March by Geraldine Brooks

 

I adore Geraldine Brooks' work.  With this volume, I have read all of her fictional writings, but she has just as many nonfiction publications as well!!  Each of her novels focus on different aspects of history, and no two are alike!

As I have mentioned before, I am not usually enamored of Pulitzer Prize winners, and honestly I am not really sure why this one won (or which works it was up against either, so I cannot even complain!).  Brooks imagines what life was like for one Mr. March, who, during the Civil War, leaves his beloved wife and four daughters behind to serve as a Union chaplain in a war he has very mixed emotions about.  His experiences and encounters with people from his past give us a glimpse into his flaws, which came a bit unwelcome to me.  

But we also get a deeper view into his youth, his marriage, and the growth of his family.  I loved how he fell for his wife, who is an impassioned abolitionist.  I loved how he described with joy and amazement the imminent arrivals of each of his children.  I loved that he is a vegetarian!!  I am not sure I have read a book with a main character who is a vegetarian (my daughter is a vegetarian - it can present a problem sometimes!)!  We learn that his family is in dire financial straits - and that it is because of decisions and investments he has made.  We get some insight into how his Aunt turns her nose up at his situation and insults the family by offering to "adopt" one of his daughters, Meg.  Not Jo, the oldest, but Meg, the pretty one.

And oh, yeah, did I mention that his four daughters are Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy??  Yep, THAT March family!!!  

Brooks tells us in her afterword that she based Mr. March in large part on the father of Little Women author Louisa May Alcott, Bronson Alcott.  Fitting, as the March family was also originally based on LMA's own family.  Even the language and speech Brooks uses in March are very closely tied to the rhythms of Little Women.  An interesting idea, and interesting work.  Is it necessary to Little Women as a sequel or in understanding?  I don't think so.  He is so absent from that work as to be dreamlike, and for some little girls it is better to have that dreamlike adoration of their fathers rather than knowing all of his flaws and mistakes and faults.