This book can be appreciated on two levels. First, it is an enthralling novel of the Civil War filled with well-researched details about the people and not the battles.

Second, and the reason I bought it, is that it is the adventures of Mr. March, the rather vague and saintly father from Little Women. Little Women was one of the very first books I had ever read and I fell in love with the March family. Reading MARCH was like discovering things about your parents' pasts that both shocked you and made you admire them. I had just finished "Eden's Outcasts", a biography of Louisa May Alcott and her father Bronson Alcott and this book was so close to Bronson Alcott that I had to keep reminding myself it was a novel.

Some readers might be disturbed by the nature of Mr. March's fall from grace. But his sins serve to illuminate his goodness. If you want to preserve your images of the March family from your childhood reading, don't read this. If you want to find out more about Alcott herself and what might lie behind the stage dressing of her novels, read it.

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 (Signet Classics). 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.

Brooks' revision of the beloved classic tale of the March family fills in the gaps that Alcott could not provide: the devastating effects of war on both the soldier and the family members waiting at home. I disagree with other reviewers that the book spoils the beauty of the close-knit March family we know from the original tale. Instead, I believe both narratives can exist side by side. Brooks has written a hauntingly beautiful book that you will think about for a long time.

I previously read Geraldine Brook's 'People of the Book' and 'Year of Wonders'. 'Year of Wonders' is one of my all time favorite books. I really enjoyed this story as well.

Brooks has created a moving account of Mr. March's experience during the Civil War. Mr. March is the father in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women.

This was our book club's book choice for September. I had every intention of reading Little Women before I started reading March. I never read Little Women and I thought I should have the back story before reading about Mr. March's. I checked out Little Women from my local library and started to read about the four March sisters but I didn't make it very far. I think with books, like many other things in life, 'timing is everything'. Little Women is clearly written for young girls and I am not a young girl, I feel certain that I missed my chance to love Louisa Alcott's classic by about thirty years or so.

And from the sound of the reviews from people who loved Little Women, perhaps my experience or lack thereof helped me enjoy this story better than I would have if I had read Little Women. I didn't have my own ideas about Mr. March and how perfect he was and so, I didn't feel betrayed or disappointed by anything he did.

I thought that Brooks painted a vivid picture of the complications that a man like Mr. March would endure as a chaplain during the civil war and as an idealist.

I thought the characters Brooks brings to life were realistic with both their strengths and weaknesses portrayed. Many times we think we understand these characters and their motivations only to discover we were wrong.

I enjoyed March's narration and perspective. I thought it was very clever of Brooks to give Mrs. March a chance to narrate and give us her perspective, there are two sides to every marriage and I was interested in hearing hers.

I found it to be a moving and insightful story that I would recommend to fans of historical fiction and I would say this would be a great choice for a book club that enjoys intellectual discussions.

excellent historical novel with recognizabile lead character. worthy of the pulitzer that it won.

The "horror", "shock" and "dismay" by reviewers who found March an aborhent departure from the classic that inspired this beautifully conceived novel seems more aptly suited to pre-teens than mature adults. Is it really so amazing that a decent man can be flawed? That a happily married man might, in extraordinary circumstances, stray and break a wedding vow? Or that an idealist's certainty may crumble under the grim reality of war's carnage.

This is fiction people. It uses the skeleton of a story to add flesh and bones to a character who is "the absent presence" in Little Women. It is the novel Louisa May Alcott might have written if she were not constrained by 19th century convention. If one wants that convention perpetuated, I suggest sticking to the "sequels" to Gone With The Wind and Pride and Predjudice. I for one don't care to know what a balding Rhett or a Darcy with arthritis might have been like. But I do greatly appreciate a nuanced portrait of the 19th century with all its idealism and venality. It seems to be a century very much like our own.. And that is historical fiction at its very best.

I had very high expectations for this book given her other book. Both my wife and I could not finish it and gave up half way through it. it is extremely well written, but I got to the point that i just did not care what happened to the main character.

This book was a big hit with my book club. Well-developed, interesting characters and a good story. Good historical fiction by an accomplished writer.

