Anyways, I want to round this herd up here and crunch out the review, but a quick update first. I'm in Minnesota now! About 30 mins SE of the Twin Cities. And it's frickin awesome. And there's snow on the ground (it actually snowed the weekend before Halloween!). And it's cold (I'd rather be cold!). And there are THINGS. So many things to do! BAAAAAH. In September (?) I joined up with a monthly meeting called Blessed Conversations. If you're familiar at all with Blessed is She, you'll know that it's their rosary small group discussion thingy. Love it! They meet monthly at St. Agnes in St. Paul.... one of the places that prays the TLM Mass. The first time I went there, I went to Mass in the chapel, and I'm pretty sure it was still a NO, but in Latin, but THERE WAS A GROUP OF DOMINICAN NUNS IN THE FRONT ROW. I totally GEEKED out.
I also met a gal from the area whilst at Catholicfest this past summer! Well played, Holy Spirit, well played. She set up a Well Read Mom group, and we also meet monthly to discuss books. It's really help keeping me reading! Besides that, the library is within walking distance of our house (you can actually see it from the top of our street), and I'm there a lot since we don't have internet at the house yet.
Motherhood is freaking awesome, and it just keeps getting better. I'd like to introduce you to Baby Squints!
Business has been pretty awesome over at my etsy shop, Inkpot Paper & String. I was even able to host a table at two different holiday events, and did pretty well. If you know someone who is looking for Catholic devotions, bookish quotes, a bit of knitwork, or some hand sewn pillows, send them my way!
ANYWAYS. My life. It rocks. My husband loves his job. My child is happy. I love it here.
On to the drudgery. Ugh. First of all, I'm just going to throw my normal format out the window, because I don't really want to spend more time on this book than I already have. Secondly, I was really excited to read this one. It came highly recommended and anticipated by one of my facebook word nerd communities.
Meg, Jo, Beth, & Amy
The Story of Little Women and Why it Still Matters
by Anne Boyd Rioux
221 pages
Reading time: 5 Days
Overall reaction: Ugh. So disappointing. I've only read the first two installments known as Little Women (and Good Wives). I didn't even know it was a trilogy, and I wrote quite a lengthy paper on it during my Junior or Senior year in college. A lot of the information wasn't really new to me. I did take a different critical approach in my paper, but Rioux seems to be the type of author that I would have EAT.TEN.UP. back then during my pro-abortion, feminazi, atheist days. Bleck. And you all know how I feel about things that take me back to those days- I pretty much detest them.
Summary: In 3 parts, Rioux attempts to explain to us why the story of Little Women has had such an immense impact on our culture. The first section focuses on the film adaptations, the second is chock full of name-dropping famous feminists (names that I know all-to-well), and the third section bemoans the fact that this book is no longer read in schools, it's not considered literature, and touches the surface on television shows that have been influenced by the March sisters..
Rioux's writing depends on shock value (the unknowns of the Alcott family and the way Bronson subjected his wife and daughters to extreme poverty and food restrictions), and name dropping. By the time I was done reading the book, my eyes hurt from rolling them so often. Her material was dull and uninteresting at most times.
While Rioux admits at one point that "Alcott introduced to a wide audience the notion that to be partners in life, men and women must be allowed to come together as fully formed individuals" (158). This is a beautiful thing, and would have made me love the book had she expounded on it further. Alas, the remainder of the book is a very subtle attack on the institute of marriage and motherhood. It is not an aggressive attack, but it is there- whispers and shadows of it. All of that feminazi bullpucky is about "empowering" women. WELL I AM A WOMAN AND I WANT TO BE A WIFE AND A MOTHER. HOW'S ABOUT YOU HELP EMPOWER ME DURING MY VOCATION INSTEAD OF TRYING TO CONVINCE ME THAT I GAVE UP MY INDEPENDENCE OR I'M NO LONGER MY OWN PERSON BECAUSE OF THE CHOICES I'VE MADE. OR THAT I'VE BEEN BRAINWASHED. OR THAT MY LIFE ISN'T AS VALUABLE BECAUSE I DON'T DO ANYTHING BUT SIT AROUND ALL DAY (keeping a tiny human alive). IT IS ABSOLUTE NONSENSE. It makes me physically repulsed that I used to think like that. It's not freeing. It's conformity. It's mob mentality. It's not logical. I can't stand anything that even whispers of it anymore. And that's why I can't stand this book.
There are a few redeeming qualities regarding this book. Rioux's writing is easy to comprehend and definitely has a flow to it. It wasn't a difficult book to finish. It's just coming from a part of my life that I really want no part in anymore, so I had to force myself to keep reading it. I would have adored and agreed with this book and many of its ridiculous gender theory and patriarchy points in college.
Also, I had no idea that GK Chesterton wrote an essay/article about Lousia May Alcott. I gotta look that up and read it. Also, I'd like to read Little Men and Jo's Boys
Yup. That's pretty much it. I hate to do this, because there were a few good points in the book, but this work definitely doesn't live up to the hype. It didn't make me fall in love with Alcott or her works even more, and it just made me cringe. Therefore, Meg, Jo, Beth, & Amy is an absolute WASTE of my time.
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