The Jane Austen Book Club

I feel another Austen phase coming on, so couldn't resist this frothy little ode to my favourite author. The concept is cute - five women and a guy get together to discuss Jane Austen's six novels - but Karen Joy Fowler's witty writing makes this more than just a clever device. Yes, each character is tied into the text they choose to discuss - Jocelyn the control freak leads in with Emma, Sylvia finds parallels with her own love life in Persuasion, while her emotional daughter Allegra goes for Sense and Sensibility - but the narratives really come to life through revealing anecdotes and the distinct 'voices' of the women (and token guy, Grigg). I loved reading about them all, and the references to Austen's novels were a bonus (although show more poor Mr Knightley isn't well received!) When discussing Sense and Sensibility, Grigg cynically observes that women 'want the heel, not the soul', which is a very pithy summary of Marianne and Willoughby! If I didn't agree with some of the group dissections of the novels (primarily Emma), I also uncovered some hidden truths in Austen's work, like paying more attention to the characters who aren't successful in love, like Lydia, Maria and Eliza, rather than the fairytale lives of the heroines.

A lovely, light-hearted read that fellow fans of Austen will enjoy, and any uninitiated readers ('Grigg had never read Pride and Prejudice! We really didn't know what to say') will hopefully be tempted to test the water too. show less

I enjoyed the movie so picked up the book. The book proved to be sluggish and just this side of uninteresting enough that I finished it, though it took me a while. I didn't connect with any of the characters, who were more or less interchangeable, despite Fowler's attempt to make them quirky. There was too much focus of the characters' background instead of the here and now of the book, with each section focusing on a different character -- which only made me annoyed as the first characters were boring, and the later interesting backgrounds came up too late to make me appreciate the characters.

I liked this novel more than I thought I would, having heard mixed reviews before reading it. It is interesting as a collection of character studies -- the lives and thoughts and types of people who read Austen -- but I have to say that my favorite part was the reproduction of original "criticism" (comments on Austen's work from her family, acquaintances, and scholars through history) in the back of the book. In these days of "trendy" Austen, it was nice to see how that tradition and perspectives on it have evolved. Frankly, though, I still long for those recent but bygone days when you could tell kindred spirits by whether or not they had read Austen. :)

'The Jane Austen Book Club' is one of those novels that might be dismissed as 'chick lit' but actually turns out to be a sharp, witty, intelligent and well-written book that, whilst certainly a light read, is also one to be deliciously savoured.

The premise is simple but original. A group of friends start a book club. Not just any book club, but, in light of their collective issues with modern life, an 'All-Jane-Austen-All-The-Time' book club. Six people, six books, with each of the group hosting the meeting for their chosen novel. The chapters are structured around these meetings, so the first chapter is 'MARCH, CHAPTER 1... in which we gather at Jocelyn's to discuss Emma', and so on. In each chapter the host's history and personality show more is more fully explored, the month's novel is discussed (but never so much that it bores or alienates the reader), and at the same time the other characters are lightly threaded through the background to keep the overall plot evolving.

As well as showcasing Austen's novels, this is very much a character piece. Each of the six book club members are entirely individual and it makes for much more interesting and amusing reading. Bernadette is a serial wife, rather eccentric and flamboyant, with a liking for yoga and Pride and Prejudice. Loyal Sylvia works at the library and has just had her life shattered by her husband Daniel's confession that he is leaving her for another woman. Her beautiful daughter Allegra is constantly doing daring things - not always without paying the price - and is getting over a devastating betrayal by her ex-girlfriend Corinne. Jocelyn is a dominant terminal singleton, afraid of being hurt and making up for it by matchmaking everyone else. Prudie is a rather artificial, self-conscious young French teacher who doesn't quite know how to interact with other people without coming across all wrong. And Grigg, poor Grigg, a sci-fi fan and Austen virgin brought into the group by Jocelyn as a distraction for Sylvia, entirely out of his depth and trying not to make an idiot of himself. The novel is narrated by a kind of all-seeing other, one who describes each character in the third person but frequently mentions 'us' and 'we'; part of the fun of the reading is trying to work out which of the six, if any, might be telling the story.