"Little Women" is one book that is a big sentimental favorite with me. It's the first book I reviewed for Amazon and I still re-read it occasionally,because it's like visiting an old friend. I think Ms. Brooks has done a wonderful job with her back-story of Mr. March,the family patriarch,who is really a minor character in the original. He is shown as a highly idealistic man(especially for the times he lived in) A strict vegetarian,extremely intelligent ,unique in his spirituality(the real-life father was a Transcendentalist.) I also really liked how "Marmee" is portrayed. Almost saintlike in "LW",here she is shown as a smart,intense woman. Outspoken and at times,very temperamental,yet still likable,much like her daughter,Jo. Finally this book truly shows the horrors of war and slavery,a subject the original book lightly touched upon,as the LW was written a book for children,girls in particular. I wouldn't reccomend this book to anyone younger than 12 or 13 as there is a lot of graphic depictions of Slavery and the war itself,the injured especially,that are a far cry from Alcott's genteel writing. Overall,I found this book a fast,fascinating read and both a plausible and worthy successor to the original story.

I am not going to create a long rehashing of the novel -- but I do want to voice my feelings about the hazards of anyone other than the author creating a sequel to a well-loved book. My interpretations of the characters of Marmee and Mr. March were and are very different from those of Miss Brooks. I object to her entire concept. In her afterword, the author states that her mother told her that no one could be such a goody-goody as Marmee -- how wrong she is. I have known many people who are not saints or " goody-goodies" but truly try to live the best lives possible and succeed admirably. Instead of tampereing with characters who are well-loved from a book that many hold dear, why does the author not creat her own story about the Civil War era and not try to capture a ready-made audience of another author?

Who knew? The reviews were glowing and the descriptions of the book seemed dull enough to ensure the sort of respectability that clings to serious historical fiction. Oh, but the book is really awful, complete with the beautiful, mixed race house slave (actually the daughter of the plantation owner) stripped bare and publicly lashed because of Mr. March's actions when he was an innocent young peddler. It makes the reader--or this reader--cringe with embarrassment. There's nothing literary about this book; it's along the lines of Robert Penn Warren's terrible novel BAND OF ANGELS. If you're determined to read fiction in this vein go straight to GONE WITH THE WIND, which is, in fact, a serious and pretty successful effort to capture an era. And, while you're at it, pick up a copy of Robert Penn Warren's ALL THE KING'S MEN.

As others have said this is the story of the father of the Little Women girls. Not a character I had ever thought much about but I have to admit that I liked this book very much. It was an easy read that really captured an interesting time in history. Brooks is a good writer whose prose vividly paints Civil War battlefields, Washington D.C. during the war and the gruesomeness of battle. It's also short enough to read on a long flight or a weekend vacation.

Interestingly, I read Year of Wonders ages ago and never picked this up even though I LOVED her earlier books. I thought if I wasn't so hip on recalling Little Women and remembering their story, that I'd be lost. I was WRONG. This is a delightful and incredibly written book and there is no need to be a Little Women addict. This book touches the heart on right versus wrong, war, relationships of friendship and love, slavery and so much more. Great read!

Truly a brilliant book. Well-deserving of the Pulitzer Prize, and a welcome addition to this category of conflict history.

I just couldn't like this protagonist. He seemed very self-involved & self-pitying &, in being so, sacrificed those around him. He never quite comes to the realization that others suffer without moaning & groaning about it or torturing the ones around them. Historically, it barely scratched the surface, which was disappointing.

I absolutely love reading texts and then 'counter-texts' (like "Jane Eyre" and "Wide Sargasso Sea") where the author sheds light on a not-so-major character's point of view. This is exactly what I was looking for in the novel March.

I was a big fan of Louisa May Alcott when I was little (and still am!) In fact, my parents held a birthday party for me at the Alcott House in Concord, MA when I was 6 or 7. I loved the story of Little Women and had fond feelings for Mr. March but I never got a sense of who he really was beyond being the admired patriarch of the family.

Ms. Brooks' novel, March, presents an extremely interesting story from his point of view as he builds a family and then leaves them to involve himself in the Civil War as a chaplain. The character development is tremendous. Mr. March is presented as an often flawed but sensitive man who experiences a great deal of tragedy, conflict and love. As a reader, you feel an immediate connection with him.

I was very pleased that I ordered this book and I highly recommend it for all readers..even those who have no prior knowledge of Little Women.

I do like to listen to books on CD. If one is driving alone, it makes the time go faster.

When I started listening to this story, the first thing that confused me was why a story about the Civil War and the March family (Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy of Little Women fame) was being read by someone British. If British equals erudite by the producers of the book on CD and perhaps the author, they are misguided. The quality of the CD and the packaging was very nice but then there was the story. It's about the little women's father. The author attempts Alcott's style and falls distressingly short. The story itself has a lot of holes and is pretty contrived. I wish I had brought another book on CD from Amazon instead of wasting my money on this one.

