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March

Geraldine Brooks (Goodreads Author)

3.75 · Rating details · 53,630 ratings · 5,957 reviews

Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

From the author of the acclaimed Year of Wonders, a historical novel and love story set during a time of catastrophe, on the front lines of the American Civil War. Acclaimed author Geraldine Brooks gives us the story of the absent father from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women—and conjures a world of brutality, stubborn courage a ...more

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Paperback, 280 pages

Published January 31st 2006 by Penguin (first published March 3rd 2005)

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Mar 05, 2019 Jaline rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019-completed

March took me by my idealistic hands and thrust me completely into the Civil War where I experienced it in ways I had not before. It was easy for me to become invested in this story because it is based on the mysterious Mr. March from Little Women; the husband of Marmee, and the father of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.

With this book Geraldine Brooks wrote an important story. In her Afterword, she describes how the characters in Little Women were based on Louisa May Alcott’s own family. In her initial r March took me by my idealistic hands and thrust me completely into the Civil War where I experienced it in ways I had not before. It was easy for me to become invested in this story because it is based on the mysterious Mr. March from Little Women; the husband of Marmee, and the father of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.

With this book Geraldine Brooks wrote an important story. In her Afterword, she describes how the characters in Little Women were based on Louisa May Alcott’s own family. In her initial research, Ms Brooks discovered that the absent Mr. March could very likely have been modelled after Louisa May Alcott’s own father, Bronson Alcott. Like Mr. March in this novel, Mr. Alcott also counted Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau among his closest personal friends. Mr. Alcott kept journals throughout his life – an astonishing 61 journals – and his letters can be found in 37 volumes in the Harvard College Library.

There are many other parallels – and paths of divergence – between the fictional Mr. March and the real-life Mr. Alcott. To be fair, I will leave the balance of these for readers to discover for themselves when they read Ms Brooks’ Afterword. Suffice it to say that there are many similarities in ideals, values, and character, and there are also some parallels between their lives and occupations.

This novel is written in the first person, as recorded by Mr. March. Late in the novel, it switches the first person narrative to Marmee – a bonus for this reader and a wise choice due to the time it covered. We have an open door to Marmee’s heart and her own perceptions of the reality they find themselves living. When the story switches back to Mr. March, he is hesitantly facing his homeward journey – home to Concord, to Marmee, and to his little women.

This account of the battles and gruesome circumstances Mr. March becomes part of is offset by recollections from his early life, with one incident in particular a life-changing experience in many ways. This is when, as an 18 year-old trying to make a living ‘down South’ as a peddler, he comes across a family and a place that becomes his ideal and one he wishes to emulate himself. He also meets Grace, a young black woman who cares for the ill mistress of the family, and whose intelligence and wisdom are already in full nascent growth – as rapid as nature herself grows produce in that climate. With that meeting, young Mr. March’s idealism and moral standards take root.

It is also those qualities within Mr. March that cause him and his family much hardship later on. It is also those qualities that ensure the events Mr. March encounters in the war, including a chance return to the now-devastated plantation he had visited more than twenty years before, find him a prime candidate for what we now know of as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Far more than a continuation of a lovely novel for girls and young women, March is an in-depth study of war, of peaceful times, of the intellect versus the heart, of idealism versus pragmatism, of actions and their consequences, and of communication and communion between people, especially perhaps husbands and wives. Beautifully written, with a pace that is perfect, I am so glad that I finally had the chance to read this book and I can’t help but recommend it to everyone who wishes to see deeper into the human heart within the framework of characters we already know and love. ...more

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Aug 28, 2007 Sarah rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: people who like historical fiction

It's not that I don't like any historical fiction, I just think that it's a really hard thing to do right, without simplifying everything. Nah, I really just hate historical fiction. And I think that March is a perfect example of historical fiction gone wrong.

1. I hate it in historical fiction when... the author seems to cling to one or two details in history and repeat them over and over again. In this book, the author seems intent on measuring everything in rods, no matter how short or long t ...more

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Dec 04, 2008 Brian rated it liked it

I wanted desperately to like this book! And I sort of did! "Little Women" is one of my wife's favs, and I'm a sucker for Civil War novels (all five billion of 'em). But this book, though elegantly written, struck me as too schmaltzy and too overly preachy to enjoy. It was also a wee bit predictable as a Civ War novel. Brooks made sure to hit the Twelve Points of the True CW Novel: (1) interracial romance, (2) old urbane southern woman with power, (3) the meat and stench of the field hospital, (4 ...more

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Dec 13, 2016 Hannah Greendale rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary, historical-fiction, pulitzer-prize

Mr. March, father to Luisa May Alcott's Little Women, is brought to life in this poignant novel by Geraldine Brooks. When he departs to fight in the Civil War, Mr. March is unprepared for the great cruelties he will bear witness to. His moral certainties are called into question by the atrocities of war; his greatest struggle becomes a search for balance between staying true to his principals and doing what's necessary to triumph in battle so that he may one day return to his beloved wife and da Mr. March, father to Luisa May Alcott's Little Women, is brought to life in this poignant novel by Geraldine Brooks. When he departs to fight in the Civil War, Mr. March is unprepared for the great cruelties he will bear witness to. His moral certainties are called into question by the atrocities of war; his greatest struggle becomes a search for balance between staying true to his principals and doing what's necessary to triumph in battle so that he may one day return to his beloved wife and daughters.

