The Book: The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, by Kelly O’Connor McNees
The Story: Most fans of Little Women know at least a little bit of Louisa May Alcott’s history. Her dad was part of a pretty influential group in Concord, but seemed a little nutty about transcendentalism. She had three sisters, who she kind of based Little Women on. She started writing at a very young age and always made it first in her life. She never married.
That is the basic outline that this book follows. The story takes place during the summer of 1855, when her family had moved and was living in New Hampshire. She meets a local boy, Joseph Singer, and despite her feelings on love, ends up falling for him. Louisa’s struggle to keep writing her first priority, take care of her family, and balance a relationship are kind of the core of the story.
The sub-plots involve putting on a play, her sister’s romance, and observations on Louisa’s parents’ marriage. The most important thing happening in the background is kind of this cultural change. There is a lot of thought put into slavery and politics as well as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau (who were close friends of the Alcotts) and their views. This is the summer that Whitman’s Leaves of Grass came out and that kind of had a serious effect on Louisa as well as her boy toy.
What I Thought: Like I told you guys a few weeks ago, I’m a pretty big Little Women fan. I was so excited when I saw this on the bookshelf because I am a sucker for books about Louisa May Alcott. Last year sometime I read The Glory Cloak , which was a totally different take on Louisa May Alcott’s life, and I throughly enjoyed it. I’ve also read a couple of non-fiction books about her life, so I kind of knew what I was getting into.
I thought that this book was fun. Not wonderful, not life-changing, and not even the best historical fiction I’ve read in the last few months.
I loved seeing Louisa May Alcott getting kind of dopey in love because she is generally not portrayed like that at all. She never married and really did devote her entire life to her writing. I like the idea that she found love at one point and was all goofy and making bad decisions and stuff.
However. Yeah, there’s a “however.” The writing was kind of cheesy and (especially for anyone with even a base knowledge of Louisa May Alcott’s life) fairly predictable. I thought that it was researched pretty well but the town and historical period and everything just kind of seemed pretty bland, like stage settings or something- not like a place, a time that was really alive.
I did read it fairly quickly and enjoyed it for what it was: a historical fiction version of brain candy. I didn’t have to think to read this and the story didn’t get me wrapped up. It was one of those books that I enjoyed while I read it and didn’t give it a minute’s thought when the book wasn’t in my hand.
Conclusion: Read this by the pool or in the car or while you’re on vacation. It’s not anything life changing, but it is a good, fun read.