In 'March,' Geraldine Brooks takes on an intriguing and perhaps one of the most difficult genres: that of a companion novel to a better-known work. In this case, the original is Alcott's 'Little Women.'

Mr. March, the male head of the family who is absent for most of 'LW,' here gets his own story as he serves as an army chaplain in Virginia during the Civil War and is ultimately severely injured by rebel outlaws ransacking plantations. In between chapters, the reader also learns a great deal about March's youth before settling down. 'March' is an interesting story on its own, and made more fascinating when combined with 'LW.' Faithful 'LW' readers will definitely find some surprises.

Little Women's dad is just an illusion on a pedestal before reading this book. It also offers great insights into the mom's personality and their relationship as a couple. Well done!

This was a book club selection for our ladies group-readable but with plenty of depth and provocative subject matter. Many women were enthralled with Little Women as girls and it was very meaningful to read this now in our 40's.

If you're hell-bent on finding _March_ to be a great book, then it may not disappoint. But if you suppose that a Pulitzer Prize winner, based on the imaginative premise of a narrator who is the absent father and husband of _Little Women_, will prove to be a great novel, then you should lower your expectations. Both March and Marmee (the mother of all those little women) apparently suffer from some inability to empathize normally; they had as well been sociopaths, as far as I can tell, than the uber-ideologues they turned out to be. March manages to alienate practically every officer and soldier he encounters during his reckless odyssey through the battlefields of the Civil War; he evinces any social awareness only when Marmee's self-righteous temper tantrums wreak too much havoc. You've gotta wonder where those great kids came from.

March by Geraldine Brooks provides a painful but powerful perspective on the Civil War. The story is told from the perspective of Mr. March, the father from Little Women. In the original novel by Louisa May Alcott, the father is only a shadowy, figure, sketchily drawn. We only know that he was captured by the Confederate army and is later welcomed home by his family. Mrs. March is only seen as "Marmy," a sweet but innocuous woman who quietly holds her family together. This revised version of the story fleshes out these two characters, giving them depth and complexity. Through their eyes, we delve deeper into the complexities of abolition and the Civil War, and explore the difficulty of communicating between a husband and wife during turbulent and morally ambiguous times. This is a painful, yet riveting book to read, as figures from history such as Emerson and Thoreau come alive. There are only shades of gray in this book, as issues and ideas of what are right and wrong become confused and vague. I strongly recommend this book for those who are avid historians or fans of the original novel. You will never view history or Little Women the same way again.

The writing is supurb. I could not put the book down waiting to read the next chapter as the plot unfolded.

...as Geraldine Brooks would've discovered, if she'd gone far enough. Marmee's given name is Margaret; Meg and Meg's daughter, known as Daisy, were named for her. (See Little Women and Jo's Boys for verification). Mr. March's name is Robert; Jo's son Rob is named after him. (See Little Women, Little Men and Jo's Boys.)

A niggling detail? Perhaps, but one that Geraldine Brooks could have easily resolved by referring to the source material, and a reason why I didn't enjoy this book as thoroughly as I might. I didn't expect Brooks to replicate Alcott, but she didn't need to go so far to make this a "stand alone" novel.

I loved this book. I lead a book club and this was our reading selection for this month. It was interesting to read the online reviews and see the reaction of my own group. It seems that those who were able to take this book and read it as an entity within itself, appreciating the amazing skill of this author in weaving this tale, loved the book. Those who were emotionally attached to Little Woman and who could not (or would not) separate it from this book, found it a total departure from the characters developed by Louisa and simply could not appreciate the beauty of this story. What a shame. I do agree with the "haters" that I don't feel Louisa would ever have developed her characters in this direction. Her books were the dream of the ideal family and human spirit. This book dealt with the harsh realities of our human nature in a blatantly honest manner. I am so glad I traveled through time with this author. I plan to read her other book Year Of Wonders and can't wait till I'm in the midst of the black plague with this amazing craftsman of character and plot. Read this book with an open mind and you will enjoy the journey!

After just finishing the book, I'm torn between loving it and hating it. The part of me that hates this book is that childish part deep inside of me that wants Mr. March, Marmee, and the March girls to remain exactly as I always imagined them---a happy, angelic, old-fashioned Christmas village come to life! Frolicking in the snow, sharing Christmas dinner with the poor, learning Christian lessons of charity, patience and humility at their mother's knee... I think most of the bad reviews on here come from people who want to hold on to that image of the 1860's as a better time. While I didn't want to see the dark side to the March family, I have to admit that no family is perfect and open my mind to what Brooks brings to life in MARCH.

