The March by E.L. Doctorow
Published 2006 · 384 pages · 95,381 words · about 8 hours at an average pace · literary fiction, historical fiction, war novel
How hard is The March to read?
The March scores 68 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 57 out of 100
- Doctorow uses a rich, literary vocabulary appropriate for historical fiction, including period-specific terms like 'equipages,' 'dowager,' 'portmanteaus,' and 'bummers.' While some words might be unfamiliar to a casual reader, context generally provides sufficient clues, placing it above accessible contemporary fiction but well below works with invented or highly archaic language.
- Sentence structure: 60 out of 100
- The novel employs moderately complex sentence structures, often featuring multiple clauses and occasional inversions, but generally maintains clear subject-verb relationships. While some sentences extend to considerable length, they remain navigable, unlike the highly recursive or fragmented syntax found in more experimental works.
- Abstraction: 55 out of 100
- The narrative is primarily grounded in the concrete experiences of characters during Sherman's March, focusing on physical hardship, immediate threats, and sensory details. However, characters like Sherman and Wrede Sartorius occasionally engage in philosophical musings on war, death, and human nature, elevating the discourse beyond pure narrative without becoming overtly theoretical.
- Information density: 68 out of 100
- Doctorow packs significant historical detail, character development, and thematic exploration into relatively concise prose. The rapid shifts in perspective and location, coupled with vivid descriptions of the war's impact, demand consistent reader attention. Each chapter introduces new characters and situations, requiring the reader to quickly assimilate new information and contexts.
- Narrative indirection: 68 out of 100
- The reader must infer the full scope and moral implications of Sherman's March by synthesizing the varied, often contradictory, experiences of a diverse cast of characters. Doctorow rarely provides explicit authorial judgment, instead relying on character perspectives and sensory details to convey the profound and complex impact of the war. This requires active interpretation beyond simple plot comprehension, placing it higher than 'Beloved' (50) but less opaque than 'Lolita' (72).
- Symbolic density: 70 out of 100
- The narrative is rich with motifs and allegorical undertones, where the physical act of Sherman's March becomes a potent symbol for the destruction of an old order and the chaotic birth of a new one. Doctorow uses recurring images like fire, water, and the army as a 'segmented body' to layer meaning beyond the literal events, inviting readers to interpret the broader historical and human condition. This is more pervasive than 'The Great Gatsby' (75) but not as overwhelmingly symbolic as 'Moby-Dick' (90).
- Ironic distance: 72 out of 100
- The novel frequently employs dramatic and situational irony, contrasting characters' immediate perceptions and self-serving justifications with the devastating realities of war and the reader's historical hindsight. Sherman's internal reflections on death and his 'Christmas gift' of Savannah, alongside the suffering he inflicts, exemplify the author's critical yet nuanced stance, demanding readers to discern the underlying critique. This is a more subtle irony than 'Lolita' (75), which relies on an unreliable narrator's charm.
- Resolution withholding: 70 out of 100
- The narrative consistently resists definitive closure for its numerous character arcs, leaving their individual fates and the long-term implications of their choices ambiguous. The excerpt ends with characters still in motion, facing uncertain futures and grappling with the immediate, messy aftermath of war, mirroring the historical period's own lack of clear resolution for many. This offers more open-endedness than 'The Great Gatsby' (60) but less existential uncertainty than 'Crying of Lot 49' (75).
- Structural complexity: 75 out of 100
- The novel's structure is highly complex, utilizing a mosaic of shifting third-person limited perspectives that jump between a wide array of characters and geographical locations. While the overall chronology follows Sherman's March, the frequent and abrupt transitions between disparate storylines and character experiences demand constant reader reorientation and synthesis. This is more intricate than 'Midnight's Children' (68) but less formally experimental than 'Pedro Paramo' (80).
How The March is regarded
The March holds a literary regard score of 59 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.