Many chapters begin with Mr. March penning a letter to his wife. These introductions provide insight to his character and highlight a soldier's struggle in deciding what to write home, weighing the consequences of being truthful against a need to protect loved ones from the horrors of war:

And every day, as I turn to what should be the happy obligation of opening my mind to my wife, I grope in vain for words with which to convey to her even a part of what I have witnessed, what I have felt. As for what I have done, and the consequences of my actions, these I do not even attempt to convey.

Mr. March's letters often segue into the past, allowing for backstory that further enriches his character and depicts the savage treatment of slaves in the antebellum South:

From a burlap sack the man drew out a braided leather whip almost as tall as he was. Then, moving to a spot about six feet from where [she] lay, he made a swift, running skip, raising the lash and bringing it down with a crack. The stroke peeled away a narrow strip of skin, which lifted on the whip, dangled for a moment, and then fell to the leaf-littered floor. A bright band of blood sprang up in its place. Her whole body quivered.

After spending considerable time with Mr. March, the reader is rewarded with a few chapters written from the perspective of Mrs. March, breathing new life into a classic character. These chapters offer the same insightful gems from Marmee (Mrs. March) that readers gleaned from her character when reading Little Women:

I am not alone in this. I only let him do to me what men have ever done to women: march off to empty glory and hollow acclaim and leave us behind to pick up the pieces. The broken cities, the burned barns, the innocent injured beasts, the ruined bodies of the boys we bore and the men we lay with.

More fascinating still is the author's approach to creating Mr. March's character. Following in the footsteps of Louisa May Alcott - who modeled Little Women after herself and her sisters - Geraldine Brooks turned to the letters and journals of Alcott's father, Bronson Alcott. With use of Bronson's letters, the author infused her book with truth and generated a man who was a vegetarian and an abolitionist - both radical ideals in the nineteenth century.

March transports readers to 1861 with sumptuous prose and noteworthy characters, enriching a classic tale with new perspectives from old, treasured characters. ...more

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May 02, 2008 Sarah rated it did not like it

Ok, to be honest - I couldn't finish it! I've completely lost faith in the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It's becoming like a Grammy award for pop music (see Mariah Carey and Celine Dion). This book is pretentious and short-sighted from page one. Come on, a vegetarian, Unitarian, abolitionist, transcendentalist, book-lover from the North is just one HUGE cliche that, frankly, probably did not exist during the Civil War. I know that Louisa May Alcott's parents (as that is the subject of this book) ...more

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Mar 20, 2018 abby rated it it was ok

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, pulitzer

I have wanted to read this book for years. Now that I have, I'm left with the wish that I'd stayed clear.

It's not that this is a terrible book. There are parts to this story I really enjoyed, and it served as a great reminder of how powerful Civil War historical fiction can be. But the characters? Other than Grace, I would say no thank you.

Now, Little Women is one of my all-time favorite books. That proved to be part of the problem. It was so weird to me that these fictional characters who had l ...more

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Apr 16, 2015 Carol rated it really liked it

Shelves: ebook, historical-fiction, read-2015, civil-war

MARCH is the story of a once wealthy man with strong abolitionist convictions who leaves his wife and children behind to minister to union troops hoping to free and educate slaves.

Set during the Civil War, MARCH is filled with slavery's abominable cruelties that test a man's faith in humanity and unmask shortcomings that haunt him during a life threatening illness.

As the father in Alcott's Little Women this 2006 Pultizer Prize winner depicts Mr. March's tumultuous life during wartime with only b

...more

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Mar 29, 2017 Michael Finocchiaro rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, american-20th-c, pulitzer-winning-fiction, novels, pulitzer-fiction

This was a fabulous read. I found it more moving and better written than The Known World which treats a similar subject. March and his quixotic battle against slavery and madness during the Civil War is compelling and beautiful. Geraldine Brook's writing is astounding and kept me turning pages because I had to know what was going to happen. Although the characters were inspired by Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, the story Brooks tells is gruesome and heartbreaking. It is not dissimilar to Dre ...more

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Feb 28, 2014 Duane rated it it was amazing

Shelves: rated-books, american-classics, historical-fiction, pulitzer-prize, reviewed-books, 5-star-books, 21st-century, 2014-book-challenge

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2006. It's a remarkable work of fiction deserving of all the acclaim it receives. Many reviewers and readers like to talk of it's connection with Alcott's Little Women, and while there is a connection, it doesn't define what this novel is about at all. This book stands proudly on it's own merit without any help from it's famous connection. Other than the name and a few references to the little women at home, it has virtually no resemblance to Alcott's ...more

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Sep 12, 2009 Sandi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library-books-read, literature, 2009, pulitzer-prize-winners

I was all ready to give March by Geraldine Brooks three stars until I got to this passage:

"I am not alone in this. I only let him do to me what men have ever done to women: march off to empty glory and hollow acclaim and leave us behind to pick up the pieces. The broken cities, the burned barns, the innocent injured beasts, the ruined bodies of the boys we bore and the men we lay with.

The waste of it. I sit here, and I look at him, and it is as if a hundred women sit beside me: the revolutionary

I was all ready to give March by Geraldine Brooks three stars until I got to this passage:

"I am not alone in this. I only let him do to me what men have ever done to women: march off to empty glory and hollow acclaim and leave us behind to pick up the pieces. The broken cities, the burned barns, the innocent injured beasts, the ruined bodies of the boys we bore and the men we lay with.