Brooks worked very hard on research for this book--not just by reading LITTLE WOMEN---but by reading autobiographies and first hand accounts from the time. I rolled my eyes in anger and annoyance at Mr. March as a strict vegan...until I read the afterword and saw that Alcott's own father really was a vegan and started a community for other vegans! Who knew that vegetarian ideas were around even then? Granted, Little Women makes no mention of vegetarianism, but I think adding it to March helps us to see how far and how seriously Mr. March takes his ideals. The characters are all well developed and I could sympathize with Mr. March and hate him for clinging to ridiculous ideals all at the same time. Marmee also has a voice (and a personality--gasp!) for a few chapters where we get to see her temper (only hinted at in Little Women) and understand the struggles she is going through. All of the characters in the book come across as HUMAN, something I really value in fiction.

I won't give this book the last star for a 5 star rating for several reasons: 1. Brooks made Marmee's real name Marmee....it just bothered me. Why would her daughters call her by her first name? 2. For a clergyman, Mr. March had no real belief in God. He had ideals, but they weren't Christian ideals, and Brooks never gives him comfort in his faith. In fact, he hardly ever considers God, Christ, heaven, etc.! A real clergyman would get his strength from his faith, but Brooks' Mr. March is just a bumbling atheist trying to fill a Christian role. To me, this was a glaring mistake that runs throughout the entire book. Little Women was Christian, and the sequel (told from a preacher's perspective) should be the same. 3. Mr. March's almost-affair with Grace. It stood out from the story like a sore thumb and it didn't make sense for either character to go there. I kept hoping it wouldn't turn into a cheesy bodice-ripper (and it didn't) but it did lead to a ridiculous scene of a jealous and angry Marmee confronting Grace and demanding to know what happened---then after hearing the truth, saying, "Oh, I guess I can understand why he did that." Huh?

Even with these problems, the rest of the book is well written and well worth reading! Keep an open mind, remember that everything you're reading has been researched and actually DID happen during the Civil War, and enjoy discovering another side of Little Women.

I really liked this book and give it five stars for creativity, guts for extending a classic and writing. Brooks is an excellent writer. The notion of using Mr. March from Little Women, who we know so little about, was very ambitious. And yet Brooks did not overdo, March was a believable character and so was his wife. I think it is very hard to extend the personality of a character from a dyed-in-wool classic and takes confidence, creativity and very carefully writing.
I like how she gave a different perspective, at least for me, on the Civil War regarding March's religious orientation. I had not thought about that.
I look forward to reading her other books.

March is a great book, but it definitely leans toward the modern ideology that there are no true heroes, and search as hard as you can you will find no person in this book that is a hero. At some points you will think you have, but you haven't.

If reading that has made you somewhat depressed, this book will do that for around 300 pages. It is well written, but too dark, to gray and not very much light. It is a good read, but not great.

March is a soul searching must read. Share this humanities lesson with your older kids, family & friends. Even though this is the sequel to Little Women (which I never read), it didn't matter as it stands on it's own. Read this book & pray for history to NEVER repeat itself.

When a friend recommended MARCH, I wasn't particularly interested, since LITTLE WOMEN was not one of my favorite reads. But I was drawn into this book from the opening chapter, and found it hard to put down. It deals with big questions: What constitutes freedom? Who is to blame for injustice and suffering? How do we deal with guilt? I loved the characters, partly because they are flawed and therefore more real. MARCH ranks in my top 20 reads of all time. A remarkable find!

As usual, any book selected by the Pulitzer Committee is a reliable horrible read. Too boring to waste my time on. . . Alcott would be mortified!

Geraldine Brooks has produced an ingeniously crafted tale of terribly tragic times and has successfully drawn some of her principal characters from Louisa May Alcott's classic, 'Little Women,' creating in the process an elaboration of the life of the Revd. Mr March, father of the little women, who, whilst being an aggravating and hypocritical Yankee clergyman, nevertheless leads an extraordinary life, both in Connecticut and in The South during the American 'Civil War' (or 'War for Southern Independence,' depending upon personal preference: I prefer the latter). The fact that the author cleverly introduces Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and even John Brown (he of the body and the soul that marches on), all most effectively but without particular surprise in the context, is a tribute to her story-telling skill. The fact that Mr March learns a lot of the complications of that frightful conflict of 1861-1865 is a reflection of the author's fine research and scholarship. The fact that the mid-19th-century language seems to be 'spot-on' to one who reads and enjoys such stuff also reflects well on Ms. Brooks: she has produced another riveting tale, which I could not put down, and I congratulate her!

