• LITTLE WOMEN
• by Louisa May Alcott
• [rated by PBS viewers as #8!]
• 388 pages

First things first. This is the first book my library instantly had! And as we have all gleaned from my previous patterning, I am an instant fix kind of girl!

So I have this old leather bound copy on loan, with quite lovely pictures in it. All of that is great. I like how many hands have touched it and how many people have read it.

My only problem is the antiquated printing. Blech!! Printed back when, they have used this font that is all squished together and so bunched up and wordy that it practically dares my eyes to look away! I have to use a bookmark and really concentrate, moving down every line.

I read this when I was very young and many of the elements have stayed with me. That is incredibly rare for me. I think I could have named all of the daughters, for example. I remember what was sad toward the end.

At first, trying to read it, I got a bit nervous, wondering if this might end up being the hardest one yet.

But sweetness is really a beautiful thing. You have to keep scaling back your worldly sarcastic edges, layer after layer, to accept this premise and let it in.

But once you accept these characters on their own terms, Alcott surprises us with the girls acting up a bit. I like that turnaround. Maybe I liked that dimension because I didn’t remember it. I thought they were always sweet, but no. This book didn’t stick around in every library for this long without some nice depth to the characters, story and intent.

About a hundred pages in, I’m liking the March sisters and wanting to hear more!

5/18/19

I don’t mind Little Women. Honest, I don’t! It is well written and sweet with characters that I can already prove from personal experience stay with you for a lifetime. Only one problem.

I don’t know how I’m going to get through it!

It feels endlessly long to me. Every page takes a lifetime to get through. That may be because the font is so small and squatty on the page that almost 400 pages is more like almost 800 pages!

Also, it is a different time. A perfectly written book then; now it could use a good editor. So, for instance, Jo writes a newspaper for the club that she and her sisters have. Interesting detail. But then all eight pages of the newspaper are included in there! I mean, really? Is that really necessary? Hm. The girls write notes to their mother, sending her love and missing her. Since they are pretty much all conveying the same points, must we read all of their notes?

I know that all of these points will pale to the majesty of the book in hindsight.

Just wondering if I’ll ever get there. Is there a hindsight in my future?

Well, I’m ahead of schedule with my ten books a year, but this one may edge me back a ways. But I like it! Really.

5/27/19

Okay. I’m not too proud to say it. Well, that’s sort of not true. I’m pretty sheepish to say it.

I may die before I finish reading Little Women.

Not really. I’m not dying. I’m not even sick. But I’m mighty damned sick of Little Women.

I always thought it would be War & Peace or some opus like that that would take me six months to get through. But Little Women is giving me a run for my money.

It is a perfectly fine book. The characters have stayed with most of us who read it in our youth. Stayed with us to the extent that most women my age remember all the girls names. And for its time, it is perfectly obvious how she crafted a new, original story that absolutely everyone could identify with. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, but it is also a slog! I think I would still finish it if I weren’t doing this project. And I would also do that because I tend to finish books. But it isn’t much of a stretch to imagine that I’d let a fun mystery creep in as I was reading it – and then another – and then another. And there it would sit.

I’m glad to be reading it. It is a fine piece of work. If it were written today, it would be whittled down by a third and I think it would be the better for it. But it is its own world and for the most part, I’m in.

The current human in me has a hard time with the part I’m in now where they are becoming wives. I know that a wife’s job back then was to clean and prepare the meals and there weren’t a whole lot of alternatives. But as a multi-decade happily married woman who doesn’t do any of that stuff – or at least doesn’t have to – it is a hard ambition to relate to.

I’m going to Italy in two weeks. I don’t want to bring a book from this project with me. I like to take a handful of paperbacks on trips. And I want to be reading nothing but fun on that trip. So I need to finish this off and know that I will.

There is heart and love and wisdom in this book and I think it belongs on the list. And I will survive it!

6/3/19

Well, it had to happen some time. Had to. A little less than a month in, I finished Little Women.

The last hundred pages or so read a bit faster than the rest. Maybe it felt a bit more relatable when everyone started getting a bit older and wiser. It was definitely refreshing after that first blush of romance when they learned to submit to their husbands, allowing their men to set them straight. That was incredibly hard, especially for this old married woman!

Kudos are due to Alcott for making a very smooth transition in that sense. She was able to keep growing up with her characters, with one exception. She made the little kids sound like mongoloid idiots. Every time they spoke, it was to say “me want poopy” or some stupid shit like that, to which everyone there would smile or laugh. Jesus. Give that a rest.

But I am fond of the book. I like it more in my rearview mirror – much as I have with some of the others. I sort of long for a book that I don’t want to put down. And I was only too happy to put this down. I put this bad boy down a lot.

Maybe I’m older and I will always put them down a lot. But a girl can hope.

I’m going to pick something else now, but with one caveat this time.

As I believe I mentioned, I’m off to Italy in two weeks and I decided to allow myself a vacation from this project on that week long trip.

I have long treasured the practice of bringing paperbacks that, when finished, I leave for someone else to read wherever I can. I love that practice. When the umpteenth person tried to persuade me to get a kindle (somehow they don’t understand that a) I don’t want to look at a screen more than I already do and b) I love books way too much to have them hide out in electronics), they often sight trips as the main reason to have one. I tell them of my practice of dropping off my read books.

Having said that, I now realize, 8 books (is it?) into this project, that I am biologically incapable of not picking the next book right now! So I will pick it and perhaps leave it behind for my trip and then bring it back. I’ll especially do that if it is a huge one. I like to be able to read at least the greater portion of a whole book while flying to Europe. Wish me luck!

I picked two titles, along with keeping Ghost on the list from the last pick. I had sort of thought I would just start with Little Women, out of that pick, and then follow it up with Ghost.

The two titles I picked were The Help, which I have read before and it didn’t seem the right time for. But the other one was James Baldwin’s Another Country, which does intrigue me.

Ghost would be fine – plus it is quite short so I could easily finish it before my trip. But I’ll decide, after I go through the drill of seeing if I can find the Baldwin one nearby. If so, I’ll pick then.

3/18/20

TWO ADDITIONAL NOTES ADDED LATER TO THIS BOOK READ:

#1 – I feel that I want to clarify how far behind I am with these. I read this book months back. Now we are all isolated in our homes, due to the pandemic.

Just thought I’d add this, as I got a little queasy re-reading the part about touching the old book and loving all the other people who touched it. Boy, times have sure changed! Hopefully not for good. I, for one, have always enjoyed human touch and hope I will get the chance to enjoy it once again!

#2 – Saw Greta Gerwig’s film of Little Women a month or two back. I felt a secret thrill, that I was uniquely qualified to judge it having so very recently read the book.

I think she did an astonishing job! Beautifully done. The times she took a little license all made sense to me. And she much more than honored the spirit of the story.

One funny exception to me was when she cast the part of the sort of tubby, losing-his-hair tutor that Meg falls in love with, though he is penniless and the family isn’t initially thrilled? She cast it with the guy from Granchester! I mean, give me a break! Who wouldn’t be penniless with him?!

I’ve kept you long enough! Toodles!