A little over a year ago, I tripped over Kelly O’Connor McNees review of a bookstore on her blog. I asked her if she would be willing to write one for us (her thoughts on Words Worth Books) and in the midst of our Internet conversations, she learned her book was going to be published. Claire and I did a happy dance for her. As avid Little Women fans, (here’s a snippet of our first conversation: Claire, “Have you read Pilgrim’s Progress?” Kim, “No, but I’ve read Little Women. Isn’t that enough?“) we cheered to learn that the book was about Louisa May Alcott.
Life Before Women’s Rights
The plot of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott focuses on a love story between Louisa and a fictional Joseph Singer. It answers the question of how could Louisa have written about love without experiencing it. I enjoyed the plot, my daughter loved it. It’s fun, the reader cheers for the couple and a desire for Louisa to have it all. But it was the middle of the nineteenth century and women had very few choices.
I think we sometimes forget the importance women’s liberation. My daughter assumes that opportunities are as open to her as her brother. A world where her choice was marriage or teaching is a foreign land. Louisa’s desires clashed with the cultural expectations of her times. In The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, Louisa can’t have the two things that mean the world to her and she knows that whatever her choice, she will mourn for the path she didn’t pursue.
Louisa’s struggle reminds the reader of just how much we owe to the women who have worked and sacrificed for our increasingly equal world (having said that, we still have so far to go, just look at the inequality in pay or health care). The main reason I wanted my daughter to read the book is for her to see an American world where being a female is a significant handicap in the hope that as she learns about women’s history, she’ll have a context for it. This is the primary reason why I think this book is a terrific contender for the Alex Award.
When the Mother is Prohibited from Providing for her Family and the Father Refuses To
The book trailer, which I have to say is my favorite thus far, hits on the popular, why didn’t Jo marry Laurie? But Claire and I have never discussed it. We have wondered, what’s with the Dad? Talk about an F in providing for your family. [On that same note, what about Pa Ingalls? Leslie and I took our daughters on a trip to the Ingalls sites and realized that man couldn't keep a job.] As two women in their mid-40s, it wasn’t Laurie we talked about, it was the father.
After reading The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, I realized the father in Little Women got off easy. The Alcott family is frequently on the verge of being destitute, only saved by family and friends. Bronson Alcott, Louisa’s father, is a “man of grand ideas and little common sense.” He refuses to compromise his ideals in order to work despite the fact that his family needs shelter, food and clothing. ”In Bronson’s estimation, his family’s money troubles weren’t his fault–they were the fault of a world too cowardly to consider new ways of thinking. After all . . . what would be have him do? Put his philosophy aside and work?”
McNees offers a view of the dark side of Transcendentalism, how Bronson’s family suffered by his devotion to a philosophy and lifestyle he didn’t have the independent means to support. As a result, the girls share clothes, homelessness is an ongoing threat and food is short. While Bronson meditates on his philosophy, his wife and daughters work tirelessly to create a life out of nothing. While they aren’t adoring of their father, they are tremendously accepting. Then again, in 1855, what choice did they have?
I think this book is perfect for pairing with Little Women. We all assume Jo is Louisa and the March family is the Alcott family. Reading The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott is a lovely way to compare the two characters and their families.
Tags: Alcott, Alex Award, feminism, historical fiction, literary history, Little Women, women's rights
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