March is told largely in the words of Mr. March, father of all those "little women," and it encompasses the year that he spent as a Union chaplain during the early part of the Civil War. Ever the idealist, one who at times refused to recognize the demands of the real world or to compromise his principles in order to better get along with others, March quickly managed to get on the bad side of both the men to whom he hoped to minister and that of his superior officers. As so often happens during war, March lived a lifetime during his one year of service, a year in which he learned more about himself than he really wanted to know. He came to realize that his ideals and principles did not necessarily come with the courage to do the right thing when to do so put him in personal danger. He ended his year a broken man, one barely alive and, more importantly, one who considered his year of service to have been a disaster for himself and everyone he tried to help.

Along the way, March unexpectedly finds himself revisiting a plantation he remembered from his days as a young traveling salesman trying to build the nest egg he hoped to invest for the remainder of his life. Some twenty years after his first visit, the home is now an emergency hospital for Union troops and life there is nothing like the one he remembered from before. But one thing has not changed. Grace Clements, the mulatto slave woman he was so attracted to on his first visit, is still there and he is still powerfully attracted to her. Grace Clements comes to be one of the two most important women in March's life, in fact.

Having so consistently irritated the troops to whom he was assigned, March is assigned to spend the bulk of his war at a cotton plantation teaching liberated slaves to read and write. This is my one quibble with the book. While, in fact, some southern cotton plantations were leased to northern entrepreneurs during the war so that much needed cotton could be brought to market for benefit of the North, this did not occur nearly so early in the war as portrayed in March. Despite the fact that the heart of the story takes place on this plantation, I could never completely forget just how unlikely it would have been for March to find himself on such a plantation during his particular year of the war.

But that's a minor thing because March has so much to offer. It is filled with the kind of period detail that marks the best historical fiction and fans of Little Women will very likely find it to be the perfect companion piece to one of their favorite novels.

I read The Year of Wonders and loved it. I bought this book specifically because it's the same author, and with high hopes. Unfortunately, this book is boring and slow moving. It could not hold my attention at all, and I didn't get engrossed with the characters like in her other book. I would not recommend this book.

Mr. March is often exasperating but always believable in this vivid Civil War novel. Not so much about battles as about how the hardship of war shapes families. Chapter 2 involving Grace the beautiful slave reaches near perfection. Longer review available on my website Impatient Reader. Also available at Impatient Reader: a chapter-by-chapter summary of March. See My Amazon Profile for URL.

Mr. March is often exasperating but always believable in this vivid Civil War novel. Not so much about battles as about how the hardship of war shapes families. Chapter 2 involving Grace the beautiful slave reaches near perfection. Longer review available on my website Impatient Reader. See My Amazon Profile for URL.

I wish I could say that I enjoyed this book. After all, as a Pulitzer-Prize winner loosely based on a character from Little Women, and written by Geraldine Brooks, whose vision brought a glow to Year of Wonders, it had everything going for it. Imagine my shock and horror then when I picked it up, settling down for a long, rich read, and looked up after two pages with a dreadful sinking feeling. For anyone who read and loved Little Women as a child, this book is not merely a travesty - it's a nightmare. And for anyone who loves good literature, it's that worst of all things - a book that should be magnificent, and isn't. Quite apart from the fact that the moral, upright, warm and loving father and dedicated army chaplain from Little Women is transformed into a womanizing, lying, deceitful, weak man whose only real belief rests in a complete disillusionment with the world(a character quite incapable of being the center of a classic)the entire novel is written in his voice, one of the few I've ever encountered that inspired an actual loathing in me. Brooks' style in this book, conveyed through this man's endlessly self-pitying, whining, and over-formal point of view, is strained and ultimately intensely unconvincing. This flaws in character and style could even have been forgiven however had not this entire book been written with one apparent purpose, and one only - to propagate a particular agenda. Every author, particularly the great ones, conveys in their novels some deeply held belief or question. But what makes them great is that their vision, their novel, transcends the narrow limits of this purpose - they write for all humanity, and thus deal with issues and characters that speak to and of all humanity. March is a narrow, self-limiting book utterly consumed with the self-absorption of its narrator and the mindless cruelty, racism, and godlessness which the author apparently believes were a characteristic of many, if not most, of the people in the Civil War, particularly but not limited to the soldiers of the Northern side. Attacking what has often been seen and projected as the "good" side - the North, in this case, and the whites, is a author's trick that has been used before to gain attention, but never with this particular brand of blatancy; a backwards form of stereotyping. It's a book written for the times, hence the Pulitzer, but will last no longer than the few years it takes for the world to forget that it once won the highest award the literary world has to offer. Having read many great past Pulitzer-winning novels, from Sophie's Choice to The Hours to, recently, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, this book is a travesty.

