The March Audiobook By E.L. Doctorow cover art

The March

A Novel

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The March

By: E.L. Doctorow
Narrated by: Joe Morton
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About this listen

In 1864, after Union general William Tecumseh Sherman burned Atlanta, he marched his sixty thousand troops east through Georgia to the sea, and then up into the Carolinas. The army fought off Confederate forces and lived off the land, pillaging the Southern plantations, taking cattle and crops for their own, demolishing cities, and accumulating a borne-along population of freed blacks and white refugees until all that remained was the dangerous transient life of the uprooted, the dispossessed, and the triumphant. Only a master novelist could so powerfully and compassionately render the lives of those who marched.

The author of Ragtime, City of God, and The Book of Daniel has given us a magisterial work with an enormous cast of unforgettable characters–white and black, men, women, and children, unionists and rebels, generals and privates, freed slaves and slave owners. At the center is General Sherman himself; a beautiful freed slave girl named Pearl; a Union regimental surgeon, Colonel Sartorius; Emily Thompson, the dispossessed daughter of a Southern judge; and Arly and Will, two misfit soldiers.

Almost hypnotic in its narrative drive, The March stunningly renders the countless lives swept up in the violence of a country at war with itself. The great march in E. L. Doctorow’s hands becomes something more–a floating world, a nomadic consciousness, and an unforgettable reading experience with awesome relevance to our own times.

Enjoy The March? Listen to an interview with E.L. Doctorow on The Bob Edwards Show.©2005 E.L. Doctorow (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
Education Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction War & Military Solider War Inspiring Thought-Provoking
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Critic reviews

PEN/Faulkner Award Winner, Fiction, 2005

National Book Award Finalist, Fiction, 2005

2005 Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award, Fiction

National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Fiction, 2005

"In this powerful novel, Doctorow gets deep inside the pillage, cruelty and destruction, as well as the care and burgeoning love that sprung up in their wake....On reaching the novel's last pages, the reader feels wonder that this nation was ever able to heal after so brutal, and personal, a conflict." (Publishers Weekly)

Compelling Characters • Gripping Storyline • Vivid Historical Portrayal • Masterful Storytelling • Memorable Moments
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Exceptionally well written; Doctorow has mastered the English language and tells a fascinating, fact-based tale which kept me engrossed. The narrator is the best I've heard in an audiobook and he truly brings the characters to life.

More narrators like this, please...

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A well told tale,of historical fiction that lends itself to reality.Blacks and Whites share a common story.

A well told tale. Historical fiction that lends i

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This is a very good book but it is long and I am exhausted after marching, burning, and plundering across the South; I am ready to end the war as soon as possible but the characters are fascinating and they are hard to let go.

The Civil War Marches On

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I really enjoyed this book. It made me want to learn more about Sherman's March.

Interesting

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I enjoyed this book thoroughly. It gave me a good understanding of this part of the war.

Wonderful Characters - good History

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I listened to the March on a 5 hour drive to Charleston And couldn't wait to get back into my car to continue with this moving, powerful and insightful novel. The narrator fit the book to a T. I likened the experience to watching a Ken Burns' documentary and was sorry to see it end.

Captivating

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?The March? is a well-constructed listen with a good narrator. Like many of the audible listeners I keep a book on my iPod at all times and find this one of my favorite parts of the day. I listen to the New York Times on the way to work and a novel home. I am a Civil War buff and found some interesting insight here. The suspense, however, was not so great that I sat in the car in the garage. That is my criteria for a great novel. I give it a 4 of 5.

A good listen

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And Joe Morton is my new favorite narrator. This book defines Sherman's march by the outlines created by the stories of the many, varied and interesting characters portrayed. It is beautifully done, with outstanding descriptions and characterizations. I hated for it to end!

Just a wonderful book

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Where does The March rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

What I loved about this was the detailed depiction of the horrors and wanton destruction of Sherman's march. (I am assuming that Mr. Doctorow did his research.) This is an event in history that was given very short shrift in my distant high school education. It's no wonder that The South still holds a lot of grudges against The North.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Joe Morton?

This is a very disappointing read by a good actor. Too bad. He doesn't seem to have rehearsed at all, so that by the time he reaches the end of a sentence, he sounds surprised. However, his voice is very nice. But he also seems to confuse a southern accent with stupidity, so that the intelligent characters and the slower ones all sound equally slow of mind.

Bad reader

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The narration made the characters come to life. Although a historical fiction novel, it captures the delicate relationship between the southerners who were faced with a superior Union Army who was fighting for a country.

A compliment to Foote' The Civil War Narrative

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