[quote=""Ash""]Hee, so much for her book recs. Little Women was a childhood favorite, a book I read so often that I went through two copies. So I was eager to read March, and like you, totally disgusted. I could not understand why she'd think that the character she wrote would have been so loved by Marmee and her girls. I understood that her characterization was based on Alcotts father, since she based Little Women on her and her sisters, but it just didn't fit (btw People of the Book is much better, at least till the final 20 pages or so)
And don't get me started on Pillars of the Earth. But I think you know that
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I had mentioned to this friend that I had just finished rereading Little Women, a book I've also adored since childhood, and still do. It has much depth, and I always find something undiscovered, no matter how many times I read it.
I'm a bit nonplussed by why Brooks wrote March in the first place - generally when one 'riffs' on another person's work, it's because one admires it, isn't it? Brooks seemed determined to destroy all that was lovely about LW. I didn't finish it, disgust is quite the right word, yes.
Can't understand why it won so many prizes either - it's very poorly researched and the characters are unlikeable. Unless when prize givers say 'literary' they mean 'dark and cynical.' That's the only explanation I can come up with.
Me, I can handle dark, but there has to be light somewhere, or what's the point?
Gaveston by Chris Hunt 
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) Think I may well just donate it to Vinnies and be done with it!