I admit that I have higher expectations for books that have won a Pulitzer Prize, which is unfair to the author. After all, how many authors set out to write a Pulitzer Prize winning book? It must come as an unexpected surprise.

So I am trying to set those expectations aside as I rate this fine novel with four stars. I appreciate the author's research and interweaving into this story of historical facts, personages, and "the rest of the story" from "Little Women." My only quibble with the character of Peter March is that he is, as the School Library Journal states, "amazingly naive about human nature." I would say that he is painfully naive, which I found to be slightly at odds with his otherwise complex and ambivalent character.

But on the whole, this well wrought Civil War tale is pleasantly affecting and accurately presents some uniquely 19th century sensibilities. I enjoyed the dual perspectives, of Peter March in Part One and wife Marmee March in Part Two.

I would offer one bit of advice to readers: You will enjoy the story even more if you read the Afterword first. Don't worry; there are no spoilers in it!

I admit that I have higher expectations for books that have won a Pulitzer Prize, which is unfair to the author. After all, how many authors set out to write a Pulitzer Prize winning book? It must come as an unexpected surprise.

So I am trying to set those expectations aside as I rate this fine novel with four stars. I appreciate the author's research and interweaving into this story of historical facts, personages, and "the rest of the story" from "Little Women." My only quibble with the character of Peter March is that he is, as the School Library Journal states, "amazingly naive about human nature." I would say that he is painfully naive, which I found to be slightly at odds with his otherwise complex and ambivalent character.

But on the whole, this well wrought Civil War tale is pleasantly affecting and accurately presents some uniquely 19th century sensibilities, which I think in some ways are more fully human compared to our relatively "modern and enlightened" ideal of objectivity and detachment. I enjoyed the dual perspectives, of Peter March in Part One and Marmee March in Part Two.

I would offer one bit of advice to readers: You will enjoy the story even more if you read the Afterword first. Don't worry; there are no spoilers in it!

From reading this book. It really gave you an idea of what it was like to be there, way more than any history book I've read, and still kept you interested and involved with the main character.

The author has a wonderful way with words and the English language. Very descriptive. You really got a sense of how the Civil War affected the nation. I especially liked Mr. March's take...I read Little Women when I was a young girl and Jo was always my heroine. Mr. March is now my hero. Great read! My book club loved it, without exception.

I'd heard an interview with the author on public radio shortly after she was awarded the Pullitzer, and I finally remembered to find and read her book. I'd of course read Little Women as a child, but it wasn't a sacred text to me; I didn't think I'd be too disturbed by the "add-on".
I wish I could say I liked it, but I just didn't. Yes, it's very well researched and perhaps more riveting than a textbook about the Civil War, but I sincerely didn't care about the characters. March himself simply doesn't ring true as a human being. I echo some other reviews here by saying that no man "of religion" would have such an absence of spirituality and faith, and I was sincerely bothered by his continued disregard for the family he supposedly loved. How could he have complete adoration, compassion and empathy for the slaves and fighters he encountered and have almost no compassion or empathy for the family he left behind?
When we are introduced to the first person voice of Marmee, I initially thought it was funny that her perspective of their misfortunes was opposite to her husband's -- sort of "Heh. Spouses didn't communicate well back then either..." But it was only a few pages before I despised her. What a contemptable witch!
Between March's post-traumatic stress disorder and Marmee's selfishness, self-righteousness (and total lack of self-awareness), I stopped caring about either of them, and then the book finishes.
So. I've now read a book about the civil war, and learned a few more things from a fresh perspective. I'm very glad that I didn't have precious memories of Little Women, because I'm sure they would have been shredded by this book. But, I learned things, and I can say I read it.

