March

Not the month.I am usually very skeptical about any sequals or "inspired by the classic..." type novels to those which have established themselves as cannon- especially when it is done posthumously. I hope these contemporary and daring authors feel haunted by their muses' souls for the exploiting of infintely copyrighted characters. I know that there is a huge female population going crazy over Mr. Darcy's Daughters or An Assembly Such as This (Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters is a different thing entirely), but I would rather not taint a good thing, thank you. It's like anti-mormon lit. Just don't go there. You will only come away with an exercised gag reflex after witnessing the violation of something that is (or seems) sacred.

That being stated, I was everso tempted by this "Little Women EXPOSED" approach. As Geraldine Brooks (its author) was told by her grandma: "Nobody in real life is such a goody-goody as that Marme." And I'm sure I knew all along that Mr. March, the elusive father with his cookie-cutter sentiments, must have actually been witnessing some juicy stuff during his year-long sabattical from home life.

It was a fascinating read and is making my current re-reading of Little Women much more interesting. I must say that the slavery issue, with which this book dealt closely, has always been horrific and nauseating but has never felt so intimate. It left me feeling incredibly vulnerable. I will need to brace myself as such issues can no longer be studied objectively.

It was good. Besides, it won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.