The waste of it. I sit here, and I look at him, and it is as if a hundred women sit beside me: the revolutionary farm wife, the English peasant woman, the Spartan mother-'Come back with your shield or on it,' she cried, because that was what she was expected to cry. And then she leaned across the broken body of her son and the words turned to dust in her throat."

If you were ever a little girl in America, chances are you have read Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. You probably grew up with Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. You experienced their life living with their mother while their father was off serving the Union Army in the Civil War. You felt their excitement whenever Marmee would read them a letter from him. You know how Marmee was called away to help her beloved husband recover from some unnamed illness in an army hospital. What you never got was a real glimpse of the adult lives that circled around the March girls. In fact, you never even learn their parents' first names.

Geraldine Brooks must have had the same fascination with Little Women that so many of us former little girls did. She takes that fascination and fleshes out the story of Mr. and Mrs. March. The story opens with March (never a first name) writing a letter home to Marmee. (We find that Marmee is was everyone called her, not just the girls.) As he finishes his writing, the story takes us to the uncensored version of his past and what is happening to him at the moment. It's not all as he portrays in his letters. He's kind of interesting at first, but he gets kind of dull pretty quickly. The guy is just too emotional and flowery. What is interesting is his recollections of Marmee. She is by far a much more interesting character and the story definitely takes off once she takes over the narration in the second part of the book, when she comes to the hospital to nurse her husband back to health. Up until that point, I was thinking that this book was definitely a 3. I was kind of wondering what the competition was for the Pulitzer that year. I do have to give Brooks credit for trying to add a new, adult dimension to a nationally loved work of children's literature. I think she did a good job of creating something fresh while honoring the classic. ...more

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Jul 07, 2019 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Recommended to Chrissie by: Elizabeth (Alaska)

Shelves: civil-war, usa, philo-psychol, relationships, race, 2019-read, hf, audible-uk, feminism

Why have I given March by Geraldine Brooks four stars?

First of all, the author does an excellent job of drawing the Civil War and the mood of the country at this time. Brooks writes of the abolitionist movement, the Underground Railroad, the conflicting views of the Northerners and the Southerners, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, the transcendentalists, the place of women in society and overall, both the time’s new societal trends and the sure and staid views of the past that still held swa ...more

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Mar 10, 2016 Jessica rated it did not like it

Shelves: historical-fiction, award-winners, book-club

Bear with me. I have a lot of thoughts.

I've thought about reading this book off and on for years, since it a) won the Pulitzer, and b) is about Mr. March, the mostly absent father in LITTLE WOMEN, one of my favorite books. Two good recommendations, right? But I've never really been all that curious about Mr. March, and I heard some mixed reviews from friends, so I put it aside. Enter my new book club, and this is the first book we're reading. And so I'm working really hard on finding some ways t Bear with me. I have a lot of thoughts.

I've thought about reading this book off and on for years, since it a) won the Pulitzer, and b) is about Mr. March, the mostly absent father in LITTLE WOMEN, one of my favorite books. Two good recommendations, right? But I've never really been all that curious about Mr. March, and I heard some mixed reviews from friends, so I put it aside. Enter my new book club, and this is the first book we're reading. And so I'm working really hard on finding some ways to talk about the book tonight at our first meeting, without offending anyone or hurting the feelings of the woman who chose it. For all I know, it's her all-time favorite book.

So, anyway! I will share my thoughts here, with you all. And they are, as follows:

What, what, WHAT was Geraldine Brooks thinking?

Okay, okay, I will try to get my thoughts in order. There may be spoilers, just you know, consider yourself warned. Basically, this is not a sequel or prequel to LITTLE WOMEN, it is mostly a book about the Civil War. Fine. Good. But historical fiction, at least that which covers topics that have been covered a lot before, needs a hook. Why read this book, and not some other book about that era, right? So the hook here is the connection to LITTLE WOMEN, which is . . . well, crap. Not just because I have never, NEVER wanted to know about the sex lives of Jo and Meg's parents (MINE EYES HATH BEEN SOILED), but because it also contradicts their characters in the book. You thought that Mr. March, (based on Alcott's own father, a genius, scholar, and philosopher), went to war with the full approval of his family, where he brought strength and comfort to those around him? Nope. He was so blunderingly naive that he was a danger to himself and others the entire time. I lost count of the people who died because he was an idiot. And as for Marmee, that calm wise presence . . . just a bitter, foul-mouthed shrew, really. She reins it in here and there, under the loving direction of her husband, but mostly she is verbally and occasionally physically abusive. Oh. Right. I must have missed that in the original. Such additions, to make the characters more rounded, would have been forgivable if there had been any hints at all of such things in Alcott's books, and if they hadn't made both Mr. March and Marmee seem so completely unlikeable. Not just flawed, human characters, but outright unlikeable. March seems like a fool, and a martyr, trying to get himself killed to make up for his many, awful mistakes. Marmee is such a harridan that I cannot fathom anyone sympathizing with her, let alone loving her. Ever. In one of the first scenes with Marmee it's revealed that she is a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Neat, right? But we find this out because she berates everyone at a dinner party who isn't helping slaves escape. Um, doesn't that actually make her a liability to them? If everyone in Concord knows she's hiding people in her cellar, and they don't approve, aren't they worried that someone will tell the slave-catchers? I't's just bizarre. Had they not been characters I "knew" from another book, this would have been hard enough to read, since reading unlikeable POV characters is not my favorite thing, but since March and Marmee are beloved figures from my childhood, it started to make me think that Brooks had some vindictive reason for doing this. She seemed determined, especially with the final scene, to take a beloved childhood memory for many readers, and just, well, piss all over it.

