Beth Pattillo

Pre-judgements on books are always iffy. Without some kind of pre-judgement, without the weighing of cover art and blurb, opening a book cover would be like opening an unlabeled can: will it be beans, or cherry pie filling, or one of those gag snakes-on-springs things? But so often the data available on the outside of the book sets up the wrong expectations (or gives away too much of a mystery, but that's another rant)...

I thought, based on the cute title and the cover photograph of a show more swooning woman and not much else, that Jane Austen Ruined My Life was going to be sheerest chick lit. A fluffy, funny, maybe occasionally biting romance novel. (Something can be both fluffy and funny - I have been chewed on by many's the puppy.)

It started out that way. It started out fulfilling my expectations as fluff. Here is Emma Grant (speaking of Wrong Cover Blurbs - she's named as Emma Douglas on the back cover, though that may or may not be Edward's name?) on her way to England, leaving the ruins of her life smoking behind her. She discovered her husband om flagrante delicto, and her career as a professor at a prestigious university has been destroyed by a baseless claim of plagiarism. Now, unemployed and financed only by judicious sellings-off, she is flying across the Atlantic on the basis of some mysterious correspondence to get her hands on the letters of Jane Austen - long supposed to have been, at Jane's request, destroyed. With these letters she can "get back at" Jane Austen - Jane, who valued her privacy above all and wanted her letters never to be public; Jane, whose every book ended in a Happily Ever After which Emma has found resembles real life not at all. Jane, whose effect on a girl named Emma was to make her look for and expect her Mr. Knightley. It's all her fault, and exposing her letters to the public will not only be vengeance, but it will also most satisfactorily restore (and launch into the stratosphere) Emma's career. Win-win, with Jane's laundry, hopefully dirty, hung out for all to see.

I knew a little about Jane Austen's life from whichever movie that was that I saw (not that one, the other one), and from general reading, but this did a lovely job of pointing up a few parallels (concrete and apocryphal) between her life and her work. Her situation when her father retired - and then when he died - is very like the Dashwoods' in the same position, except that Jane's brothers were kinder (not much more able to provide, but kinder). There is the fictional parallel between Jack Smith and Harriet Smith, and between Lt. Jack Smith and Captain Frederick Wentworth - how poignant to have Jane rewriting her life as it might have been, and for her sister Cassandra to take the place of Lady Russell. The sisters adored each other in reality, but it's a fascinating idea that Jane's portrayal of Lady Russsell, that scheming pompous bitch, was a way to vent her emotions ... Of course, what I just said is the best argument against any such thing, as the family knew the books as well as Jane did, and Jane would not have written to hurt any of them. The only problem with the parallels drawn in the book is that I was saying "Anne" and "Persuasion" chapters and chapters before Emma - and she should have said it long before me.

A more valid parallel is "Jane Austen fainted when they told her they were moving" from their beloved home to Bath: this reminded me of Anne, when because of her father's insolvency they had to pack up and leave. Anne and Jane were both also at the beck and call of their siblings, though where Anne was cosseting her hypochondriac sister, Jane (and Cassandra) were in demand and happy to oblige assisting their beloved siblings with their large broods.

As I said, it started out as fluff, and in fact I was cynically prepared to take umbrage on Jane's behalf ... Somewhere along the line, though, as Emma made her way through a series of tasks set by the letters' guardian; as she - to her surprise, if no one else's - reconnected with her old best friend, long out of touch, who also happened to be a highly attractive English professor; as she became occupied by something other than her own misery ... Somewhere in there it stopped being fluff and became the story of a woman in pain, starting to recover and remember why she's always loved the things she's loved. Like Jane Austen. I admit it: I welled up at the end, for Jane, and for Emma. And for other reasons. The ending probably was not to a lot of readers' tastes - but I thought it was perfect. This is smart and funny and steeped in Austenism (if not entirely reliable as a reference, I believe), and really very human.

And there were some lovely quotes:

"Have some more tea, dear," Hester said, reaching for the pot and refilling my cup. "I always find that helps."

"I took my time, running my fingers along the spines of books, stopping to pull a title from the shelf and inspect it. A sense of well-being flowed through me as I circled the ground floor. It was better then meditation or a new pair of shoes- or even chocolate. My life was a disaster, buth there were still books. Lots and lots of books. A refuge. A solace. Each one offering the possibility of a new beginning." show less

Now the only friendship I still had, however unexpected, had been upended. I was tired of being adrift. Tired of romance and attraction and all the complications and ruination it entailed. Tired of trying to find some pattern, divine or not, in what had happened, what was happening to me. Most of all, though, I was tired of Jane Austen ruining my life. – p.146

Emma Douglas has just found her husband cheating on her, and she blames Jane Austen’s novels (as well as her parents’ own happy show more marriage) for leading her to believe that there are always happy endings. Devastated by her personal and professional life, she travels to England in search of Jane Austen’s missing letters, where, coincidentally, she also bumps into her old college friend Adam.

I really enjoyed Beth Pattillo’s ‘what-if’s’ concerning Austen’s personal life and letters, particularly her take on which of Austen’s books most closely mirrored the author’s (imagined) life. I was also fascinated by Emma’s treks around Austen’s old haunts and the real personal history of the author. Mixing fact and fiction, this book is a fun and quick read that most Austen fans will appreciate.

2009, 270 pp. show less

I'm always interested in trying these books inspired by Austen, but they invariably disappoint--after all I'm expecting them to be as good as Austen and that's a high standard. But this one was particularly bad with very weak characterization and a boring, predictable, and unbelievable plot. At times it seemed like the author was trying to make it a "Da Vinci Code" for Austen lovers what with the secret society and missions to uncover hidden details, but it wasn't even as good as that. I was show more particularly annoyed at how the author kept referring to the men in Austen's stories as heros, as if they did nothing but save the damsels in distress and sweep the women off their feet--but what makes Austen's characters so good is their complexity and real humanity. That seems to have been too much for this author to realize, much less mimic in her own novel. show less

Betsy's sagas as a female pastor struggling to balance the demands of her congregation, her love life, and her family continue. Betsy is all hyped to go on her first official date with David--her pastor friend who finally admitted his feelings for her. Not even a fight with the office copy machine and a disagreement with a church elder over the possible sale of their aging building can dissuade her. She receives the shock of her life though when her first date turns into a surprise show more engagement party where David's mother--the editor of a budget bridal magazine--announces her plans to feature Betsy's nuptials in the magazine. Betsy feels she has no choice but to go along with everyone else's wishes--and so begins a series of hilarious (for the reader) escapades as she negotiates her future mother-in-laws ideas of the perfect wedding on a shoestring. And she is also involved in what may be the biggest decision ever for her church--whether to stay put downtown or sell out and move to the suburbs.
Patillo delivers another fun read with a meaningful message. show less