered by the war.
Brooks' enchanting creation is remarkable as it is well-researched. Modeling Mr. March on Alcott's father, Amos Bronson Alcott, she used his letters and journals to create this robust and very likeable character. He is human in every sense of the word - charming and intelligent, yet flawed and hesitant. Brooks' ability to switch between Mr. March's perspective and Marmee's allows the reader to more fully understand the challenges both face in their present circumstances and I fully appreciated the ability to identify with both.
I will readily admit that I have not read Little Women but, alas, have only ever seen the movie. Often, watching a movie first will deter me from reading the novel afterwards. Therefore, having only experienced Mr. March through his absence and through the lens of what the screenwriter chooses to reveal, I was pleasantly engrossed in this novel, so much so that I read it twice.
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