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rsuray's review
3.0
Rating: 3.5 or 7/10
A book of four essays compiled and published alongside the release of the 2019 movie, "March Sisters," uses four diverse female authors to highlight the parallels of the "Little Women" sisters to modern-day feminism as well as their own lives. The essays were enjoyable dissections of the characters, and it's always nice to hear someone (Jenny Zhang) rant about Alcott's unfortunate editorial pressure with Jo's conclusion, but I would particularly like to highlight Jane Smiley's essay on Amy March. Amy is a character with whom I have always struggled to empathize, but Smiley excellently depicts Amy as a politically-artful feminist in her (make-believe) time. Smiley also compares her own journey as a mother to Marmee's maternal decisions in such an eye-opening way. I was very impressed. Overall, I personally was hoping for a book more academically-focused, but the lack of such made for an easy read-through. I'd recommend to any Alcott/LW fan (who has read the book)!
A book of four essays compiled and published alongside the release of the 2019 movie, "March Sisters," uses four diverse female authors to highlight the parallels of the "Little Women" sisters to modern-day feminism as well as their own lives. The essays were enjoyable dissections of the characters, and it's always nice to hear someone (Jenny Zhang) rant about Alcott's unfortunate editorial pressure with Jo's conclusion, but I would particularly like to highlight Jane Smiley's essay on Amy March. Amy is a character with whom I have always struggled to empathize, but Smiley excellently depicts Amy as a politically-artful feminist in her (make-believe) time. Smiley also compares her own journey as a mother to Marmee's maternal decisions in such an eye-opening way. I was very impressed. Overall, I personally was hoping for a book more academically-focused, but the lack of such made for an easy read-through. I'd recommend to any Alcott/LW fan (who has read the book)!
sezillee's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
mschrock8's review against another edition
3.0
More information and influence of Little Women.
Borrowed on Hoopla through JCPL.
Listening length four hr nine min
Borrowed on Hoopla through JCPL.
Listening length four hr nine min
mol_iver's review against another edition
4.0
excellent, thoughtful essays infused with personal touches that made them all the better. unsurprisingly carmen’s was my favorite
bluestjuice's review against another edition
3.0
Four essays considering the four sister characters from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women: one essay per, by four different authors. Meg's focused on the relationship between women and their clothes, on how we want to look distinctive but not stand out in a bad way, how our clothes simultaneously have to reflect us as people yet also form the basis on which others form their opinions on us. Jo's digs into the spectre of responsibility vs. the drive of ambition, the dichotomy between family and career and which self is the more real. Beth's assesses a macabre portrait of a girl frozen through literature on the perpetual cusp of womanhood which she is never allowed to attain, and considers the implications of this in light of the real-life inspiration for the character, Alcott's younger sister Lizzie. Amy's discusses the role of the youngest March girl in serving as a foil for the brash, aspirational, Mary-Sue that is Jo, but goes further to analyze how Amy represents the most modern type of aspirational womanhood, and succeeds farther than any of the other sisters at realizing Marmee's objectives for her daughters in terms of virtue and success.
Each of the essays was well-written and thought-provoking, but my favorite was probably that of Amy, a character who is easy to overlook or laugh off in the first half of the novel but who comes into her own as a strong lead character in the second half. Smiley does an excellent job of tracing the lines of Amy's character through the entire novel, however, showing how the traits which Amy exhibits at twelve blossom in her into the culmination of womanhood by the novel's end. Far from being a petted princess who has everything handed to her by good fortune, she is a hardworking and diligent master of her own fate who is pragmatic enough to learn how to improve and ultimately get whatever she wants.
Each of the essays was well-written and thought-provoking, but my favorite was probably that of Amy, a character who is easy to overlook or laugh off in the first half of the novel but who comes into her own as a strong lead character in the second half. Smiley does an excellent job of tracing the lines of Amy's character through the entire novel, however, showing how the traits which Amy exhibits at twelve blossom in her into the culmination of womanhood by the novel's end. Far from being a petted princess who has everything handed to her by good fortune, she is a hardworking and diligent master of her own fate who is pragmatic enough to learn how to improve and ultimately get whatever she wants.