The final scene! Seriously. Without going into too much spoilage, she essentially recreates an iconic scene from LITTLE WOMEN, only now we (supposedly) know what was "really going on," which makes the scene absolutely horrible. Like, unbearably bitter and without hope of redemption.

What makes this even worse (as if that were possible) is that not only is the prose quite lovely, but Brooks passes over a great hook, a perfect idea for a Civil War era novel, that didn't have to involve the destruction of someone else's characters. The best section of the book involves March spending time on a leased plantation, something that I had no idea was a "thing." As the war progressed, plantations that had been occupied by the north were leased to northerners, and the liberated slaves were paid to stay on and work the cotton for the Union Army. This produced rather mixed results, of course, and with the Secession army sabotaging them along the way. Now that, right there, would have made an infinitely better book! What a waste!
...more

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May 07, 2018 Rebecca rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: updated-classics, historical-fiction, pulitzer-prize, absolute-favorites, war-fiction

The best Civil War novel I’ve read. The best slavery novel I’ve read. One of the best historical novels I’ve ever read, period. Brooks’s second novel uses Little Women as its jumping-off point, but is very much its own story. Louisa May Alcott’s father, Bronson Alcott, was too prickly to come across well in a fictional guise (as her other family members did in Little Women), so it’s little wonder that she decided he would be a background figure in that novel. The Alcott family patriarch was The best Civil War novel I’ve read. The best slavery novel I’ve read. One of the best historical novels I’ve ever read, period. Brooks’s second novel uses Little Women as its jumping-off point, but is very much its own story. Louisa May Alcott’s father, Bronson Alcott, was too prickly to come across well in a fictional guise (as her other family members did in Little Women), so it’s little wonder that she decided he would be a background figure in that novel. The Alcott family patriarch was an eccentric idealist whose endeavors, including the doomed Fruitlands utopian community, often failed. Many dismissed him as a religious fanatic, and his vegan diet was considered beyond the pale at that time. Brooks relied on Bronson Alcott’s journals and letters in creating Mr. March’s voice, but has succeeded in adding nuance to an often unfairly maligned personality.

The book opens with March, a thirty-nine-year-old Civil War chaplain, stationed in Norfolk, Virginia and writing a letter to his wife and four daughters. The image of the placid family home quickly fades as we see a vulture eating a man’s entrails and another soldier drowning in a river. The beleaguered March soon finds himself in a familiar building: the field hospital where he goes to assist with blood-spurting amputations was once a mansion where he plied his trade as an eighteen-year-old peddler. Before being hastily ejected for trying to teach a Negro child to read, he fell in love with Grace, a dignified, intelligent slave.

Although most chapters open with his missives home, this domestic link becomes increasingly strained as March continues on a solitary odyssey he doubts his all-female family could ever understand; “imagining the four beloved heads, sleeping peacefully on their pillows in Concord” is increasingly difficult, such that “truth recedes with every word I set down.” Through flashbacks we learn how he met Marmee; spend time in the company of their Massachusetts neighbors, Henry David Thoreau and the Emersons; and hear about their abolitionist ventures: housing an Underground Railroad station and giving financial support to John Brown’s ill-fated plans. In the 50 pages when March is incapacitated by fever, we see the reeking swamp that was 1860s Washington, D.C. and the “inconstant, ruined dreamer” that was March/Bronson Alcott through Marmee’s eyes. The whole is a perfect mixture of what’s familiar from history and literature and what Brooks has imagined. Stellar stuff.

(See also my Literary Hub article on rereading Little Women in its 150th anniversary year and watching the new BBC/PBS miniseries adaptation.) ...more

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Feb 23, 2008 Amy rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Lovers of Little Women

Shelves: just-good-literature, 2008-books-read, favorites, pulitzer-winner

This is one of the most Pulizer-worthy novels I've read in a long while. The novel tells the previously untold story of the absent father in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. In Little Women, the reader only gets to know Peter March through his letters sent home to his family from the Civil War. Of course, in the interest of sparing his family the details of war, his letters are more cheerful than his reality. Geraldine Brooks uses the novel March to tell of Mr. March's early life as a traveling This is one of the most Pulizer-worthy novels I've read in a long while. The novel tells the previously untold story of the absent father in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. In Little Women, the reader only gets to know Peter March through his letters sent home to his family from the Civil War. Of course, in the interest of sparing his family the details of war, his letters are more cheerful than his reality. Geraldine Brooks uses the novel March to tell of Mr. March's early life as a traveling salesman, of his first kiss with someone other than his future wife, of the meeting of his wife, of his connections to Emerson and Thoreau, of his strong abolitionist sentiments, of the war that changed him both physically and mentally, and of misunderstandings and wrongs that were never made right in his life. Brooks draws heavily from the journals of Alcott's own father, Bronson Alcott, in order to flesh out the character of Mr. March. Since the "little women" in Alcott's novels were based on the members of her own family, it makes sense that Mr. March would be based on her father and that the March family would be acquainted with the same people they were. The Alcotts were, after all, contemporaries and acquaintances of many of the transcendentalist thinkers and writers of the time such as Emerson and Thoreau.

