BOOK REVIEW: March

Author, Geraldine Brooks has used the absent father from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women as her main character in her novel, MARCH. While Louisa May Alcott based her series on growing up with her sisters, Brooks has based her story on what is known of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May’s real father. From Alcott’s books, all we know about Mr. March is that he is away, fighting for the Union during the Civil War.  Brooks takes a deeper look into his life.

As a young man, Peter March toured the South as a peddler. From these journeys he met with Southern gentlemen as well as their slaves and ended up a very wealthy man. He returned home to Connecticut where he met and married Marmee, an avid abolitionist involved in the Underground Railroad. The March family eventually lost their wealth supporting John Brown and his plans to settle run away slaves in their own communities.

Having spent much of the pre-war advocating the freedom of all people bound in slavery, March feels obligated to enlist in support of the Union. Too old to enter as a soldier, he enlists as a chaplain, leaving his family close to poverty. His idealistic nature has not prepared him for the realities of war and he is almost destroyed.

Much of the story is told through letters March writes back home. He had promised to always be truthful with Marmee, but too many times the circumstances of war were too dreadful to share.

Having read Little Women I found the people in the story as familiar as old friends. For people who enjoy history, the real characters, such as John Brown and Henry Thoreau, help the reader to remember that this time in history actually happened.

The book is brilliantly written. Geraldine Brooks does her homework and her books are always well researched. She keeps us involved with her ability to use descriptive language, whether she has March telling us about the sun setting on the river or telling us of the horrors of a military hospital.

This book will be of interest to fans of the March girls as well as to Civil War buffs. Be prepared though. This is first of all a war story, not pretty or romanticized. I found it hard to put down, but also a little hard to watch this idealistic man come face to face with the ugliness of war.