I initially picked up this book because it won the Pulitzer and was related to Little Women, a novel I greatly enjoyed in my younger years. I did not think that it would be such a moving and complex tale of one man's attempt to reconcile his beliefs in a prejudice and war-torn country.

Brooks writes impeccably of Mr. March's journeys to the south, taking on a difficult task of writing from the male perspective. She captures his commitment to both his family and the cause, a conflict that haunts him throughout the novel.

I would have given the novel 4.5 stars if I could. The only thing that disappointed me was the somewhat abrupt ending. It was appropriate to the novel, but I felt myself wanting more. I understand why Brooks ended this way; she is trying to leave the reader in "the same place" as Mr. March. Nonetheless, the selfish reader in me wanted to hear more of the story. Perhaps it should have a 5 star rating after all.

I keep my pile of "to reads" next to my bedside. There are usually three or four romances/fantasy/vampire/mind candy books, a juvie fiction or two, a non fiction book I feel I *should* read, and one or two "real fiction". March sat on my pile of "real fiction" for about six months before I got to read it.

For those who are unaware, this is Little Women fanfic. It's the story of what happened to Mr. March - ostensibly during the war, but with enough story told by flashback to fully flesh out his character.

He is, simply put, a man. He is neither a villain nor a hero. He's just a man, full of passion and vivre, doing his best to live by his conscience. He gets tangled up sometimes; he stumbles sometimes. His beliefs go contrary to those around him, from his family to his fellow officers, but his intent is always good.

This book is gently but powerfully written. You will know the man, with all his flaws, when you read it. It is not captivating, though. I read it because I like Little Women. I feel no compulsion to read anything else by this author.

(*)>

I try and read all the Pulitzer Prize winners, no matter who the author or what the subject matter. I was really afraid that this was going to be the Civil War as told by a chick-lit writer. It turns out Brooks has written a very stirring story. The ideolistic Mr. March goes off to war as a preacher and an arch abolitionist. He's a do-gooder who's good deeds always seem to backfire on him. Like giving all his money to John Brown, who then uses it to start a rebellion, or trying to teach a little slave girl the alphabet, which gets her mother whipped. Or when he tries to put his beliefs into actual practice, helpng a notherner grow cotton on a confiscated plantation, while the war continues to rage around him. All right, so March isn't the smartest man there ever was. But he's well-intentioned. The writing here is clear and precise and paints the scenes beautifully. The only shortcoming in the book, is that the narrative switches in Part 2 for about 50 pages from that of March to that of his wife, Marmee, not nearly as interesting a character.

With its mixture of the heroic and the cowardly, the idealistic and the base, Geraldine Brooks fine novel "March" reminded me of why the Civil War continues, and rightly so, to fascinate many Americans. The novel presents a picture of the ravages and effects of the War upon our country and upon a small family in Concord, Massachusetts. The novel is nominally a sort of follow-up to "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott, with a Bronson Alcott-like character as the hero. But this framing of the story is, for the most part, of little relevance to the theme and power of the book.

At the outset of the Civil War, March the primary character of the story, is a 39-year old minister of highly unorthodox religious views. He is also an idealist and an abolitionist who has lost his wealth in support of John Brown and who is a friend of Emerson and Thoreau. The other two primary characters in the story are Marmee, March's strong-willed and proto-modernist wife, and Grace, a former slave. At the age of 18, March had met Grace when he journeyed though the South as a peddler. The two are attracted to each other, and March sees Grace receive a terrible whipping as a result of her efforts in assisting March teach other slaves on the plantation -- Grace is literate -- to read and write.

The book turns on March's war experiences during the first year of the struggle with flashbacks to his early life, including his early encounter with Grace and with Southern plantation life, his unusual courtship of Marmee, his loss of his fortune in support of John Brown and his friendship with Emerson and Thoreau. The descriptions of the intellectual millieu of early Concord, particularly of Thoreau, are among the best parts of the book. Quotations from Thoreau's "Walden" are quietly weaved into the text of "Marsh".

Even though he is 39 years old, Marsh's idealism and commitment to the end of slavery make him rush to enlist and leave his family when the Civil War breaks out. During his period in the service, Marsh sees much that is evil in the conduct of the war and he witnesses slaughter in the small but terrible early battle of Ball's Bluff. He is soon transferred to teach newly-freed slaves at a plantation along the Mississippi River called Oak Landing which has been leased by a young Northerner named Canning. He learns for himself the great difficulties that will be involved in teaching the freed people. Following an encounter with Confederate irregulars, March becomes gravely ill, and Marmee is called to the fetid hospital in Washington, D.C. to which he has been brought for cure. Grace has become a Union nurse and is helping in Marsh's recovery. Ultimately, Marsh returns home to Concord to face his wife and four daughters in what will be an uncertain future.