This is definitely the best prequel written by a different author that I've ever read. I remember being completely disappointed trying to read sequels or prequels by different authors for books such as Gone With the Wind . The author's journalistic background definitely helped her to give attention to the proper details needed to research such a book.

I initially did not recognize the name of the author as being the author of Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, a book that I loved so much that I ... er ... bought it from the library pretending that I'd lost it (in the days before amazon.com made any book accessible for purchase). Nine Parts of Desire is a work of non-fiction that she wrote as a journalist. So I'm thrilled to see that she has such a beautiful piece of fiction out there as well. Halfway through the book, I found myself saying to myself, "wow, this is a good book" and hoping to read something else by her soon. Years of Wonder tells the story of the bubonic plague in a small English town and People of the Book is freshly out in hardback.

Frankly, though, what I'm feeling the need to re-read immediately is Little Women. I absolutely adored that book as a child. I always saw myself as Jo because I loved to write. And I always hated that the character with my name (Amy) was such a spoiled brat. ...more

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Aug 22, 2007 Cayenne rated it it was ok

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Disappointing. I think I am done with classics spin-offs. The writing was fabulous, but I got fed up with inconsistencies in the characters and disappointments I felt about their portrayed actions. Halfway through I thought about giving up and should have. I hoped there would be redemption at the end and there really wasn't, at least not enough for me. There were two things that bothered me the most. 1)Mr. March, a poor farm boy, "loves" Marmee enough to teach her to control her temper, yet he c ...more

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Aug 03, 2007 Rebecca rated it it was amazing

I now know, having perused Geraldine Brooks' website, that March won the 2006 Pulitzer prize for fiction. I had not noticed that it had received such acclaim when I pulled it from the shelf at our modest library, but now, having finished the last page, I am not surprised it did. It is good. Brooks' is an authentic voice. Her extensive reading of primary sources, particularly the writings of Bronson Alcott, that was the inspiration for L.M. Alcott's father figure in Little Women, gives Brooks a h I now know, having perused Geraldine Brooks' website, that March won the 2006 Pulitzer prize for fiction. I had not noticed that it had received such acclaim when I pulled it from the shelf at our modest library, but now, having finished the last page, I am not surprised it did. It is good. Brooks' is an authentic voice. Her extensive reading of primary sources, particularly the writings of Bronson Alcott, that was the inspiration for L.M. Alcott's father figure in Little Women, gives Brooks a handle on the cadences of 19th century prose. Combined with her literary skill, Brooks brings to her narrative journalistic details, a result of her experience as a correspondent in war-torn countries.

In the novel, Brooks gives thoughtful consideration to a quandry common to many: how do we come to terms with the discrepency between our ideals and the realities of life? Mr. March is a pacifist, and enlists as a chaplain, seeking to live out his beliefs. Later, he later sees people in his care killed, and killed because of his own cowardice or in the effort to save him. It is a difficult cross to bear. Grace, the educated daughter of a plantation owner and his slave, offers this perspective to Mr. March as he flagellates himself for the horrors he believe he has caused:

"'You are not God. You do not determine the outcome. The outcome is not the point.'

"'The what, pray, is the point?' His voice was a dry, soft rattle, like a breeze through a bough of dead leaves.

"'The point is the effort. That you, believing what you believed--what you sincerely believed, including the commandment 'thou shalt not kill'--acted upon it. To believe, to act, and to have events confound you--I grant you, that is hard to bear. But to believe, and not to act, or to act in a way that every fiber of your soul held was wrong--how can you not see? That is what would have been reprehensible.'" (258)

Later, Grace continues:

I simply ask you to see that there is only one thing to do when we fall, and that is to get up, and go on with the life that is set in front of us, and try to do the good of which our hands are capable for the people who come in our way. (268)

This embodiment of grace is probably the greatest reason I found to love March, and to appreciate it for more than the historical fiction it is in genre. Brooks is right, and she expresses the truth eloquently; we waste precious time beating ourselves up over past failures. The only hope is to forgive, ourselves, then others, moving forward with conviction and compassion.

Related Links:

"March to the Front," an article about Brooks' journey to writing March, by Catherine Keenan of the Sydney Morning Herald

"The Writing Life," Geraldine Brooks' reflections on her craft
...more

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Feb 13, 2018 Darlene rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This novel, March written by Geraldine Brooks, was chosen as winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. The book has been sitting on my bookshelf for several years and I was reminded of it recently when thinking about one of my favorite books from childhood, 'Little Women' by Louisa May Alcott. I can't say that I ever gave much consideration to the absentee patriarch, Mr. March, while reading 'Little Women'; but after reading this novel, I realized just what a compelling story Mr. March had to tell.

M ...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Stacey rated it it was ok

Shelves: my-review-or-notes, books-by-women, pissed-me-off, eyebleedingly-sexist

The problem with March is that it's tied in to a beloved children's story. While this might have been a terrific marketing ploy, (fan fiction often is, since it offers immediate context and recognition,) it created two very different stories. The first: a reworking of one absent and one present (and much loved) character in a famous work of fiction. The second: a story of a pacifist who went to war in one of the bloodiest and most tragic conflicts in our nation's history.

