Sunday, April 11, 2010

March by Geraldine Brooks

By now books in our Library seem to know what it is that I am searching for. There is no other explanation for how this book jumped into my hands. True, there was the golden Pulitzer Prize sticker on the front page but still...  It must be the dog eared look that did it.

It was surprising to find out that the 'March' of the title is not the month and not a parade event but Mr.March from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Yes, Geraldine Brooks has made this irreproachable book around the mostly absent father of the four delightful girls. Brooks is generously endowed with talent which is evident as soon as you read a few pages. Soon we shed all the inhibitions of reading about a known character because the story that evolves can stand very well on its own. We rarely meet the family except through the letters from Mr. March. He writes regularly from the war front (American Civil War) on the side of the Yankees where he serves as a Chaplain. It is is his second time in the South which he had traversed as a salesman in his youth. This time around however, things are different and circumstances more complicated. As the war progresses we move with March to learn of his past and how it changes his present relationships. Family endures and by the time we meet Mrs.March coming to take care of her invalid husband in the hospital we would have gone through a lifetime worth of experiences ourselves. A classic of a book where the literary environment created by the author is simply not to be missed.

A second book
BTW, I just finished Gentleman &Players by Joanne Harris. It is a riot of a read. A fun yet serious murder mystery woven around an old prep school called St. Oswalds. In this Kazuo Ishiguro'esque novel Harris relies on her British background and it has paid off. Please guys, if you are in for a light and fun read, look no further.

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