The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott--by Kelly O'Connor McNees

I wish that every time I was looking for a particular title, I would find it on sale for 50% off. That's what happened when I entered a local book store looking for Kelly O'Connor McNees' The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott. My luck held as I read McNees's historical romance, based in Alcott's letters, biographies, and other source material.

In 1855 the Bronson Alcott family, experiencing their well-known financial difficulties, move to Walpole, New Hampshire, for the summer. Here, Louisa meets Joseph Singer, the love of her life and the man who is destined (at least in this story) to become Laurie in Little Women. Among others, McNees' argument is that Louisa must have known passionate love first hand in order to write the love story in Little Women. McNees' questions are who, when, where, how?

As a romance The Lost Summer doesn't disappoint. A gifted story teller with a style that encourages us to "disappear" into her tale, McNees provides credible guesses about Alcott's muse and how the love story between Jo (Louisa) and Laurie (Joseph) came to be. Unless, of course, reading her favorite British romances such as Jane Eyre acted as inspiration for Alcott and reading a purloined copy (according to this novel) of Walt Whitman's first edition of Leaves of Grass, also published in 1855, ignited Louisa's passionate muse.

What makes this historical romance enjoyable is the skillful inter-weaving of fiction and fact: details backed by McNees' extensive research, listed at the back of the book. Homework done, McNees creates her story of the 19th century Alcott family's impoverished world, threatened by diseases of the time. Whitman's poetry nicely supports Louisa's own writing goals and ignites her romantic attachment with Joseph. Star-crossed by Louisa's determination to pursue her writing, both Louisa and Joseph have family and duty to consider, and this triad--her drive to become a writer, family, and duty--complicate their love affair.

At the core of the romance lies the issue of a woman's engaging in a creative life outside of societal expectations. Seeking a "room of [her] own," Louisa returns to Boston to write. As McNees imagines it, the climactic romantic episode may depend too much on circumstance, but Louisa's choice between love and career demonstrates her enviable creative drive.

Modeled on romance novels from the Bronte's to Austin to Alcott herself, The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott opens a window on what might have been. It's just the kind of book Alcott might have written. The narrative style leads us smoothly through the story. All of our questions are faithfully answered, and we're appropriately teased by unresolved questions of Alcott's create muse, which drove McNees to write her speculative romance in the first place.

Suggested by inter-chapter quotes, Alcott's lesser-known works remain to be discovered and enjoyed. McNees provides a full annotated list at the end of the novel in "A Note on Sources," recommending two Alcott books: A Long Fatal Love Chase and Behind a Mask, or A Woman's Power. The former was first published in 1995, the latter under a pseudonym, A. M. Barnard.

All of this is to suggest that Louisa May Alcott has found a passionate champion in Kelly O'Conner McNees. As readers, we are convinced to take another look at Alcott's work.