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Vibrant, fresh, and intelligent, The Little Women Letters explores the imagined lives of Jo March’s descendants—three sisters who are both thoroughly modern and thoroughly March. As uplifting and essential as Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Gabrielle Donnelly’s novel will speak to anyone who’s ever fought with a sister, fallen in love with a fabulous pair of shoes, or wondered what on earth life had in store for her.
With her older sister, Emma, planning a wedding and her younger sister, Sophie, preparing to launch a career on the London stage, Lulu can’t help but feel like the failure of the Atwater family. Lulu loves her sisters dearly and wants nothing but the best for them, but she finds herself stuck in a rut, working dead-end jobs with no romantic prospects in sight. When her mother asks her to find a cache of old family recipes in the attic of her childhood home, Lulu stumbles across a collection of letters written by her great-great-grandmother Josephine March. In her letters, Jo writes in detail about every aspect of her life: her older sister, Meg’s, new home and family; her younger sister Amy’s many admirers; Beth’s illness and the family’s shared grief over losing her too soon; and the butterflies she feels when she meets a handsome young German. As Lulu delves deeper into the lives and secrets of the March sisters, she finds solace and guidance, but can the words of her great-great-grandmother help Lulu find a place for herself in a world so different from the one Jo knew?
Some things, of course, remain unchanged: the stories and jokes that form a family’s history, the laughter over tea in the afternoon, the desire to do the right thing in spite of obstacles. And above all, of course, the fierce, undying, and often infuriating bond of sisterhood that links the Atwater women every bit as firmly as it did the March sisters all those years ago. Both a loving tribute to Little Women and a wonderful contemporary family story, The Little Women Letters is a heartwarming, funny, and wise novel for today.
British-born Donnelly's first novel, payback for all the Americans rewriting Jane Austen, concerns a present-day London family with three sisters descended from and living adventures parallel to the eponymous Alcott heroines.
As Lulu Atwater reads a stash of Jo March's (disappointingly dull) letters she's discovered in her mother's attic, the parallels Donnelly makes between the Atwater and March families are not subtle. Instead of Marmee as mother, there's warm and loving Fee, a family therapist originally from Boston and the great-great granddaughter of Jo Bhaer (nee March). Fee's husband David, who publishes travel books, is a genial but frequently absent father. Like Meg March, responsible oldest daughter Emma is engaged to a nice young man, and like Amy March, effervescent youngest daughter Sophie, an aspiring actress, is slightly spoiled but ultimately lovable. Lulu, the brainy middle daughter, is unsettled, unpredictable and outspoken. With no dying fourth sister—although Sophie has a bout of food poisoning—and no serious financial strain (or even awareness of a civil war being fought, say in Afghanistan), the Atwater family adventures lack the gravitas of the Marches'. Offered a great professional opportunity in North Dakota, Emma's fiancé sensitively lets her decide whether the benefit to his career is worth leaving London and her career; despite the Atwaters' half-baked avowals of feminism, she decides it is. When Sophie stands up to snobby Bostonian Aunt Amy and her prejudice against Irish Catholics (as exotic as this novel gets), Aunt Amy likes her spunk and introduces her to an important theatrical producer. Fee and David hit a rocky spot in their marriage but quickly act to rekindle their romance. No Jo March, Lulu finally discovers her passions: for cooking as a career and for a hunky true love. Plenty of sitcom-ready moments occur, like Sophie accidentally brushing her teeth with hair conditioner and Emma buying shoes she can't afford.
The Atwaters are amiable in small doses, but Alcott fans will find this chick lit's superficial relationship to the sneakily subversiveLittle Womeninsulting.
Frisbeesage
Posted July 2, 2011
The Little Women Letters begins with one of the descendants of Jo March finding a bunch of Grandma Jo's letters in her mother's attic. Lulu is struggling with some career decisions and its harder that her two sisters seem to have it all figured out. A bit of an odd duck with her bushy hair and prickly personality, Lulu finds exactly the advice and encouragement she needs in the letters. The story centers on Lulu, but also involves a whole host of the women surrounding her including an extravagant actress sister Sophie, Emma the sensible sister blissfully planning her wedding, their feminist mother Fee who learns after all these years that her marriage may not be what she thought, severe and scary Great Aunt Amy, and Charlie the quiet and sophisticated young lady who becomes one of the family.
The Women Letters is the modern day version of the much beloved classic and Gabrielle Donnelly does a splendid job of updating the story, making it modern, but retaining the feel of a family of girls and women loving and fighting, supporting each other and jockeying for position in the family. The characters are so realistic, flawed but so well meaning and kind that you forgive them their foibles. The story is a little sentimental and you know from the beginning that everyone will magically live happily ever after, but nothing else would be right for the descendants of the March women, would it? If you let it the gentle wisdom of Little Women it will just float from the pages reminding you to forgive grudges, be loyal to your friends, and support your sisters. I'll be giving this book to my mother and my sister-in-law, the highest praise I can give it!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.LovesToReadBW
Posted June 14, 2011
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is one of my favorite classics. So I was excited to receive The Little Women Letters ARC. Although I was wondering how the two completely different generations would be brought together by the letters. I enjoyed the book, not a classic like Little Women but I would definitely recommend it. The book goes through the dramas of Emma planning her wedding, Sophie launching her career and Lulu trying to find a career that suits her. Wrapped around everyone always talking about Great great Grandma Jo. It has all the drama and love and craziness of Little Women just in a modern version.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 29, 2011
I read the original "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott, and fell in love with it. When I saw this book I freaked out. I had really high expectations after reading "Little Women". When starting the book I liked it a lot. BUT, there was a lot of language, and me being a teenage girl, didn't like that at all. Louisa May Alcott would not be pleased at all if she read this. My high expectations weren't met.
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Posted October 23, 2011
not what I expected
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 11, 2011
This was not as good as I thought it would be and I was slightly disappointed in the modern part of the story but captivated by the letters supposedly from the March sisters. The modern sisters' story seemed a little contrived and the total and collective happy ending was a bit much. However, it was well written and I did enjoy it.
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Posted August 23, 2011
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Overview
Vibrant, fresh, and intelligent, The Little Women Letters explores the imagined lives of Jo March’s descendants—three sisters who are both thoroughly modern and thoroughly March. As uplifting and essential as Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Gabrielle Donnelly’s novel will speak to anyone who’s ever fought with a sister, fallen in love with a fabulous pair of shoes, or wondered what on earth life had in store for her.
With her older sister, Emma, planning a wedding and her younger sister, Sophie, preparing to launch a career on the London stage, Lulu can’t help but feel like the failure of the Atwater family. Lulu ...