Sihay

I made it vow to read “Little Women” once a year. It’s a classic that reminds me of some of my core values — creativity, duty, and diligence. It is usually the book that pulls me out of a rut, the book that scares me of ever wasting even a day of my life. You’d think that someone who loves this book so much would know about the sequel, “Good Wives.” But as I’ve been oblivious to the existence of this book until earlier this year, finding it randomly in the classics section felt like finding gold.

The “Good Wives” describes the untold life of the March sisters in Little Women. It is not entirely a sequel but the stories in between — Meg’s wedding and married life, Beth’s journey through physical decline and eventual death, Jo’s struggle with the quill and solitude, and Amy’s acceptance of mediocrity and finding a suitable husband. It touches on family life, romantic love, ambition, acceptance of fate, and death.

I liked how the events and people that were only touched in Little Women were teased out in this book. Amy’s and Laurie’s relationship was given more depth, and it allowed me to appreciate Amy’s character more. Of all the March sisters, she’s the one I relate to the most. Amy is creative, feminine, and affectionate, but also ambitious, headstrong, and the most grounded and pragmatic of all the sisters.

My favorite part of the book was how the European countries were painted through words. They were the most scenic setting in the book. But when you’re looking into settings to like a book, you already know it’s not a good read.

I was disappointed that none of the sisters achieved real success — the success that they truly wanted — except for Meg. The remaining living sisters were, as the title suggests, just Good Wives at the end of it. While that’s an excellent feat in itself — not everyone has the tenacity and love to sustain a marriage — it feels somewhat anticlimactic that the bright, ambitious young girls we’ve known in Little Women all ended up with their big dreams on the back burner as soon as they thought about marriage, as soon as they found out that success doesn’t come by easily.

Even Laurie gave up on music and the arts when he concluded he would never be a genius. People aren’t born geniuses; they are made, out of hard work and diligence. Talent plays a part, for sure, you have to play the field wisely, but talent can only get you so far. It’s showing up every day that will pay off in the future. And to hell with being a genius. Only time will tell, people born decades and centuries from now will decide that. Da Vinci’s artworks and genius weren’t discovered until half a millennia later. Regardless if I’m going to be at the top of the field, I’ll keep doing what I love to do for the hell of it.

It took me months to finish this book though it was an easy read. Every character I’ve known and loved disappointed me, and it was one after another until the end of the novel. To the Little Women fans out there, let’s do ourselves a favor and stop reading after the first book.