The first seems a recip ...more

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May 21, 2020 Manybooks rated it did not like it

Shelves: could-not-finish, horrible-characters, historical-fiction, book-reviews

I do know and very much also realise that technically speaking, Geraldine Brooks' March is not really and actually either a sequel or a prequel to Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, but rather an adult-oriented historical fiction novel specifically focusing on the US Civil War. However, because Ms. Brooks has indeed and deliberately used Louisa May Alcott's Little Women characters, because she has used the fictional March family of Little Women as the main protagonists in March, many of us who ha I do know and very much also realise that technically speaking, Geraldine Brooks' March is not really and actually either a sequel or a prequel to Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, but rather an adult-oriented historical fiction novel specifically focusing on the US Civil War. However, because Ms. Brooks has indeed and deliberately used Louisa May Alcott's Little Women characters, because she has used the fictional March family of Little Women as the main protagonists in March, many of us who have read and loved Little Women over the years (and indeed, often since our childhood) will of course try and desire to make the connections, will expect Geraldine Brooks' March family to correspond to Louisa May Alcott's March family. And thus and yes, as soon as I started reading March and realised that in particular Mrs. March and Mr. March are actually and uncomfortably very much differently presented (and totally negatively so, at that) by Geraldine Brooks compared to how both Papa March and Marmee are shown by Louisa May Alcott in Little Women, I very quickly lost any and all interest and became so annoyed with my reading experience that yes, I decided to abandon March and to consider it yet another did not and could not finish book (and I actually even toyed with casting March into the garbage, so annoyed and furiously disappointed was I).

For honestly and infuriatingly for me, even though in Little Women Marmee does repeatedly mention to Jo that she and much like Jo has always had a bit of a temper, the depicted in March often raging and generally really nastily bitter and even quite majorly foul-spoken Mrs. March that Geraldine Brooks presents to her readers is in my opinion in no way even remotely close to and like Marmee and is actually even someone whom I for one could and would only despise and feel major animosity for (not to mention that Geraldine Brooks' Mr. March is also basically much too too negative for my tastes and as such also not really akin to how Louisa May Alcott presents the pater familias in Little Women). And while the depiction of the father in March might (I guess) actually be closer to Bronson Alcott (how Bronson Alcott was in real life, and how he often made his family's life a proverbially living hell), well, in my opinion, if Geraldine Brooks is going to be using the actual characters of Little Women in her story, then they really and truly should for the most part be similar to and not so horribly different from how Louisa May Alcott has depicted and shown the March family as being. ...more

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Oct 26, 2013 Cheryl rated it it was amazing

Shelves: pulitzers-nominees, historical, war-stories, slave-narratives, mesmerizing, letters, fav-authors

You read a book and its complexities will devour you and leave you unable to describe the feeling. There is not much I can say here. Complex characters, complex story, a complex timeframe, embodied within graceful prose. Enough narrative distance to create objectivity. Gut-wrenching. Soul-searching.

There is March, the main character, an abolitionist, who leaves his family to join the American Civil War as a chaplain. Then again, March is but a speck in the book, as there is an intricate plot wh ...more

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Apr 30, 2018 Doug Bradshaw rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Well written, excellent book about the tolls, misery and injustice of the Civil war. It was a bit too lugubrious for me so I marked it down a star. The main character, Peter March, is a well meaning vegetarian (hard to be a vegetarian back then...not that many whole food stores.) and at the ripe old age of 39, is trying to do good things for the abolitionist movement of the time. But the system is so horrible, so narrow minded and cruel, almost all of his efforts end in disaster and many of the ...more

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Mar 22, 2020 Matthew Quann rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020-pulitzer-challenge, historical-fiction, pulitzers, literary-fiction

Full disclosure: I've never read Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Given that I've never touched the source material, it may seem like an odd choice to read Geraldine Brooks' March, but it turned out to be a welcome and entirely enjoyable read. In fact, of the three books I've read so far for my 2020 Pulitzer challenge, March is far and away the best.

I was given to understand that Mr. March, the titular lead, is almost entirely absent from the proceedings of Little Women aside from the occasion Full disclosure: I've never read Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Given that I've never touched the source material, it may seem like an odd choice to read Geraldine Brooks' March, but it turned out to be a welcome and entirely enjoyable read. In fact, of the three books I've read so far for my 2020 Pulitzer challenge, March is far and away the best.

I was given to understand that Mr. March, the titular lead, is almost entirely absent from the proceedings of Little Women aside from the occasional battlefront correspondence. For me, this worked entirely since I was able to understand and appreciate this novel entirely without knowledge of the classic on which it is based. March's character is perfectly suited to carry the novel on his back with his idealistic aspirations and the way in which those ideals clash with the realities of the American Civil War. Indeed, I was at first taken by March's moral high ground and sunny outlook, but the novel's strength lies in the fragmentary erosion of the lead's ability to make any difference in the world he desires.

The book takes its most interesting turn when Mr. March finds his way to a recently liberated plantation that demonstrates how little he understands of the practicalities of the war. The former slaves and their newfound employer were compelling characters in their own right and act as foils to March. Reader be warned: this is also where the novel treads into its most horrific and depraved scenes. Though the novel can be challenging from a content perspective, I was taken by the complexity with which all characters are able to articulate their viewpoints and how they contrast with the perceived through-line of history.

