March

Brooks, Geraldine.  March.

Penguin, 2005, 280 pages.

Throughout history, citizens of a country, any country, take pride in their nation. This patriotism or perhaps nationalism is justified, whether simply as a matter of pride, or by use of selective memory focusing more on successes than setbacks. Geraldine Brooks has written a Civil War era novel. It is nuanced, it is not lacking in complexity, and it forces the reader to deal with the brutality caused by the disregard for a particular ethnic group, in this case the Negroes, or as we say nowadays, African-Americans. It also deals with the carnage caused by a nation at war with itself.

Mr. March, whose character is drawn from that of the absent father in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, wears several hats in the Geraldine Brooks novel. During the Civil War portion of the novel, he is a father (family man), an army chaplain (man of faith), and a soldier in the Union Army. Before the war he was a peddler/ traveling salesman, an abolitionist, an amateur but competent educator, and a philandering bachelor.

One struggles with the reality of a great nation ever allowing such barbaric behavior as slavery. The author takes us to a plantation where we "witness" a beating, actually a whipping, of a woman no less. Mr. March witnesses this and is to a greater or lesser extent responsible for the incident.

March visits the plantation of a Mr. Clement. They are both learned men, if one could be a slaveholder and still be labeled as such. Clement has a wife, a son, and two daughters. The identity of the second daughter, revealed near the end of Chapter Three, is a real shocker. Clement likes March and invites him to stay after the "peddling" aspect of their dealings is wrapped up.

It is in the effort to help that March inadvertently does irreparable harm, both to someone he is fond of and to himself, as he carries the memory with him, presumably in perpetuity.

Geraldine Brooks puts you in the war. No sugar coating here. You watch a man die not quite in March's arms. You are there as March assists the doctor in makeshift hospital settings. We witness the Hell the nation went through.

If you can deal with the harsh realities, this novel is a well-performed symphony. Obviously the whole purpose of the Civil War was achieved. Men were now free irrespective of race. In reading March, it might help to have an appreciation for literature in general and/ or history specific to the period. The author worked hard but there is no shortage of hurt and we share it as we share our history.