March I just finished Geraldine Brooks’ March. What a read it was.

Ostensibly a takeoff from the story line from Little Women, it is written mostly from the viewpoint of the girls’ father, Mr. March. A segment toward the end gives us Mrs. March’s take on things. A lifelong kind and compassionate, Mr. March loses his fortune to the abolitionist John Brown’s fight for the Negroes. From the start of their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. March had lived with luxury and plenty. Until Mr. March finally had to confide their circumstances,  Mrs. March had no hint of the decline in their finances. Though she supports the freedom of all people and does not regret her husband’s support, part of the story highlights her internal and bitter feelings about her husband’s squandering it all, leaving nothing for her and the children to live on.

To make a small living, Mr. March becomes a preacher. He becomes obsessed with the plight of the Negroes and when the Civil War erupts, his compassion and conscience drive him to action. Without including his wife in the decision, he abandons her and his family for the battlefield to serve as chaplain to the Union.

In the course of the war, he encounters a beguiling and refined slave woman owned by a rich landowner.

Guilt about his feelings for this woman and his sense of his abundant inadequacies, Mr. March takes readers on a wild and somewhat pity-filled ride. It is no wonder the novel won the Pulitzer prize.