Have you ever wondered what happened to Mr. March of Little Women while he was away at war? This story fills in that gap. In first-person narration and lovely prose, March tells his own story of being a Civil War chaplain in 1861. During a battle, he is unable to save one of his comrades while he makes his own escape. He finds himself at a plantation that he knew years ago from his days as a peddler, and remembers the plantation owner, Clement, and his slave, Grace, as they were twenty years ago. His heartbreaking descent from high-minded idealist to disillusioned soldier reads realistically. March finds himself unable to communicate the horrors of war to his wife, if only to try to keep her and his daughters from heartbreak.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The writing was lovely and the research detailed, so I can see why it won a Pulitzer. I didn't entirely agree with the way the author reinterpreted the characters of Little Women, though I enjoyed the differing point of view and forcing myself to think of the characters in a new light. And though I can hardly fault the book for this, the harsh aspects of war and the effect it had on March's psyche left me feeling rather depressed; though the story is not devoid of hope, it is much sadder than I tend to like. ( )

I found this something of a let-down, having read Russell's The Sparrow. That book took a handful of characters and established a rapport with them which allowed Russell to tell a fascinating and complex story about humanity; A Thread of Grace attempts something similar on a larger scale, but it fails to convince. Russell does well at establishing a sense of period—northwestern Italy in the latter part of the Second World War, when the first signs of defeat were urging the Nazis on to greater acts of cruelty, and thousands of Italians sheltered Jewish refugees in their homes—and there is an unrelenting, photorealistic quality to her writing which is marvellous, if occasionally unsettling. (This is not a book to read if you have a weak stomach.) Yet I think her cast of characters was too large, diffusing some of the impact of what Russell was attempting; just as I was beginning to get involved with one character, they would disappear from the narrative or would be killed, while a number of very minor characters were given large swathes of backstory for no reason that I could fathom. It felt rather a mish-mash at times. One minor, but continuous annoyance, was Russell's insistence at points on trying to capture dialect by writing phonetically—it's a technique which, to me, always seems a little patronising. ( )

Peter March, the absent father in Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" finds voice in this tale of the Civil War. March, a cleric, father of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, husband of Marmee, friend and neighbor to Thoreau and Emerson, and benefactor to John Brown is characterized as overly idealistic, paternalistic and naive. One would expect with all these fascinating aspects of March’s life, a fully fleshed out character, but the book falls short of that. However, it does offer an insightful and well researched look into this period of time. Although it is not my favorite book by this wonderful author, it is still an enjoyable read. ( )

I just finished this one today and it took me forever! Like many girls, I read Little Women as a child and loved it. I read all the books in the series. So you might think a book about one of the characters would be very appealing to me. And so it might, but not this book.

Reverend March is always the most obscure of the family in this series, as he is away at war when the book opens. So Geraldine Brooks has lots of room to imagine a new story for him. She opens the book with March in the middle of battle in the Civil War.

Now naturally, a book mostly about the Civil War would not exactly be cheerful. But it wouldn't necessarily be depressing and feel like a chore to read. That's exactly how I felt reading this book. I know lots of people have said good things about it. But I didn't like it at all. I didn't like the central character all that much. I did feel that he was a moral man, trying to stand up for what he believes in a very complicated situation. But I didn't like him. And I was unhappy with the interpretation Brooks gives to the whole March household.

I'm not sure if I'll read any more by this author, but it sure wasn't what I expected and I'm glad to be done with it. ( )

I grabbed this book simply because it was on the half-off Goodwill shelf and 'Year Of Wonders' has always been one of my favorites. It wasn't even until I got it home that I read what it was actually about. A Maguire-ian re-telling of Little Women through Mr. March's eyes? Sounded amazing.

And a lot of it was. But some parts dragged on and failed to keep my attention. It took me nearly a month to finish this short novel, which is unheard of. The latter half was much more enchanting than the first, however. It steadily picked up it's pace from there, right up until the end which actually left me wanting more.

How Mr. March reconciles his Civil War experiences with his innocent family is meant to be left up to imagination, but a part of me really wants to be told that tale. ( )