March: Pulitzer Prize Winner (a Novel)

By Geraldine Brooks

Book Overview

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize--a powerful love story set against the backdrop of the Civil War, from the author of The Secret Chord.

From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man (Sue Monk Kidd). With pitch-perfect writing (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs. A lushly written, wholly original tale steeped in the details of another time, March secures Geraldine Brooks's place as a renowned author of historical fiction.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0072VODTO
• ISBN13: 9780143036661
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.51 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Beautiful Novel of a Familiar Character

I was prompted to read "March" by Geraldine Brooks when the novel recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and I'm sure glad I did! It's a remarkable novel, beautifully written, interesting, educational, emotional, thought-provoking, riveting and it has that wonderful and comforting touch of the familiar because just about every woman and girl (and even some males!) in America already knows the March family. I won't re-hash the plot; suffice it to say that Brooks offers us a unique view of the Civil War and one that will stay with the reader long after the last chapter. I'd love to see this novel taught in schools along with "To Kill a Mockingbird", I hope some forward thinking teacher will try it. In addition to this exceptional story, I recommend "The March" by E.L. Doctorow, which was short-listed for the Pulitzer and provides another riveting look at the Civil War with vivid and varied characters from both sides and from both races and ways of life. And just one last, quirky recommendation; for a work of juvenile fiction that touches on the transcendentalists of Concord, Mass., (Alcott, Emerson, Thoreau) I recommend with joy "The Swing in the Summerhouse" by Jane Langdon. It was my first glimpse into that world and it's a story that is loved by at least two generations now.

The March Family Made Human

I loved this novel, and could not put it down. Itl chronicles the experiences of the "Little Women's" absent father, providing accounts of his travels in antebellum Virginia, his courtship of the intense and rebellious Marmee, his love for a slave woman, his attempts to retain his ideals as a soldier during the Civil War, and the difficulties of adjusting to life in Concord after he is discharged from the army. The characterizations are complex and multi-dimensional; readers of Alcott's works will particularly enjoy the portrayal of Marmee as an independent thinker. Ms. Brooks was a war correspondent in Somalia and Bosnia, and spares nothing in her narrations of the battle for the bluff, guerilla attacks on camps of "contraband slaves," and the horrendous conditions of wartime hospitals. However, none of these descriptions are gratuitous. Rather, they serve to a)educate the reader on how unprepared--ideologically, materially, and logistically--the United States was to receive former slaves into society and b) remind us of how fortunate Americans are not to have experienced war on our soil in 140 years. Highly recommended.