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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
The book club was Jocelyn's idea, and she hand-picked the members. Jocelyn's best friend was Sylvia, whose husband of thirty-two years had just asked for a divorce. We felt she needed something to distract her. At sixty-seven, Bernadette was the oldest. She'd recently announced that she was, officially, letting herself go. "I just don't look in the mirror any more," she'd told us. "I wish I'd thought of it years ago."
The next person Jocelyn invited was Grigg, whom we none of us knew. We'd known Jocelyn long enough to wonder whom Grigg was intended for. Allegra was thirty, and really only invited because she was Sylvia;s daughter. Prudie was the youngest of us, at twenty-eight. She taught French at the high school and was the only one of us currently married, unless you counted Sylvia, who soon wouldn't be. Our first meeting was at Jocelyn's house.
In California's Sacramento Valley, six people meet once a month to discuss Jane Austen's novels. They are ordinary people, neither happy nor unhappy, but all wounded in different ways, all mixed up about their lives and their relationships. Over the six months they meet marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and under the guiding eye of Jane Austen, some of them even fall in love ...
There's a quote from Alice Sebold on the front cover of this book, which reads: "If I could eat this novel, I would." I suggest that anyone would find it a more satisfying meal than they would a satisfying read. I borrowed it from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
uninvitedcat who warned me that it was poor, and yet I'm a big fan of Jane Austen and I'd had my own idea for writing a novel about a book group so this seemed like an interesting book. How wrong I was.
Let's start with the main gripe - Jane Austen's involvement in this story is minimal. Oh sure, there's a discussion (or rather, insipid commentary) on her texts as each of her 'characters' tries to link one book to their own life and backstory. But in terms of insight or direct relevance either to Fowler's text there's none - it's purely a device designed to hook into the ever-popular Austen and make her topical.
The second gripe is that the characterisation is really poor. The Blurb on the Back suggests characters of different ages with different concerns, so it's a shame that they all merge into one nameless, fleshless clump of beige. All of them (even the token male and the token lesbian) come across as middle-aged women. In fact, in typing out the Blurb on the Back I was shocked to see that Prudie was 28 because I took her to be in her 40s or 50s from the way her chapters operate. None of the characters have anything interesting about them, although Fowler does seem to try - Bernadette gives long meaningless stories, Jocelyn breeds dogs, Allegra is a lesbian, Grigg likes science fiction. Really - that's it.
The story is slight - 6 people meet and talk about Jane Austen's books - one book per meeting. Each meeting sets up backstory for one character and supposedly there's a parallel between that character's backstory and the Austen novel in question. That's it and the problem is that I totally didn't care about any of it or any of them. To be honest, it's tedious even writing the review, which is why I'm going to cut straight to the chase in the summary.
The Verdict:
Tedious, boring and dull (and that's just the front cover). This book would struggle to be slight and yet has pretensions of being literary and meaningful. In fact, it just goes to show that putting the name 'Jane Austen' in something will almost automatically lead to a leap in sales. Please do not buy this book unless you like dull, middle aged characters leading dull middle aged lives. Don't even borrow it from the library. Just do what I'm trying to do and pretend it doesn't exist.
The book club was Jocelyn's idea, and she hand-picked the members. Jocelyn's best friend was Sylvia, whose husband of thirty-two years had just asked for a divorce. We felt she needed something to distract her. At sixty-seven, Bernadette was the oldest. She'd recently announced that she was, officially, letting herself go. "I just don't look in the mirror any more," she'd told us. "I wish I'd thought of it years ago."
The next person Jocelyn invited was Grigg, whom we none of us knew. We'd known Jocelyn long enough to wonder whom Grigg was intended for. Allegra was thirty, and really only invited because she was Sylvia;s daughter. Prudie was the youngest of us, at twenty-eight. She taught French at the high school and was the only one of us currently married, unless you counted Sylvia, who soon wouldn't be. Our first meeting was at Jocelyn's house.
In California's Sacramento Valley, six people meet once a month to discuss Jane Austen's novels. They are ordinary people, neither happy nor unhappy, but all wounded in different ways, all mixed up about their lives and their relationships. Over the six months they meet marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and under the guiding eye of Jane Austen, some of them even fall in love ...
There's a quote from Alice Sebold on the front cover of this book, which reads: "If I could eat this novel, I would." I suggest that anyone would find it a more satisfying meal than they would a satisfying read. I borrowed it from
uninvitedcat who warned me that it was poor, and yet I'm a big fan of Jane Austen and I'd had my own idea for writing a novel about a book group so this seemed like an interesting book. How wrong I was.Let's start with the main gripe - Jane Austen's involvement in this story is minimal. Oh sure, there's a discussion (or rather, insipid commentary) on her texts as each of her 'characters' tries to link one book to their own life and backstory. But in terms of insight or direct relevance either to Fowler's text there's none - it's purely a device designed to hook into the ever-popular Austen and make her topical.
The second gripe is that the characterisation is really poor. The Blurb on the Back suggests characters of different ages with different concerns, so it's a shame that they all merge into one nameless, fleshless clump of beige. All of them (even the token male and the token lesbian) come across as middle-aged women. In fact, in typing out the Blurb on the Back I was shocked to see that Prudie was 28 because I took her to be in her 40s or 50s from the way her chapters operate. None of the characters have anything interesting about them, although Fowler does seem to try - Bernadette gives long meaningless stories, Jocelyn breeds dogs, Allegra is a lesbian, Grigg likes science fiction. Really - that's it.
The story is slight - 6 people meet and talk about Jane Austen's books - one book per meeting. Each meeting sets up backstory for one character and supposedly there's a parallel between that character's backstory and the Austen novel in question. That's it and the problem is that I totally didn't care about any of it or any of them. To be honest, it's tedious even writing the review, which is why I'm going to cut straight to the chase in the summary.
The Verdict:
Tedious, boring and dull (and that's just the front cover). This book would struggle to be slight and yet has pretensions of being literary and meaningful. In fact, it just goes to show that putting the name 'Jane Austen' in something will almost automatically lead to a leap in sales. Please do not buy this book unless you like dull, middle aged characters leading dull middle aged lives. Don't even borrow it from the library. Just do what I'm trying to do and pretend it doesn't exist.
