Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy

Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters by Anne Boyd Rioux       Audiobook:  9 hours, 39 mins.     Hardback Book:  288 pages.        Genre:  Biography of Louisa May Alcott,  Discussion of her characters and writings based on her own family members,  discussion of films and portrayals of Little Women,  Relevance to today and discussion of required reading statistics today

Good book.    I found out so much about Louisa May Alcott that I never knew before.   The gal had a hard time of it coming up.   Her father considered himself a transcendentalist philosopher and throughout his life followed his muse wherever it led him, whenever he felt led.   He often left the family – his wife and four daughters, to fend for themselves while he took off wherever the wind blew him to pursue whatever quest he chose.   Louisa’s mother took in laundry and sewing doing whatever she could to get scraps of food and manage to clothe them all and try to keep a roof over their heads.  Louisa took on the role of the “man” of the family during these times and did her best to find work or sell her writings while also working in the fields anything and everything to get money to help her mother provide for the family.   It is mentioned in this book that the fathers in Louisa’s books took peripheral background roles where they were mentioned but seldom seen-hmmm-writing from what you know there, Louisa?   Often male characters were flawed, weak, or having peculiar features, dull so much so that the strong female characters shine even brighter in comparison.   Louisa and her sisters adored their dear mother, who worked from sunup to sundown to support her family.   Louisa was always praised highly by both of her parents on her writing and storytelling abilities and writing always seemed her strongsuit as a career.   Marriage was never on her agenda as she never wanted to be stuck in a situation like her mother.   After establishing herself as a successful author, her publisher asked her to write a book about girls as there seemed to be such a glut of books about boys having been written over the years.   Her publisher thought the writing market needed to be evened out with more stories about females.   Louisa balked at the thought of it.    She had found a niche in writing thrillers where people became opium or heroin addicts and females fell prey to the influence of harsh men and drugs.  LOUISA MAY ALCOTT?   WHAT?   Things you never knew about her will come to light in startling ways here.   A very good read once you are a few pages in and know where this book is taking you.   It is really quite interesting and gives you the feel of the times, comparisons of all kinds of thoughts being developed, theories, religion versus agnosticism, gender roles and how they could be made pliable yet still acceptable even in those times as she herself always wanted to be a boy and lived the tomboy life until her mother made her wear dresses when she began her menses which signified a girl was of marrying age in those days and the going from childhood pants and leggings to long dresses with swept up hair told the story like a beacon on what was happening inside her.   Alcott spoke with her own sisters before writing, “Little Women,”   asking if they were alright with her using them as models for her characters, the March sisters.   They were fine with it even offering ideas on the things their characters, liked, would do and would say.   The book practically wrote itself as Louisa sat in her attic garret her father had fixed up for her complete with a desk he made for her.   He did have his good points which kept them all loving him, but, come on Dude, leave something to live on for your bairn and wifey when you decide to go on walkabout for a year or two at a time.   And sending something home money-wise now and then would have been the decent thing to do as husband and father.  But I digress.   This book talks about films and plays that have been done over the years and how closely and how far-a-field some have been.   It also talks about the relevance of the book and the life teachings it offers and the look into the female perspective.   While there have been boys and men who have read the book it has predominantly been perceived to be a book for girls and was not required reading in most classes as many males found it too feminine for their tastes while other males found it to be quite insightful as to the character of women in order to understand them better.    I did enjoy this book and I always enjoy learning new things about people and new bits of trivia about historical and literary characters.    Learning the story behind the story is a special interest of mine and this book gives you that and much, much more.      I highly recommend it to anyone curious about the book Little Women because this is a very well-rounded discussion of many of the facets that brought it to be and continue keeping it in the public eye and the reasoning behind its relevance today.

 - Shirley J.