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    March
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    March
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    March
    Audiobook10 hours

    March

    Written by Geraldine Brooks

    Narrated by Richard Easton

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.


    From the Trade Paperback edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateOct 10, 2004
    ISBN9780786553310
    Unavailable
    March
    Author

    Geraldine Brooks

    Geraldine Brooks was born and raised in Australia. After moving to the USA she worked for eleven years on The Wall Street Journal, where she covered crises in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. Her first novel, Year of Wonders, was an international bestseller and she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for her second, March. She has written three further bestselling novels, Caleb’s Crossing, People of the Book and The Secret Chord.

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    Reviews for March

    4/5

    1,995 ratings164 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Upon starting this book I rather quickly realized that this was not a story to rush through. The author obviously went to great effort to write lovely prose, and I suspect it was at least partly to honor the sort of prose written by some soldiers in the American Civil War. I've read enough of it to realize that at times it can be quite purple, but more often just a little flowery. Brooks goes for flowery here. It might bother a few people but I found it rather gorgeous. I read this novel at half speed. I found myself constantly re-reading lines in various places. This was not for a lack of understanding, but rather to savor the vision created in words.This is the story of Mr. March, and his year away at war and recovery. Mr. March is the father of the Little Women of Louisa May Alcott's novel. War stories frequently can be disturbing when revealing the horrors of war. The Civil War had fields of dead and dying at many engagements. It is disturbing in the extreme to think of all the young lives damaged and destroyed by the war. It is disturbing to think that the war even had to be fought. Are there such things as just wars? One needn't lose limbs to be damaged by wars.There are many things to enjoy in this book as well as unpleasant things. There are some things in here that will bother some readers. I was a little bothered, but the storytelling trumped the weak points. Mr. March I found to be a man that was hard to like as the book progressed - that wasn't my initial impression, but it slowly turned that way. I didn't really dislike him but he's a bit of an odd bird and made some unfortunate choices. I might suggest that the reader review the author's afterword before reading the story to get a better understanding of Mr. March and the story. In the telling, the story shifts back and forth in time, from his days as a young man, and then to his trials during the Civil War. Back and forth. We see who he was, who he is, and who he becomes.This novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for 2006. Read in 2016
    • 5/5
      If you are a fan of Little Woman you need to read this book. It tells the story of Mr. March who joined the Union Army as a chaplain. Readers will find the afterword vey important because in this the author tells how she based the character of March on Louisa May Alcott’s father. She shares where she deviated from the facts. If you are considering handing this to a young Jo March fan, read the book first. Life on a battle front is much different than life in Massachusetts. I came away feeling that March was a likable character, sort of a early Jimmy Carter, in his strong moral views and his need to make things right.
    • 3/5
      The trouble with novels about the Civil War is that they are bound to follow a requisite formula, and Geraldine Brooks’s Pulitzer-winning March is no exception. All the familiar scenes, themes, and elements are there: lonely letters home, the smoke-filled chaos of battle, stealing a dead person’s boots, whipping a slave, selling a slave’s family members, a slave revolt, Southern gentility, Northern rough manners, soldiers trashing the plantation, buildings burning, having no food but root vegetables, and the mandatory amputation of limbs with hand tools. Civil War novels only distinguish themselves with what gets used to string together these common essentials. Brooks differentiates her book by using a dyed-in-the-wool Yankee abolitionist as her protagonist and developing a personal relationship between him and a beautiful, educated house slave. Brooks also plays a little literary game, in that Mr. March is the father of the eponymous Little Women in Luisa May Alcott’s 1868 novel. This might be a more compelling device if Little Women were more compelling. Not knowing anything about the fictional Mr. March, Brooks fashioned him after Alcott’s colorful father, Amos Bronson Alcott, an innovative educator, friend of Thoreau and Emerson, experimental farmer, and strict vegetarian. Weaving Thoreau and Emerson into the story, as well as the fanatic abolitionist John Brown, was an interesting touch. But March’s vegetarianism – discussed often and at length – was a distraction that added nothing to the story. Overall, March is well-written and tells a good story. For a reader new to, or completely enamored with, Civil War novels, it would be a great read. But there is not enough novelty to capture the fancy of more jaded readers. Also posted on Rose City Reader.
    • 4/5
      Well deserving of all the accolades. War and PTSD rendered accurately but historically situated. Slavery shown as unsparingly as it should be but often is not by white writers. Powerfully written; not for the faint of heart.
    • 5/5
      Every bit as good as Alcott's "Little Women" and that is saying a lot.
    • 5/5