For my personal taste, when the novel changes near the end to Marmee's perspective all momentum is lost. Though March's climax occurs just before that, the denouement of the story dips too heavily into the themes of marriage and truth, veering from the themes that had anchored the book in my mind. My edition of the book comes with an interview from Brooks who claims this change was in part dictated by the structure of Little Women and in part to explore the March's marriage. Though I can see the logistics of it, it fell a little flat for me and kept it from snagging a five-star review.

Despite that, March is a marvellous novel. I'd find myself thinking about a particular scene, character, or Brooks' excellent writing even when I wasn't reading the book. March challenges simple virtue, or at the very least zooms in on a seemingly straightforward moral dilemma to show all its complexities. I'll be thinking about this one for quite some time.

This is the third book of my 2020 Pultizer Challenge! ...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Gary the Bookworm rated it really liked it

In March, Geraldine Brooks imaginatively writes a back story for Little Women by turning a beloved children's novel into an adult tour de force. She takes on many of the critical social issues facing Americans in the Nineteenth Century and weaves them into the lives of the fictitious March family.

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The mostly absent father from Little Women takes center stage and confronts the prevailing moral crisis of the day-slavery and the abolitionist response. Real historical figures are introduced ...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Trish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: one-for-the-ages, fiction, favorite, war, audio, historical-novel

It feels like a long time since I’ve read such an accomplished novel. Geraldine Brooks manages to catch the horror of war in a phrase: “…[men] were clinging [to the rocky bluff over the river] as a cluster of bees dangling from a hive, and slipping off in clumps, four or five together.” Her characters are so richly drawn and steeped in a historically accurate language that we feel transported, and are eager to delve into our own researches.

In this novel she recreates the environment of one of o It feels like a long time since I’ve read such an accomplished novel. Geraldine Brooks manages to catch the horror of war in a phrase: “…[men] were clinging [to the rocky bluff over the river] as a cluster of bees dangling from a hive, and slipping off in clumps, four or five together.” Her characters are so richly drawn and steeped in a historically accurate language that we feel transported, and are eager to delve into our own researches.

In this novel she recreates the environment of one of our most beloved and earliest American writers, Louisa May Alcott. But instead of walking on furrowed soil, she moves back to imagine Alcott’s father, using his own journals and those of his friends, as well as the journals of Civil War chaplains, soldiers, medics, and slaves. She chose an unusual man, but she made him gracious, sympathetic, fallible, generous, and loving. This is essential to carry us through those bitter days of war, for we need a man willing to mull over events of that time but also to guide us.

He was sincere, but must have also been painfully strict with his family:

…I had come in stages to a different belief about how one should be in this life. I now felt convinced that the greater part of a man’s duty consists in abstaining from much that he is in the habit of consuming…None in our household ate meat but now we learned to do without milk and cheese also, for why should the calf be deprived of its mother’s milk? Further, we found that by limiting our own consumption to two meals a day, we were able to set aside a basket of provisions from which the girls were able to exact a pleasure far greater than sating an animal appetite. Once a week they carried the fruits of their sacrifice as a gift to a destitute brood of German immigrants.

I laughed to read this, for the sincerity of the father must be the disappointment of the daughters.

Part I is written in the voice of Captain March, chaplain of the Union Army. Though we learn the deepest secrets buried in his heart, we never learn his first name. Part II is written in the voice of his wife, Marmee March née Day of Concord, Massachusetts. The juxtaposition of the two voices shows us once again, should we need reminding, that gestures alone between husband and wife are often miscontrued and that we should try to give careful voice to our meaning and intentions if we wish the union to succeed.

“Ragged scallop of cypress woods”, Jo's “lawless strands” [of hair], “a cold drizzle [falling] from heavily swagged clouds”: such phrases spike the book with rich flavor and bursts of color, and these are all Brooks. It is a masterpiece of historical reconstruction, but what I reveled in most was her smooth and seamless telling of the tale in backward glances and nineteenth century cadence and language, her use of metaphor, her rich imaginings, and its grounding in historical record. We can thank her for reminding us of our history and for remembering those men and women who left records of their lives and of our most uncivil war.

For those contemplating the audio version, the Richard Easton narration is magnificent. His reading's fluency of expression and elegance of tone mirrors the beauty of the text. ...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: racism, civil-war, slavery, massachusetts, fiction, historical-fiction

Outstanding tale of Peter March, a Concord minister who serves as a Union chaplain early in the Civil war and then as a teacher for a Virginia plantation settlement for runaway slaves. Brilliant rendition of a the wartime experiences of the absent father in Alcott's "Little Women", with much return in memory of his life before meeting his beloved wife Marmee and the family accommodation to his loss of fortune due to funding of the abolitionist John Brown. Essentially the story is about the natur ...more

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Nov 08, 2015 Sarah rated it it was amazing

I simply ask you to see that there is only one thing to do when we fall, and that is to get up, and go on with the life that is set in front of us, and try to do the good of which our hands are capable for the people who come in our way. That, at least, has been my path.

I didn't see this emotional powerhouse of a sentiment coming for most of this book. The parts about Mr. March had me at a solid four stars. It was really good but not entirely great. But then, to my surprise, we got a section fro ...more

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Nov 10, 2015 Amanda rated it really liked it

Shelves: bookaholics-group, audible

I ended up liking this quite a bit more than I expected to. I really liked the structure of it. Brooks crafted this really well with rich details and well developed characters is a fairly short novel.

