March by Geraldine Brooks (2005)

I am now convinced that this was the March that someone once recommended. I read another The March by Doctrow that was also about the Civil War, and OK, but not like this. Brooks never ceases to amaze me. I kept putting of reading it, as I knew it wasn't going to be an easy read. March is the fictional character, the father of the girls in Little Women. We see him writing home and remembering his war time years, and his youth, when he wandered around the South selling things. Brooks manages to touch on so many essential aspects of that war.

I was thankful that she explained the types of things she looked at for her research and what was real (descriptions of specific battles) and what was imagined. I loved that we saw numerous real historical figures like Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John Brown (I read another book about him not too long ago.) The whole abolitionist movement is much clearer to me now.