March

This was book of the month for July, discussed at the beginning of August, so I'm punctual as usual.  Once again it is a book that I very much doubt I would have picked for myself but I throrughly enjoyed it.

Brooks has taken the character of Mr March, absent from pretty much the whole of 'Little Women' I understand, and writen the story of what he was up to while he was away from home.  Not having read 'Little Women' this did nothing to draw me in.  In fact, had I been nrowsing the bookshelves, it might well have put me off.  However I was drawn into the story of Mr March almost as soon as I opened the book.  From the outset he was an intriguing and likeable character leading an interesting life.  Starting out as an itinerant peddlar he becomes, over time, quite a wealthy young man.  His progressive ideals lead him into the anti-slavery movement and, eventually, into service during the American Civil War.

In the latter stages of the story some of his weaknesses start to become apparent.  At one stage I began to wonder if Brooks wasn't trying to make him into quite a pathetic man and this feeling was shared by several other members of the group.  However towards the very end he was shown again in a rather more positive light.  The book provoked quite a lot of discussion about attitudes to race and gender, in particularly some of the apparent inconsistencies in March's own attitudes.