March | Geraldine Brooks | loved this book

March | Geraldine Brooks | March in and out of step

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March

	March Geraldine Brooks Penguin (Non-Classics), 2006 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 146 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

loved this book

The author has a wonderful way with words and the English language. Very descriptive. You really got a sense of how the Civil War affected the nation. I especially liked Mr. March's take...I read Little Women when I was a young girl and Jo was always my heroine. Mr. March is now my hero. Great read! My book club loved it, without exception.

March in and out of step

I admit that I have higher expectations for books that have won a Pulitzer Prize, which is unfair to the author. After all, how many authors set out to write a Pulitzer Prize winning book? It must come as an unexpected surprise.

So I am trying to set those expectations aside as I rate this fine novel with four stars. I appreciate the author's research and interweaving into this story of historical facts, personages, and "the rest of the story" from "Little Women." My only quibble with the character of Peter March is that he is, as the School Library Journal states, "amazingly naive about human nature." I would say that he is painfully naive, which I found to be slightly at odds with his otherwise complex and ambivalent character.

But on the whole, this well wrought Civil War tale is pleasantly affecting and accurately presents some uniquely 19th century sensibilities. I enjoyed the dual perspectives, of Peter March in Part One and wife Marmee March in Part Two.

I would offer one bit of advice to readers: You will enjoy the story even more if you read the Afterword first. Don't worry; there are no spoilers in it!

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I learned a lot about the Civil War

From reading this book. It really gave you an idea of what it was like to be there, way more than any history book I've read, and still kept you interested and involved with the main character.

Educational, perhaps not enjoyable

I'd heard an interview with the author on public radio shortly after she was awarded the Pullitzer, and I finally remembered to find and read her book. I'd of course read Little Women as a child, but it wasn't a sacred text to me; I didn't think I'd be too disturbed by the "add-on".
I wish I could say I liked it, but I just didn't. Yes, it's very well researched and perhaps more riveting than a textbook about the Civil War, but I sincerely didn't care about the characters. March himself simply doesn't ring true as a human being. I echo some other reviews here by saying that no man "of religion" would have such an absence of spirituality and faith, and I was sincerely bothered by his continued disregard for the family he supposedly loved. How could he have complete adoration, compassion and empathy for the slaves and fighters he encountered and have almost no compassion or empathy for the family he left behind?
When we are introduced to the first person voice of Marmee, I initially thought it was funny that her perspective of their misfortunes was opposite to her husband's -- sort of "Heh. Spouses didn't communicate well back then either..." But it was only a few pages before I despised her. What a contemptable witch!
Between March's post-traumatic stress disorder and Marmee's selfishness, self-righteousness (and total lack of self-awareness), I stopped caring about either of them, and then the book finishes.
So. I've now read a book about the civil war, and learned a few more things from a fresh perspective. I'm very glad that I didn't have precious memories of Little Women, because I'm sure they would have been shredded by this book. But, I learned things, and I can say I read it.

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