Customer Reviews
well deserved award winner 
2008-04-20
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!
A Poignant Awakening 2008-04-19
Truly a brilliant book. Well-deserving of the Pulitzer Prize, and a welcome addition to this category of conflict history.
self-important protagonist 
2008-04-10
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.
A captivating novel with a different point of view... 2008-04-07
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.
Books on CD are great; March is not! 2008-04-05
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.
Unanimous favorite 2008-07-04
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" From Anothor P.O.V 2008-07-04
"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.
Disappointing 
2008-05-12
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?
Essentially soft porn, and astonishingly dreadful! 2008-05-08
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.
A good read with an interesting spin on an old story 
2008-04-30
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.