      My second novel by Brooks and I am still in love with her writing. There isn't much to say that has not already been said about this book, but I loved the reality brought to life in this story. Outside of the clever way that Brooks told the story of the March family from Little Women, this story shows the harsh reality of slavery in the Civil War. She does an outstanding job of showing the reader the ideas and flaws of abolitionism in the North as well. Historical fiction at its finest!
    • 4/5
      March is Brooks' Pulitzer Prize-winning reimagining of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women from the viewpoint of Mr. March who has gone off to serve in the Civil War as a chaplain. The book came highly recommended from my son, and I think he must have enjoyed it more than I, although I thought it was quite well done. As a child and young teen, I read and re-read Alcott's books over and over, and read more than one biography of her. Brooks' knowledge of Little Women as well as the Alcotts' life is readily apparent in the novel, and she acknowledges that she drew heavily from the accounts of Bronson Alcott's biographies and writings in her creation of the character of Mr. March. There are decided differences between the two, however, in that March is a minister while Alcott was an educator. Alcott, 61, when the Civil War broke out, never joined the Union troops, so the major premise of the novel, March's involvement in the war and its effect on him, is Brooks' invention. She sets the Civil War sections of the novel in Virginia, beginning with the Battle of Bull's Bluff in 1862, near the author's home and in which many Massachusetts' soldiers participated.The novel's strengths lie in its depictions of plantation life in Virginia before and during the Civil War -- the horrors of slavery even on plantations run by "good masters," and the racism and hypocrisy of Union forces trying to administer captured plantations during the war. All is seen through the naive eyes of a young March travelling as an itinerant peddler before the war and the shocked idealism of the more mature March during the war. The book also deals with complicated dynamics of the Marches' marital and domestic life.
    • 2/5
      I had the hardest time paying attention to this one. Also, a lot of Mr. March's character did not really make sense with what I read in Little Woman, but the afterwards does help explain the author's choices.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book!
    • 4/5
      Very readable novel
    • 5/5
      Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
    • 5/5
      Very interesting turn on Little Women.
    • 4/5
      I would have liked this better if it hadn't been about Mr. and Mrs. March I think. I just found certain things jarred with my vision of these people formed from my reading of Little Women. I suppose that is a fault in me rather than in the book as Brooks clearly did her research (as the author's afterword in this audiobook makes obvious).Richard Easton was very good doing the narration.
    • 4/5
      Bit of a stretch of the imagination, but Geraldine Brooks pulls it off with great success!
    • 4/5
      Compelling story depicting the Civil War thru the eyes, travels and service of "Mr March", the absent father from the story of "Little Women" and husband to Marmee March. Surprising to myself, I never read Little Women and the reading of this book brings me cause to seek that book out and read it once and for all. Read this book for June Book Club- seems that many of my fellow club members hated the refernce of Little Women, but not reading it - I didn't have that judgement. Mr March was an idealist, he truly was in my eyes, brave as any regular man could be, fearful and non judging. A true abolitionist willing to go the distance however, romanticizing the cause was faced with the harsh, cruel, hateful realities of war.
    • 4/5
      Most readers are familiar with Little Women, Louisa May Alcott's classic novel about four sisters growing up in New England during the American Civil War. Referred to throughout the book is their absent father, John March, who was a chaplain with the Union army. Geraldine Brooks writes a fascinating novel where Mr. March is the central character and we find out what he was doing while Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy were living their lives back at home. There are four main sections of the book. The first is where we meet young March, a destitute farmer's son who takes to the road as a peddler, until he's invited to stay at a plantation as a guest. Several things happen her that will affect how he lives the rest of his life. This also drives him to New England where he becomes involved with the Underground Railroad, meets his future wife, Marmee, as well as the fiery abolitionist, John Brown. The next part of the book deals with his time in Union-occupied Mississippi, where an Illinois attorney has leased a cotton plantation. The plantation workers are ex-slaves, entitled to wages, but things are not as rosy as March was led to expect. Finally, we learn the reason March ends up in a Union hospital in Washington, D.C. This book has some interesting original characters as well as some reinterpreted Alcott characters. There are some horrific scenes, especially the treatment of ex-slaves under Union occupation, which is one of the less familiar stories of the Civil War. It was impeccably researched and filled with the kind of period detail that makes wonderful historical fiction. All in all, March is a well told story and I think any fan of Little Women would find it interesting. They might have a hard time reconciling the two books because it's all too apparent Mr. March wanted to protect his little women from the horrors of war.
    • 4/5