The book shows eloquently how Marsh's idealism is tested by his experience of combat and by the immensity of the Civil War. Indeed, it shows Marsh's awakening to the ambiguities of the conflict and its causes. The novel also shows well the strain the War put on familial relationships, particularly as they involve Marsh's relationship with Marmee and with Grace. The book also focuses on Marsh and his high expectations of himself, and how he responds when his actions during the conflict often do not comport with his high ideals. A great deal of the complex character of our Civil War -- and the difficulty we have even today in understanding it -- comes through well in this book.

In his prose work "Specimen Days", Walt Whitman observed that "the real Civil War will never get into the books." In spite of Whitman's warning, many Americans continue to try to understand the significance of the conflict in works of history and literature. Brooks's novel, with its portrayal of the conflict and its participants, both of the North and the South, seems to me a good start, in a work of fiction, for the reader to approach and think about the Civil War. The book is thoughtful, both as far as the broad issues of the War are concerned, and in considering the effect of the War upon a freed young woman and upon a fictional idealistic young minister from Concord and his family.

Robin Friedman

March by Geraldine Brooks, is a fascinating and thoroughly absorbing novel in which the author imagines the life of Mr. March, the absent father from Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women." One does not have to have read Alcott's nineteenth century children's novel to appreciate this tale of the very proper and high-minded preacher leaving his wife and four daughters behind as he goes off with the young men to the battlefields of the Civil War as their chaplain.

Part One of the book, roughly three-fourth of it, is told in the voice of Mr. March and his letters home to his beloved wife, Marmee, in which he tries to hide his feelings about the death and destruction taking place around him. Assigned to work in a makeshift hospital on the Clement estate, a plantation he had visited more than twenty years earlier as an itinerant salesman, he meets again Grace, a beautiful and cultured slave and the woman who had given him his first kiss.

The once beautiful estate has been transformed by the ugliness of war, but March's work there is brief, as he is assigned to set up a school for freed slaves working for wages on another plantation called Oak Landing. In flashbacks, the reader learns of March's earlier life, his courtship of Marmee, his work in the underground railroad, and his friendship with the Transcendental writers, Emerson and Thoreau.

After a Confederate attack on the plantation, March comes down with a fever and is taken to a Washington hospital. Here, the narrative switches to the voice of Marmee, for a different take on the past and her reaction to the truth she uncovers about her husband's life.

Much of March's character is derived from Alcott's transcendentalist father, Bronson, though he did not go off to war. It is the war and its horrors and their impact on a good man's life that give Brooks' novel the ring of truth and make it such a gripping read.

"March" is the story of the absent father of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy from "Little Women". Mr. March is a Union chaplain turned educator of former slaves. After being wounded in a scuffle with renegade Confederates, he is reunited with Marmee in a hospital in Washington D.C., where he struggles with his roles in his life and the war.

The first half of the book is told solely by Mr. March and alternates between his present in the war and his past. Mr. March at first seems flat, single-minded, and unnecessarily formal. However, the inclusion of the chapters from Marmee's perspective give new life to the story - creating a three-dimensional world from a two-dimensional portrait. Suddenly the characters, who mostly seemed straightforward, are immeasurably more complex.

Brooks's combination of literary fiction and historical fiction is fascinating and amazingly insightful on the human psyche. The transformation of the stiff characters of Alcott's "Little Women" into living, breathing entities is utterly astonishing.

A beautiful, fast read! I couldn't put it down. Though the first chapter (war scene) didn't "grab" my attention the rest of the book was intriguing (I was actually a little disappointed with the first chapter, but READ ON!)

It was difficult for me to digest March's lack of connection to his own "Little Women" at home. It seems like his mind and heart are a million miles away from home. It is shameful how little he regards his family, but then again, I have never experienced all the humanity involved in warfare so I can't relate completely.

I recommend this Brooks novel. And now I must read her other books, and re-read Little Women! :)

The author did a great job of capturing the "voice" of a Civil War soldier and some of the brutality of the times. But without a recent trip to Gettysburg, I don't think I would have appreciated it as much, nor would I have been able to visualize it too well. It's definitely not for everyone but try it, you may like it.