Callistonian.net

Rating:

Geraldine Brooks’ March is a poignant novel saturated with beautiful words. If you were to read it and 9,999 other books during your lifetime and if you were only able to remember 100 of them well—March would be among the one percent that you didn’t forget. It sticks with its readers: it seeps into their bones and sporadically hijacks their thoughts.

March is about a Northern idealist, a father, who goes south to serve as a chaplain during the Civil War. It’s one of my favorite novels; I love it to death. It’s brilliant. I’m recommending it to everyone. Historians and lovers of literature will cherish March the most but, everyone reading this review should read March.

Unfortunately, March is not perfect. I would hate for someone to read it on my recommendation and then become disappointed because I went on about it like some sort of rabid fan. So, right now – I’m saying, don’t get your hopes up. Just read it and give it a chance. Remember, it’s not that great but, it’s definitely a novel that you should check out.

Less than pleasant things about March:

1. March is fan-fiction.
2. The protagonist is a man of character, a role model. He’s almost perfect. He’s a Mary Sue.
3. March is a little preachy.

Also, despite its pretty words and beautifully crafted sentences, the first chapter is dull. However, the second was moving and I had leaky eyes before it ended.

Now, let’s get serious. March was awarded the Pulitzer. It’s more than just a good book. The three things listed above as faults are completely understandable and not truly faults because, the protagonist was modeled after a real person. But if you read March without knowing that and without knowing the history behind the novel, the story feels kind of weird. It’s like, Who is this person and what is he doing in the 19th century? He doesn’t belong. This is insanity and incredibly unrealistic! To those screaming about it being unrealistic, I say: it’s not. It’s just atypical; it’s a story about a radical.

Interestingly enough, historical figures—radicals, of course—appear as characters in March. Emerson, Thoreau, John Brown, and Gerrit Smith are mentioned in the novel. Their presence is pleasant but it’s also a little strange.

A randomly chosen paragraph to give you a feeling for the novel’s language:

The waste of it. I sit here, and I look at him, and it is as if a hundred women sit beside me: the revolutionary farm wife, the English peasant woman, the Spartan mother- “Come back with your shield or on it,” she cried, because that was what she was expected to cry. And then she leaned across the broken body of her son and the words turned to dust in her throat.

In conclusion and in a word, March is inspiring. Give it a chance; read it.