March by Geraldine Brooks

Summary

This Pulitzer prize winning novel is an interpretation of the life of the absentee father (Mr. March) in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. We become privy to Mr. March’s past when he starts out as a peddler, then an idealistic preacher where he meets and later supports his wife Marmee‘s contributions to the Underground Railroad. Eventually, Mr. March enlists in the Civil War at the age of thirty-nine and serves as a chaplain. When he is caught in a compromising position with a black slave, he is transferred to a teaching position on a cotton plantation. It is here that Mr. March’s idealism is challenged as he sees the injustices of slavery, the cruelty and racism of soldiers from both the North and South, and suffers the trauma of a gruesome war. The harsh plight of the slaves does not change with their ’freedom‘. Highly recommended for war fiction fans and a must read if one of your favorite books was Little Women.

Discussion

-This book is very well written and researched, we chose this book since we had all enjoyed the author’s previous novel: People of the Book. The author painted a very realistic picture of Civil War times, we were surprised however, that this book won the Pulitzer prize - we felt that People of the Book might have been a better candidate.

-Mr. March was portrayed as a much weaker person than his character in Little Women.

-The plot was slow to develop in the beginning, making it at times a slow read.

-The miscommunications, caused by misinterpreted actions in their marriage during the Civil War is not much different than the miscommunications couples face today.

-We enjoyed how famous people of the time were woven into the story such as: John Brown, Ralph Waldo Everson, and Henry David Thoreau.

-It was noted that Mr. March’s vegetarian diet must have been difficult to maintain during that era.