It’s been years since I’ve read Louis May Alcott’s famous novel about the March sisters and their transition from childhood to adulthood. So this story comes across as almost a new story rather than a retelling of an old classic.
The very different personalities evinced by the four sisters make themselves known as immediately. Amethyst’s “voice” is the first we here, as she speculates about the state of her books, her ability to manage an almost perfect pirouette and her eagerness to attend a makeshift school, no matter how often her older sister Meg tells her no. Meg is hardworking, responsible and rather prim. Beth is kindly and devoted to household chores while Joanna remained mute and watchful for years, preferring to stitch together words in private rather than talk to strangers.
The family, along with a mother who hasn’t quite dared to let herself relax lest enslaving white people snatch away her children, shows a powerful love beneath their mild bickering. It is a distaff alliance that knits itself together in spite of or, perhaps, because of the continual absence of the paterfamilias. The setting of a black family in the time after the Civil War heightens the notion of family sticking together against very adverse odds and white people who may disdain them simply because of their skin color.
The very different personalities evinced by the four sisters make themselves known as immediately. Amethyst’s “voice” is the first we here, as she speculates about the state of her books, her ability to manage an almost perfect pirouette and her eagerness to attend a makeshift school, no matter how often her older sister Meg tells her no. Meg is hardworking, responsible and rather prim. Beth is kindly and devoted to household chores while Joanna remained mute and watchful for years, preferring to stitch together words in private rather than talk to strangers.
The family, along with a mother who hasn’t quite dared to let herself relax lest enslaving white people snatch away her children, shows a powerful love beneath their mild bickering. It is a distaff alliance that knits itself together in spite of or, perhaps, because of the continual absence of the paterfamilias. The setting of a black family in the time after the Civil War heightens the notion of family sticking together against very adverse odds and white people who may disdain them simply because of their skin color.