I do wish that I had read this instead of listening to it. The narration for part one was great but when it switched POVs the narration was too similar. I wish there would have been a female narrator for part 2.

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Dec 06, 2019 Jennifer (Insert Lit Pun) added it

Video to come on this soon, discussing it in conversation with Little Women. :)

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Mar 22, 2015 MaryG2E rated it it was amazing

Shelves: z2016-wanted-to-read, greatly-appreciated, z2016-alphabetical, z2016-aussie-authors

There have been so many reviews of this Pulitzer Prize winning novel, that I don't think I can add anything more to the discussion. What I would like to say is that I absolutely loved this book and think it a deserved winner of such an august award because of its exceptional qualities and the literary vision of its author. This is what I think about March:

The writing style is exquisite, with beautifully structured sentences and lively expression. Using a slightly antique, formal style, Brooks ha There have been so many reviews of this Pulitzer Prize winning novel, that I don't think I can add anything more to the discussion. What I would like to say is that I absolutely loved this book and think it a deserved winner of such an august award because of its exceptional qualities and the literary vision of its author. This is what I think about March:

The writing style is exquisite, with beautifully structured sentences and lively expression. Using a slightly antique, formal style, Brooks has evoked the 19th century but her skill means that the words danced off the page for me.

The narrative structure is excellent. March’s letters provide insight into one aspect of his thinking, while his first person narrative shows other facets, more honest and detailed than what he sends home to his family. A potentially disruptive switch in perspective from his narrative to that of Marmee, his wife, is handled with aplomb. It is valuable to get her interpretation of what has happened, and the author uses the crisis evoked by her mis-understandings to delve into the deep nature of the relationships between a husband and wife.

The literary allusion, to the junior fiction novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, is clever, but does not overwhelm the reader familiar with that delightful volume. Instead, Brooks has created an insightful work of adult fiction, in which mature issues of love, loyalty, fidelity, family, ego and pride are examined, to my satisfaction as a reader.

The historical events fascinated me. Brooks is married to a Civil War historian, and she has used the historical records brilliantly to paint an honest picture of the inexactitudes, inanities and inequalities which are borne out in such an emotion-charged conflict. Both Union and Confederate troops were involved in atrocities. Their commanders were guilty of poor decisions, which cost countless lives. Not all slaves wanted freedom, if they had a vested interest to protect. For me, the most enlightening part of the book were the chapters relating to March’s time at Oak Landing, the so-called liberated plantation. It functions as a microcosm for all the human frailties, nobility, evil and senseless violence than occurs in war.
5★s ...more

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Feb 26, 2012 Margaret rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: All lovers of serious historical fiction

Shelves: book-club

Having loved Caleb's crossing, I decided to check out all of Brooks' novels. March is another excellent book. Alcott gave us relatively little about Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy's father, and Brooks uses this book to imagine his life on the front during the Civil War. March served as a clergyman for the Union troops, and Brooks takes us directly into the war. But we do not have to stay there as she effectively uses flashbacks to fill in all the details we Little Women fans want to know about how he me Having loved Caleb's crossing, I decided to check out all of Brooks' novels. March is another excellent book. Alcott gave us relatively little about Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy's father, and Brooks uses this book to imagine his life on the front during the Civil War. March served as a clergyman for the Union troops, and Brooks takes us directly into the war. But we do not have to stay there as she effectively uses flashbacks to fill in all the details we Little Women fans want to know about how he met his future wife. In addition, Brooks takes us to other sites and times. For the character of Mr. March, Brooks researched Bronson Alcott, Louisa May's father, and embeds details from Bronson's life into the novel. As she did in Caleb's Crossing, she tries to recreate the language of the time. This is simply the best sort of historical novel there is, as it doesn't rely on using current lingo and interests to frame the structure and content of her books. If you haven't yet, give Geraldine Brooks a try. (First review was 02/26/12.)

A second time through (11/28/17). I reread this book, this time with my book club. If possible, I loved the book even more. It’s hard to overstate how strong a writer Brooks is. Her texts look fresh and authentic at once. Here she took a classic of children’s literature, a nineteenth century children’s novel, and added a new dimension by expanding on the character of Mr. March. He is hardly the overly sentimental character that so many in Alcott’s classic are. And despite the fact that we want him to be the perfect abolitionist and head of household we want Jo's father to be, Brooks insists on making him a human being with flaws and doubts. The plot is far wider ranging than I had remembered it being, even though I’d already thought she created many different experiences for her character over a long span of time. Readers of Brooks historical novels are rarely bored; instead we are shown a wide variety of locations and actions, and a series of surprises throughout. I again recommend this book. The members of my book club were split. Although all value Brooks as a writer, quite a few were disappointed with the character of Mr. Brooks, arguing that he was not a good enough man. I see why they said that, but I have to disagree. He was imperfect and aware of his imperfections. His path was never easy, yet he traveled it as best he could.

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About Geraldine Brooks

Geraldine Brooks

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Australian-born Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist who grew up in the Western suburbs of Sydney, and attended Bethlehem College Ashfield and the University of Sydney. She worked as a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald for three years as a feature writer with a special interest in environmental issu ...more

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