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** spoiler alert ** A librarian friend of mine once told me there are books you build relationships with and there are books you break up with. This, unfortunately, is one of the latter. Geraldine Brooks, an otherwise fine author who wrote one of my favorite books in Year of Wonder, used every cliche and tired theme (e.g., young white man falls in love with mixed-race slave) and seems to think that just because you lived in Massachusetts at this time, that, of course, you would know every major historical figure (Emerson, Thoreau, John Brown, etc.) All of this could be forgiven, if not for the fact that in "humanizing" and "updating" the characters, you get passages about Mr. March masturbating while thinking about the mulatto girl, while never quite grasping the fact that it could get both of them killed. I should have stopped after reading this:

"I lay awake a long time, pondering the nature of desire, and why God would endow man with such unbridled passions. And if, indeed, we are created in his image, what part of the divine Nature is mirrored in this? No answers came, nor any prospect of rest. Finally, when the birds had begun their loud dawn chorus, I gave way to temptation. There was a warm shudder, followed instantly by a hot shame, and then sleep claimed me at last."

Yuck. I am not a prude and enjoy a sex scene as much as anyone, but really, does anyone need to read about Jo's father jerking off thinking about his ebony love interest?

Fan fiction is rarely good...even when written by an author of exceptional skill.