Retelling cherished stories in a modern setting often doesn’t work.
This is the case with Meg and Jo. The author tries to be true to the
character of the original March sisters, but that’s hard to do in a
modern setting. For me it didn’t work well.
Meg is a
stay-at-home-Mom. She has two adorable twins and a handsome husband
who does his best for the family. Because John, her husband, works so
hard, Meg feels that she must do everything at home. This leads to
secret resentment and an attitude that makes her resist well meaning
offers of help. I though her character was far removed from the
original Meg.
Jo still wants to be
a writer, but the economy isn’t good. She loses her full-time
writing job in New York and is barely staying afloat working as a
food blogger and prep cook. She desperately wants to maintain her
independence and doesn’t want her family to know how much she’s
struggling.
When the girls’
mother becomes seriously ill they have to find a way to keep up the
farm work as well as their families and careers. For Jo, this means
coming back to Bunyan, North Carolina. The girls’ father is no
help. He is portrayed as totally wrapped up in counseling veterans
and generally unavailable to the family. I felt the inclusion of his
character detracted from the story more than added to it since he was
so peripheral and yet still there.
I think the author
tried to do justice to the original story. However, as I said in the
opening, it’s very difficult to transpose characters between time
periods and keep the feel of the original story. It was an
interesting try, but for me, it wasn’t successful.
I received this book
from Net Galley for this review.
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