March

I am not a fan of "fan fiction:" anything written about some of my favorite characters by an unfamiliar author feels wrong, like Picasso trying to imitate the Mona Lisa. The characters aren't themselves, and the plot is usually happy ending after happy ending, a fan's gratification of their highest hopes for the characters. Breaking Dawn, the conclusion to the Twilight Saga, feels this way. That's why I went into March, Geraldine Brooks' story of Little Women's Papa March, warily. But thankfully, it was wonderful. In March, Brooks has taken another woman's character and breathed individuality and life into him.

Papa March's story spans from his twenties, as a traveling salesman in the pre-war South, to his experiences at war, to his eventual homecoming at Christmas (about 2/3 of the way through Little Women). His experiences with each person and in each place shape his philosophies as they are in Little Women. Along with making some serious statements about war and its effect on principles, on the mind and physically, the book allows fans of Little Women glimpses into Marmee and Mr. March's relationship, from their courtship into their marriage. Little Women's idealized parents are shown more honestly in March, with faults and virtues just as anyone else.

In his youth as a traveling salesman, March visits a Southern plantation, where he intimately learns of life lived with slaves, of the injustices and favors done to them. One slave in particular, Grace Clement, is perhaps one of the strongest and most intriguing characters in the narrative, surfacing often in March's life. She is a house slave, graceful, well-educated, perfectly composed, and she provides an example to March of the people he is working to free from injustice and indignity. March works at a few different plantations, each with their own cast of fully realized characters, with faults and flaws and courage and stories, all combining to wrap themselves around the reader's heartstrings until their eventual fates hold huge emotional sway. I cried at several points in the narrative.

Brooks' writing style is beautiful, a perfect balance of narrative and reflection on the principles she is trying to get across. Because in the end, Mr. March's experiences in war wholly change his moral certainties, till he is uncertain of almost everything he once stood for. War shook his convictions, his mind, his health, leaving him a shell of the man he was before. I wasn't sure if I was satisfied at the conclusion of the novel: I felt as though Mr. March would never be secure or fully present with his children again, and this made me feel as though the second half of Little Women was deceiving me. However, it was a natural reaction to what he had gone through during the war.

I love Little Women, and have grown up watching the movie and reading the book. Getting to hear a new side of the story, with new memories of the children and more background onto the March family, was a treat in and of itself. But the new cast of characters, the writing style, and the morality make this book a beautiful and incredible book. I highly recommend it.