If you love historical fiction you will be at home with March. A different take on Little Women, about the little known father takes March through the Civil War through the eyes of an abolitionist.

I abandoned this at page 242. One the one hand I might as well go ahead and finish it, but I think it would just be my eyes passing over words. I really could not engage with this book. Perhaps this was because the character of March seemed so remote, written in a style which (very cleverly) emulates the language of literature at the time. I'm not a Little Women fan in the first place, reading it concurrently with this book. However, I don't think that March is necessarily going to appeal to Little Women fans - it stands alone in its own right as an historical tome. Not for me, however.

Geraldine Brook's "March" envisions the world before the classic novel "Little Women". She explores how Mr. and Mrs. March met, and why they are the people we know in "Little Women." The book also explores Mr. March's service during the Civil War, including the incidents leading to his injury and recovery.

Geraldine Brooks does an excellent job rounding out classic characters in "March" and making them into much more than what the reader of "Little Women" knows about them. She explores Mr. March's character as a young man, and creates for the reader the events that made him into an abolitionist, and eventually led him to invest his life earnings in the schemes of John Brown. She shows us Marmee, as a fiery woman with a fierce temper who is passionately committed to the Underground Railroad and the independence of women. Brooks' narrative is beautiful, and I felt transported to her locations throughout the first half of the 19th century. She also has a wonderful way of getting inside the heads of these characters that I thought I knew to give me a whole new perspective.

If you are a "Little Women" fan, I highly recommend that you read this book. I think it will reintroduce you to the world of "Little Women" a create a new perspective for you on why the novel is how it is. ( )

In the children's classic, "Little Women," Mr. March is a minor character, far from the center of the action but emotionally important to the family. "March" brings him front and center and shows us an entirely different sort of man than we may have imagined. Brooks has loosely based her character on Alcott's own father, drawing the character and personality of March from her imagination. He is a man about whom one might charitably say, "His intentions were good." So they were, but the character falls far short of the idea portrayed in "Little Women." He is a man deeply flawed, weak, misguided and yet fundamentally kind and decent. Brooks' interpretation of "Marmee" was still more disturbing. The character in "March" simply did not square with the character in "Little Women."

On the plus side, Brooks did a fine job of even handedly presenting the squalor,horror and sadness of the Civil War and a good job of underlining the obliviousness of the typical19th Century man to what was close the heart of the women in his life. Still, if you want to read Brooks, try "Year of Wonders." It's simply a better book. ( )

In general I did NOT enjoy this book. I did find several quite good short stories wending their way through a lot of sheer pap! ( )