Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy by Anna Boyd Rioux

MEG, JO, BETH, AMY by Anna Boyd Rioux offers a fascinating look at the history and characters from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women as that book approaches its sesquicentennial. This is a scholarly work where Rioux, a professor at the University of New Orleans, provides helpful background on Alcott’s life and outlines some of the origins for and the parallels with characters in her classic novel. Providing ample examples and analyses, Rioux encourages readers to question whether Little Woman is a “rebellious tale of one young woman’s resistance to the restrictions of her era, or a dispiriting portrait of her capitulation to the status quo.” Rioux definitely laments the idea that Alcott’s novel is rarely taught in schools today; in fact, she subtitles her study “The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters” and describes Alcott’s book as “a fable of growing up female.” The potentially controversial feminist interpretation, preference for contemporary texts and concerns about a crisis in boys’ reading are all reasons that Rioux cites for fewer classroom lessons on Little Women.

Rioux calls Little Women “the most widely beloved story of girlhood” and says “what appears to be a sweet, light story of four girls growing up is also very much about how hard it was (and is) to come of age in a culture that prizes a woman’s appearance over her substance.” Additional perspective on MEG, JO, BETH, AMY is provided by Wall Street Journal reviewer Meghan Cox Gurdon whose own book, The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction will be available early next year. Both Booklist and Library Journal gave Rioux’s MEG, JO, BETH, AMY starred reviews.

Historical Fiction Titles

I enjoyed THE CHILBURY LADIES’ CHOIR, a debut novel by Jennifer Ryan.  Set in 1940 in a small village near the East Coast of England, this was a fairly gentle and undemanding read which allowed one to imagine the changes in personal relationships wrought by WWII.

Ryan uses letters and diary entries from a variety of village inhabitants to convey events involving bombs, baby-swapping and singing competitions.  Chroniclers include 13 year-old Kitty who has a beautiful singing voice and a lovely older sister, Venetia, who is prone to flirting. Adult perspective is provided by Mrs. Tilling, widowed and sending her only son off to war, plus Mrs. Paltry, a local midwife. 

Throughout the novel, there is plenty of talk of standing together and taking care of each other as the choir and its members all must take on new duties and face possible death from the Nazi air raids.  Even in the short space of a few months, Kitty and Venetia are forced to grow-up, with the latter observing, “I realized that this is what it’s like to be an adult, learning to pick from a lot of bad choices and do the best you can with that dreadful compromise.” 

THE CHILBURY LADIES’ CHOIR has been compared frequently to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society; and, according to Library Journal, TV rights have been sold to the production company behind Downton Abbey.

If you are looking for a much more sophisticated historical fiction read, turn to LINCOLN IN THE BARDO, a first novel for award-winning author George Saunders. 

The story begins around the time of the death of 11-year-old Willie Lincoln in 1862 and occurs largely in Oak Hill Cemetery where President Lincoln is alleged to have visited frequently. Called a “collage,” "strikingly original," or "imaginative" and reading at times like a play, this work features quotes from historical works and the voices of other dead characters as they and Willie inhabit the bardo, or limbo, between life and death.

LINCOLN IN THE BARDO was reviewed recently on NPR and in The Wall Street Journal. Saunders’ novel also received starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.

The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers

If you like historical fiction, please look for THE SECOND MRS. HOCKADAY by Susan Rivers.  The story takes place over two generations, during the American Civil war and in 1892.  The focus is on Placidia Fincher Hockaday, a not quite 18 year-old girl who marries a Confederate soldier (Major Gryffth Hockaday) and then is left to take care of his farm and young son at Holland Creek, South Carolina. In material provided by her publisher, author Rivers explains that the story is based on a real inquest that occurred in 1865 involving a youthful wife (named Elizabeth Kennedy) accused of murdering the infant she bore in her husband Arthur’s absence. Rivers says that she was “electrified by the plight of this young woman and by the extraordinary courage she must have possessed to face this ordeal alone in a war-torn world.”

The fictional Placidia Hockaday is herself a truly memorable character. The feeling of immediacy, apprehension and overall emotional impact of the novel are deepened by Rivers’ choice to relate events through letters, through the inquest proceedings, and ultimately through Placidia’s diary (written on the back of illustrations in her copy of David Copperfield due to paper shortages).  Rivers obviously relied on extensive research for details like that and recommends numerous sources in her end notes.  

THE SECOND MRS. HOCKADAY, a debut novel by playwright Rivers, is a Library Reads choice for January 2017 and received a starred review from Booklist.