“the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese of literature”

Jason said to me, before I began reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, that the book was good – as long as I didn’t mind that the characters aren’t in the least bit believable as real human beings. Well, I’m not sure I fully agree with him that the book was all that good, but the latter half of the statement is certainly true. The characters are flat, like the author had created little personalities for dolls. She took what could have been real people and snipped out everything that made them round, so they look like little bundles of virtue, rather than like they actually lived. Paintings, with all the rosy glow around the edges so we see no imperfections. Life works out wonderfully neat.

Normally, a book this size takes me a week to read, and only that long because of all my writing, editing, mothering, etc. This one, I started a week or so before I left for Israel on the 31st. I expected to finish it before I left, so I packed some other books to take with me for reading in the airport, on the plane, and at Becky’s apartment, if there were lulls. I was about halfway through Little Women when I left, and I think my opinion about the book is obvious by the fact that I didn’t change out one of the packed books for this one. Not that I hated the book, I only found the characters unbelievable, the storyline pasted together, and the prose extremely tiresome. I learned some things reading it, and I enjoyed it to some degree. And, as usual, I kept going even when tired, because there are few books that I’ve simply given up on (only two that I can recall ever).

I spent the last couple days reading during naptimes, instead of writing, just to get it done with. In the end, I’m glad I read it, but I’ll stick with the movie after this. And because of Jason’s expressive description of the book, I’ll always associate it with boxed mac & cheese, something which is good as long as you don’t mind that it isn’t real macaroni and it isn’t real cheese.

Note: This was my first-ever book review, and incredibly snarky. I wrote it humorously, for a handful of friends who knew my voice. Looking back, it came out more rude than humorous…