      I began this book with the understanding that it was about Mr. March's experiences during the Civil War. That was true, but, happily, that was only part of it. It was also about his life before the war, including how he met Marmee, what his early married life was like, and how his family came to be in such dire financial circumstances. I found these parts very interesting and, even though neither Mr. March nor Marmee appeared nearly as saintly as I remembered them from "Little Women", I felt this book was still true to their characters. The parts dealing with the Civil War were well written too. Whether the setting was a battlefield, a field hospital, or a ruined plantation, the author put me there. And I found it very realistic that someone experiencing the horrors of war might not want to share that with their loved ones back home.I'm glad to have read this, and I will probably try another book by this author.
    • 4/5
      Alcott's Little Women occurs during a one year absence of the father, Mr. March, when he leaves to minister to Union troops during the Civil War. This Pulitzer Prize winner imagines how March is changed during this year. Although I thought her later books were better, this novel is still a good read.
    • 4/5
      Her writing is exquisite
    • 4/5
      I'm not a Civil War buff, and I was not sure how well I would like this spin on one of my childhood favorites. It turned out to be surprisingly interesting, pitch perfect in tone, style, and spirit, and as far as I could tell, thoroughly researched. Most important of all, it did not "contaminate" Little Women in any way. It offered sometimes unexpected perspectives on the original novel on rare but welcome occasions.
    • 4/5
      It is believable because it is filled with human foible.
    • 2/5
      This is the story of Mr. March, the absent father from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, when he volunteered as a minister in the Civil War. The storyline was OK, as I do like reading about this era, but I didn't like the style of writing. It was confusing at times, going back and forth in time, and reminded me too much of Little Women, which I tried several times to read but found difficult to get through. I think I forced myself to finally finish LW, but wasn't much impressed, as is the case with March.
    • 4/5
      Based on Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks brings us a parallel account of Peter March, the father of Meg, Jo Beth and Amy. Most of the story of Little Women has their father as absent while off to war. This fills in the blanks as to his whereabouts and adds a bit more depth to one of my favorite classics.Its pre-Civil War and Peter March is an honorable man with idealistic views. The story begins with him just out of the seminary and a traveling salesman marketing his trade in the south. He witnesses slave life and racism on the great plantations. He then decides to join the abolitionist movement when he meets his future wife Margaret aka Marmee. They share noble views along with their friends, famous authors Emerson and Thoreau which are considered quite forward of their era.I thought this was an interesting account of historical fiction told in the perspective of March and then Marmee. Although some liberties might have been taken to embellish the story I though it was worth the read.How I acquired this book: Used book sale at the Walnut Creek LibraryShelf life: Approximately one year
    • 4/5
      I have never read LITTLE WOMEN in its entirety, but have read parts of it, and found it just a bit too much on the 'sweet' side for my reading taste. I have viewed a couple of the film adaptations of the book though and thought both of them very entertaining. Geraldine Brooks's novel, MARCH, is of course a fictional look at the absent father from LITTLE WOMEN, the daddy who went off to war, the US Civil war in this case. Brooks chooses to use the same sort of genteel style that Alcott's 19th century classic employed, and, while it works to good effect and is certainly appropriate, it was still for me a bit off-putting. Nevertheless, this is a well-told and engrossing story of one man with high principles and ideals who goes off to war and is severely tested, and perhaps even irreparably broken in the end by bearing witness to the casual butchery and barbarity of battles and guerilla actions. In an Afterword, Brooks says that she was writing MARCH against the contemporary backdrop of the war in Iraq (and Afghanistan too, I presume). But even before I'd read this admission by Brooks, I was struck by this line in the novel -"You cannot right injustice by injustice. You must not defame God by preaching that he wills young men to kill one another. For what manner of God could possibly will [this] ...?"What kind of God indeed? Or 'Allah' whose name is so often invoked in the jihads currently going on throughout the middle East? Brooks's well-researched look at the awful price of our own Civil War resonates with truth and authenticity even today.The way the author weaves in real historical people and events is most effective, and she does this immediately, as her narrative opens with the October of 1861's Battle of Ball's Bluff in Virginia and the awful human toll it took. And in looking at the March family's life in Concord before the war, she shows them as friends and intimates of Emerson and Thoreau and supporters of the fiery abolitionist John Brown. Hawthorne gives an address in one scene and the Marches read UNCLE TOM'S CABIN to their girls. Geraldine Brooks is an extremely talented writer and on top of her game in the arena of historical fiction. (I read her YEAR OF WONDERS a few years back and it too was very good.) MARCH is, quite simply, a very good story which mixes in real history in a most exemplary fashion.
    • 5/5
      The author , as in all of her novels, takes a well known event or character in history and weaves a story about it from a fresh point of view. This novel looks at the civil war from the point of view of the father in Little Women. It is very well written, and a beautiful story
    • 5/5
      This was a truly wonderful story. I read People of the Book, and loved it so much I was afraid of being let down by this story. I was not let down - this is a well-written narration of a great story.

