I led a good book discussion of Doctorow’s “The March” this past Monday night at the Tottenville Branch. It was recommended last year by two of the participants in the group, and I am glad I chose it.  The group liked it a lot, too, which I was glad about, at least in part because there were about 8 new people, and I wasn’t sure how they would receive an historical novel about war. But it worked.

The group liked a lot the character Pearl, who maybe is the main character and who is a half white-half black former slave, who showed a lot of resourcefulness throughout the book. Some of them liked Wrede Sartorius, the innovative surgeon,  for his hard work and how he saved lives, despite his coldness and seeming lack of people skills. Two members of the group are nurses, and they said Doctorow got it right, that all surgeons are like that!  And some spoke well of General Sherman, as many sides of his personality were shown. The group seemed accepting of Sherman’s brutality of the South, not because the South may have deserved it, but because “that’s just the way war is,” more than one said in so many words.

The group seemed accepting (and some members of this group have been very harsh on some characters in other books) of some of the more nefarious characters in the book, saying they were just trying to survive in a time of war, and they said that is understandable.

I really like this group a lot; they are very enthusiastic and fun, and most of them read the whole book most of the time!  Sometimes they all talk at once, and I have to restore some order, but it is nice to see “regular” people get so excited about a book! This title is a good choice for a book discussion, I think.

We had 14 attending, which is the most we have ever gotten at Tottenville for a book discussion.

Next month, Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. If it is received half as well as The March I will be happy!

Link to NY Times review of the book:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/books/review/25kirn.html