Suffice it to say, I read a lot of books, we all know this to be a fact. The past 5 monthes or so(almost 6 I guess), I've read approximately 21(my book list isn't currently on me)novels. This project has forced me to read a lot too, and I definitely have had my fair share of surprises when it comes to how I like certain of the novels I've encountered. However, this year, I've faced a lot of "meh, that was oh-kay"s, and nothing that really made me say "THIS IS WHY I FUCKING READ!!!!" Well, I think I've found my FAVORITE BOOK OF 2007 thus far. It's March by Geraldine Brooks. Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer prize, I had it via the hold list through the Seattle Public Library. I was reading it purely because it won an award, not necessarily because it held any super important interest to me, though it does have an interesting premise. In Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, the March girls and their mother struggle to to stay strong and support themselves while their father is absent in the Civil War. Brooks' novel takes threads from Alcott's novel and weaves them into an entirely different story, the imagined one of the March girls' father as he is away from his loved ones. I've read so many books lately with male protagonists, I wasn't that eager to read yet another one. But, Brooks' prose is astonishing, and the character of Mr. March is so fascinatingly human, I found myself holding my breath because I was too enraptured to let it go. We are introduced to a slightly soul shattered Captain March, after one of his fellow soldiers drowns while they are trying to, together, escape the enemy, it is only a beginning of the atrocities of war that he is forced to witness throughout the course of the work. We then begin to learn about Mr. March's stance on slavery and his ideals and how they brought him into the war, his self-described failings leading him to take part in this confused national conflict so as to almost make up for what he has lost. What he realizes of course, in the course of the novel, is that despite all of one person's efforts, s/he is only one person and is thus gravely limited. And, while coming to terms with this, he is constantly plagued by memory AND a great deal of guilt. Brooks' main character is a man, but a very sensitive one, a vegetarian(almost entirely vegan actually, which at this time period must have been at the very least EXTREMELY difficult and not necessarily healthy) at pretty much all levels because he does not believe in the harming of animals at all, that everything that is a product of them, whether it be flesh, milk or even wool is the property of the animal from whence it came. That was impressive. The character himself has flaws, though; in an effort to protect his very outspoken and feminist(yay!) wife, he tries to curb her outbursts, and is upset when she does not appear to be the model wife and lady, even when those outbursts and passionate embraces of the issues were what drew him to her in the first place. And, Mr. March's head is so wrapped up in his books and so far up in the clouds that when he finally has to encounter reality it is so very painful to read about. Brooks' prose depicts such atrocities of slavery and war that make them real, sickeningly so, but worth it to remind us not only how far we have come, but how much further we need to go. What was definitely disheartening but of course at the time probably all too true, was Brooks' depiction of the Union soldiers...March expected them all to believe in the emancipation of the slaves as much as he did, but when he encounters as much prejudice and lack of assistance with his cause as he did in antebellum South, it is a harsh wake-up call not only to him but to the reader as well. History books tend to romanticize the Civil War, making the North to be the good guys who could do no wrong, who were fighting for what was right. The truth is far different. Images in the novel swirled in my imagination as I tried to sleep this whole(fittingly)Memorial Day weekend, images that I would love to forget, but need to remember. The other thing that I found kind of fun about this book, is that much of March's memory refers back to his home life in Concord, Mass. Emily, Chris and I went there last summer as part of our National Park rendezvous. It was amazing to see the landscape come alive through my own memory. One of the national parks (Minuteman) bordered the Alcott's property. I found out at the end of the novel, that the author(as described in the afterword) based the character of Mr. March on Louisa May Alcott's father, Bronson Alcott, so to have seen the town of Concord and the lands surrounding Alcott's property became a relevant part of my book project without me even knowing it at the time. I'm sure this coincidence will happen again and again as I visit more national parks and read more Pulitzer prize winners, since the Pulitzer is an award given to a book that depicts an "American experience." And Marmee, who in Louisa May's book is depicted as this perfect self-sacrificing mother is not so in Brooks' light...she too is all too human. Yes! There is also much discussed of how time can change a relationship and how a desire not to hurt that whom you truly love can also unfortunately sometimes create distance. All of this crammed into a 280 page novel. Maybe now you'll have a glimpse as to why I was so impressed. I love books that make me think, but also make me cry out for characters, become worried, and so emotionally attached to the work that I am felt drained at the end. That is a great literary experience. Before I went to bed last night I thought hard about the book and what it meant, how it portrayed things etc. It reminded me of a quote that I love by Abraham Lincoln. He said "If you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will." That unfortunately is too hopeful even for a great leader. Brooks' novel reminded me of the truly bitter truth that evil is everywhere, you don't even have to go looking. Something that Mr. March learns as well. It is a hard lesson his wife learns as well, especially when she sees her ruined(emotionally and physically) husband in the hospital. A quote that I loved from the book comes from Marmee after she has seen her husband again for the first time in almost a year. "But I said none of this a year ago, when it might have mattered. It was easy then to convince one's conscience that the war would be over in ninety days, as the president said; to reason that the price paid in blood would justify the great good we were so sure we would obtain. To lift the heel of cruel oppression from the necks of the suffering! Ninety days of war seemed a fair payment. What a corrupt accounting it was. I still believe that removing the stain of slavery is worth some suffering--but whose? If our forefathers make the world awry, must our children be the ones who pay to right it? (Brooks 210)" My other favorite quote comes from the black woman from March's past who he has quite the obsession with. He meets up with her before he is reunited with his family, claiming that he can't go home because he is so ashamed of all the wrongs that have been committed as a result of some poor choices on his part. She in turn tells him of things that have befallen because of choices she made and how she too has "experience with a conscience that flays [her] alive, every waking day". She says to him "I do not ask your absolution, I simply ask you to see that there is only one thing to do when we fall, and that is to get up, and go on with the life that is set in front of us, and try to do the good of which our hands are capable for the people who come in our way. That, at least, has been my path" (Brooks 268). Mr. Lincoln, I say you can't help the bad in mankind, but you can try with your measly two hands to assuage whatever wounds with a small measure of kindness. READ THIS BOOK. IT'S WONDERFUL, and VERY DESERVING OF THE PRIZE. THANK GOD. Pulitzers-26, GGs-26.