March, Geraldine Brooks, 2005.

Completely different in theme and style from Geraldine Brooks’ bestseller The Year of Wonders this book tells the story of Mr March, the father, in the world famous children’s book Little Women. Set during the time of the American Civil War, though Louisa May Alcott took some liberties with the actual chronology of events, between the Christmases of 1861 and 1862. At the beginning of Little Women Mr March has left to minister to the Union troops in the south leaving his wife with daughters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy alone on Christmas Day. Two thirds of the way through the book Mrs March receives a telegram with the news that her husband is gravely ill, so she leaves to find him. He is returned to the family by the following Christmas. The author has taken this story and turned it inside out by choosing to tell of Mr March’s experiences as a minister in a war zone and his relationship with the slaves he encounters especially one called Grace Clement. He tries to compose letters home to his wife but finds that he cannot tell of the horrific things he finds there so tries to cover it up with hopeful but deceitful words. His life becomes disconnected as his experiences of the war find no echo in the home life of his family.  The reader shares the horrors of battle, an interlude where Mr March becomes a teacher to the slaves on a cotton plantation, then more slaughter of those he has become fond of. After being wounded and suffering from fever he is rescued by one of the female slaves he has helped until he eventually finds safety with a hospital ship in the north.

The novel also fills in some of Mr March’s backstory prior to meeting his wife and describes how he knew Grace Clement from his previous life before the Civil War. The author has a fine ear for the speech and writing of nineteenth century America, both south and north. The book won the Pullitzer Prize in 2005.

The author, though of Australian birth, is a naturalised American citizen and her inspiration for the novel was the discovery of a Union soldiers belt buckle in the courtyard of the Brooks period home. Some critics have referred to the novel as ‘fan fiction’ which is a genre inspired by the famous classic novels of established authors. Other examples of this type are novels based on the works of Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters. Brooks denies this, however, and claims that she came to the story through the history of the Civil War and the local history of their home.

The character of Mr March is based on the real figure of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott’s father,  who was a committed vegetarian and abolitionist and who numbered among his friends Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson who feature as lesser characters in the story.

March is Geraldine Brooks’ second novel.