About March

March By Geraldine Brooks

After listening to this on audio I had the reader's equivilant of the 'I could have had a V-8' moment. It was so terrific and I am such a fan of Little Women, its inspiration, that I don't know how it could have been out for years without me giving it a try. But I am singing its praises now.
It is a great book that should be taken as a blueprint for others, and there are lots of them, who want to put a new or alternate spin on a classic work. I feel there are several rules for this kind of thing.

The first and most important is that person should have total command of the original text which Brooks absolutely does. This will give the bulk of the readers, who are fans of the original and checking it out because of that, a little thrill when they see scenes or characters they recognize. In jokes for the uber fans are also appreciated. In her fleshing out of the life of Mr. March, the little women's absent father, Brooks gives him the attributes and history of Louisa May Alcott's real father, noted Transendentalist Bronson Alcott, whose spending of the family fortune to start a utopian society led to Louisa needing to publish Little Women in the first place. The imaginary March family are also a stop on the Underground Railroad, supporters of John Brown and friends with the Who's Who of Concord of the day, all of which dovetail nicely with Marches as originally presented.

Secondly, unless you're switching up the setting entirely (see "Clueless" for a good example of this) the new work's tone and language must match or at least be compatiable with the original. In this Brooks also succeeds. Her langauge is both of the time yet easy to get, especially when read aloud, which is no mean feat.

Thirdly, the most successful of these redos-March, Jean Rhy's Wide Sargasso Sea, further amplify and reflect the themes of the original. The reader should feel compelled to revisit the original to get still more out of the new book not because they need to wash its bad taste out of their mouth.

In addition to these rules Brooks also succeeds by addressing one of the two things that have bugged readers of Little Women for years (the big one is of course Jo & Laurie's not hooking up which is not addressed since it's outside the timeline of this book) that of the seemingly perfect character of Marmee. Marmee tells Jo at one point that she struggles with her temper but readers never really see that. In fact, in her acknowlements Brooks says when her mom gave her the book she said, "It's great except the mom is totally unbelieveable." One assumes with that in mind, Brooks fully fleshes out Marmee letting us see how costly the effort to keep things going is for her. And lastly I also applaud the title. Yeah, it was kind of a gimmee but in its scope (he is away at war) and in its letting you know who is the focus here, it's absolutely perfect.