“Alone had always felt like an actual place to me, as if it weren't a state of being, but rather a room where I could retreat to be who I really was.”
“The thing about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, the thing that was so profound to me that summer—and yet also, like most things, so very simple—was how few choices I had and how often I had to do the thing I least wanted to do. How there was no escape or denial. No numbing it down with a martini or covering it up with a roll in the hay. As I clung to the chaparral that day, attempting to patch up my bleeding finger, terrified by every sound that the bull was coming back, I considered my options. There were only two and they were essentially the same. I could go back in the direction I had come from, or I could go forward in the direction I intended to go.”
― Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
At times, knowing what you're in for can be comforting, relaxing even. I often reread favourite novels for precisely this reason, to be on familiar terrain, to know everything that is going to happen. I find it relaxing.
Ultimately, this is what I enjoyed about Austenland: it's predictability. While I had not previously read it, the blurb, and the premise of the novel made it clear to me that this would be chick-lit with an Austen flavour. No doubt distantly related to Bridget Jones's Diary. Great. I wasn't sitting down to The Expendables and hoping for Julius Caesar.
True to form, it required a very healthy suspension of disbelief (the biggest for me was the entire plot driver: Jane's Aunt Carolyn/Caroline knowing she is obsessed with Colin Firth's Darcy based on her single status and a hidden DVD? That's one Sherlockian relo).
At times supporting characters were drawn a little thin; the audience learns so little about the motivations or back stories of the either the characters the actors of Austenland are playing, or the actors themselves, that it's difficult to imagine any characters connecting on a meaningful level, let alone falling in love. I can only conclude that whist must have aphrodisiac-like qualities.
Finally, most women I know are also fully aware that Mr Darcy, is ultimately a fictional character, and that the romantic expectations portrayed in Pride & Prejudice are not entirely an accurate representation of healthy productive real life relationships. So, show more the perpetuation of this notion that women need to exorcise their enjoyment/occasional indulgence of these fantasies in order to find a fulfilling relationship was a touch grating. But, narrative tension is required I suppose.
Quibbles aside, while I'm not in a hurry to rush out and read the next 'Austenland' instalment, overall I enjoyed this book.
P.s. Do people really feel they need to hide their Pride and Prejudice DVD's? show less
Ultimately, this is what I enjoyed about Austenland: it's predictability. While I had not previously read it, the blurb, and the premise of the novel made it clear to me that this would be chick-lit with an Austen flavour. No doubt distantly related to Bridget Jones's Diary. Great. I wasn't sitting down to The Expendables and hoping for Julius Caesar.
True to form, it required a very healthy suspension of disbelief (the biggest for me was the entire plot driver: Jane's Aunt Carolyn/Caroline knowing she is obsessed with Colin Firth's Darcy based on her single status and a hidden DVD? That's one Sherlockian relo).
At times supporting characters were drawn a little thin; the audience learns so little about the motivations or back stories of the either the characters the actors of Austenland are playing, or the actors themselves, that it's difficult to imagine any characters connecting on a meaningful level, let alone falling in love. I can only conclude that whist must have aphrodisiac-like qualities.
Finally, most women I know are also fully aware that Mr Darcy, is ultimately a fictional character, and that the romantic expectations portrayed in Pride & Prejudice are not entirely an accurate representation of healthy productive real life relationships. So, show more the perpetuation of this notion that women need to exorcise their enjoyment/occasional indulgence of these fantasies in order to find a fulfilling relationship was a touch grating. But, narrative tension is required I suppose.
Quibbles aside, while I'm not in a hurry to rush out and read the next 'Austenland' instalment, overall I enjoyed this book.
P.s. Do people really feel they need to hide their Pride and Prejudice DVD's? show less