Eve LaPlante

A deeply-researched dive into the Alcott family that left me with strong feelings about the parents. Bronson was the worst. He never worked, but depended on others to support his whole family so he could maintain his high morality. He left his family to go live in other cities so they didn’t distract him. Louisa and her mother were incredibly close and alike in temperament. They were both excellent writers and it was Abigail who encouraged Louisa's work. This is a must-read IF you are a huge Alcott fan.

A few fascinating details:
- Abigail believed the country was deeply flawed because it was founded on slavery. I love that that is treated like a new concept, when it’s been around, almost as long as the country has.

- Abigail's brother, Samuel Joseph May, was an incredible man. He was a pastor who stood up for women's rights, helped runaway slaves escape to freedom, supporting integrating schools at a time when it was unheard of, and more.

- I hadn't realized how much Louisa had traveled through Europe or how sick she became later in life. I also didn't realize how often she was forced to be at home playing nursemaid and housekeeper for her family.

- Louisa was not a fan of being famous and hated that her father used her fame to bring himself more attention.

- Eventually Abigail was forced to work because her husband thought he was above earning money and they were completely in debt.

- Many of Abigail's papers were burned or revised.

- Bronson was constantly leaving his family so he could go off and live by himself and have peace and quiet for himself. He even blamed his wife (in writing) for a miscarriage she suffered.

- Louisa's older sister's husband died young and her youngest sister (May) died young in Paris after giving birth.… (mais)

Exhaustively researched so much so that sometimes it was exhausting to read, too.

My attention span did struggle with this at times particularly when it veered deep into branches of the family tree that felt like far more information than seemed necessary to tell what was supposed to be the life stories of Louisa May Alcott and her mother. This was also populated with many similar names so that was occasionally difficult to keep straight in my head and the writing style was extremely dense and research heavy which lends itself to a slow reading pace or at least for me it does.

If you haven’t read all of Louisa’s books/stories yet keep in mind there are spoilers for them throughout the text, necessarily so as the author was illustrating the various ways Louisa’s real life inspired her writing. For me, those were the most involving passages in the book, learning the context of certain things in Little Women, etc., as well as Louisa’s overall career journey, this book can at times feel like a bit of a slog but if you’re interested in Louisa it’s very much worth the effort.… (mais)