The book was assigned by my book club. I had had zero interest in "Little Women" from which it is derived, had not read it, and worried that my interest in war was less than I needed to get through the read. Still, it was my first month at the book club and I really wanted to have read the book.I found an audio clip of it on the Internet. It was a selection describing a battleground including the drowning of a soldier in such morbid and drawn out details that it put me off completely.
Two weeks past. I forced myself to buy the book. Two days later, I opened it and began to read. Half-way through the first chapter, I was almost in tears at the thought of having to read any more of it. And there were nearly 300 pages!
Second chapter: miracle of miracle, a flashback to earlier times, and much more interesting. Now there was humanity attached to the descriptions and I pushed on.
I finished 250 pages that night. Not that it was so captivating but because I wanted to get it done. Now with just 30 pages to go I can say this:
The language is definitely "period" and laborious. There are a few times when it is anachronistic like when Marmee refers to her potential future husband in terms of finding a suitable "partner" a term that has only recently become popular.
As for the gratuitous depictions of the first chapter, they were few and less horrific as the book progressed. I have to wonder why the author chose to open her book with passages that so deter the reader as to have them put the book down alltogether out of disguss as I nearly did. Shock and Awe?
This is not a book I would have read were it not required reading. I did not find it particularly well written. There are no "literary" passages that I want to remember or read again. With few exceptions, the florishes of language she uses do not contribute to embelishing the text, rhythm or flow of the words as they might have once by the Romantics. Neither did I derive much compassion for any of the characters, largely, I think, because none have much to offer, few have sufficient depth and coherence to be believable. Something of a Harlequin Romance without the romance. I certainly hope this book selection is not a sign of things to come in my book club.