      The narrator did a good job. However, his voice was just not an appropriate voice for this particular story. A British accent? Really? For an American Civil War story? While I was able to get around this incongruity most of the time, I was often baffled that the publisher didn't invest the energy to find someone who could lend more authenticity to the voices in this great story. I've now looked ahead to Caleb's Crossing, and see that the narrator got generally panned in that story, so I'll be switching away from audio books from now on for books Ms Brooks writes. Why do publishers shoot themselves in the feet like this?

      As to this story, I found myself absorbed deeply into the feelings and experiences of the main character. The author did a great job of depicting many sides of issues, and letting the good, bad, and ugly show through in all the characters.

      I highly recommend this book, most especially to lovers of historical fiction. Brooks is rapidly becoming an all-time favorite author for me.
    • 3/5
      This is the story of Mr. March, father of the "Little Women" March family, told in first person by Mr. March. You learn about his life as a young man, how he meets his future wife, their early lives together, his involvement in the Civil War, and his convalescence in a Washington, D.C. hospital. As we really don't get to meet Mr. March in "Little Women," the author has a totally open field as to his story. However, in the interview at the end of the book, the author explains that since Louisa May Alcott based the girls on her own sisters, the author of this book chose to base Mr. March on Miss Alcott's own father, who wrote faithfully in a journal. So she did have quite a bit of material to go by.
      Now, I can't say that I absolutely loved this book, although it was well written, and seemed very believable. Where my differences may come in are that I loved "Little Women" and how sweet and pure they all were. In this book, the characters are very real. They seem like real people with real problems. So, though Miss Brooks did an excellent job with that, I am just still clinging to the idea of my sweet "Little Women."
    • 2/5
      An interesting concept. I liked the switch in point of view. I didn't really like Mr. March so it was difficult to keep reading.
    • 4/5
      Well done. Geraldine Brooks gives us the flip-side of the "Little Women" story - Mr. March, the girls' father who has gone off and joined the Union army as a minister during the Civil War. My opinion - this book is better than the original! (But I have to stipulate that it has been many many years since I last read "Little Women".) (Recommendation from NPR.)
    • 4/5
      A very fine novel that tells the reader about Mr March, the father of Alcott's [Little Women], and how his service in the Civil War changes him and affects his family. (Pulitzer Prize for fiction)