Thus characters are deepened, love blossoms and dies and blooms again, and the story goes on. Of course it ends with optimism, hope and a well-timed bit of Austen wisdom. To my surprise, at the end of the book Fowler has also added some little extras which add to the reading experience - some contemporary and modern literary criticism of Austen and her novels, a brief summary of each of the books (handy for those not familiar with all of the works, or those who might want a quick refresher on characters and plots), and at the VERY end, a funny set of 'Questions for Discussion' on Austen AND Fowler presented by each of the six book club members.

Clearly a liking for Jane Austen helps when reading this novel, but ultimately there is nothing in here that should put off a less knowledgeable reader, particularly given the handy summaries at the back (which I wish I'd noticed earlier, I must admit). It is a scrumptious book - funny, romantic, inspiring and positive - and definitely one I'll be keeping to read again.

I'd also highly recommend the recent movie of the book (starring Maria Bello, Maggie Grace and Hugh Dancy), which is surprisingly faithful to the book in spite of its challenging structure, and just as sparkling! show less

I've only read Persuasion and Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, so I wasn't looking for very much "Austen" in the book. The book made me laugh out loud more than a few times, so I enjoyed it as a light, escapist read - much needed in my life at the time since I was going to a lot of funerals right then. I saw the film before reading the book, so had those characters in mind as I read. I particularly liked the reviews of Austen's work in the back of the book. Mark Twain says something like "every time" he reads Pride and Prejudice, he wants to dig up Austen and hit her over the skull with a leg bone. I guess this could mean he didn't like her, but he says "every time" he reads the book (multiples?) so I'm wondering if he just enjoyed it show more too much! show less

Summary: Six people get together to read Jane Austen's novels and discuss them: Jocelyn, dog breeder, matchmacker, and slight control freak; Sylvia, her best friend that's just been through a divorce; Allegra, Sylvia's lesbian daughter; Prudie, high school French teacher; Bernadette, older than the rest and at the point where she no longer cares about social conventions; and Grigg, sci-fi lover, Austen neophyte, and the only man in the group.

Review: I committed the sin of seeing the movie before I saw the book (before I knew there was a book), and what's worse, I think I've committed the cardinal sin of liking the movie better. Part of it is because I never really learned to get along with the writing style, which flipped back and forth show more between first person plural (lots of "we"s) and third person omniscient (so the speaker of the "we"s was never clearly defined as any one member of the group. It's sort of similar to the style used in Jeffrey Eugenides's The Virgin Suicides, but there it fits, and works, and in this book it just didn't. It switched so rapidly between the thoughts of one group member to another to the anonymous "we" that it was a little hard to keep track, as well as depersonalizing all of the characters. The other main fault of this book was that there just wasn't a whole lot of story to the story, and that's somewhere that I think the movie got it right... it cut out the backstories that Fowler gives us here, but in return gives the characters something to do other than discuss Jane Austen. I think perhaps Fowler was trying to avoid directly paralleling Austen's novels in hers, which is a fine and admirable goal, but she went a little too far in the opposite direction, leaving it as a novel about some people who get together and talk about books. And while it was easy to read, light, occasionally funny, and occasionally perceptive about real people and relationships, there just wasn't much meat for the characters or the reader to work with. 3 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Not an unenjoyable read, but it's pretty light to be worth your time as anything more than a beach book. show less

Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors--maybe even my top favorite. I'm not sure how appealing this book would be to those who don't know her and like her writing. There's not only a lot of comments about her books, but a lot of allusions in the situations of the present day characters--ones not pointed out or obvious.

Austen wrote six mature novels and this book deals with a book club made up of six characters each with their own chapter--there's Bernadette the oldest at 67; Prudie the youngest in her twenties; Jocelyn and Sylvia, best friends in their fifties who have known each other since they were eleven; Sylvia's 30-year-old lesbian daughter Allegra and the token male Grigg who is in his forties. The first line is, "Each of us show more has a private Austen." Each section focuses on a member of the book club as they meet to discuss one of the books. For instance the first book is Emma and in between the discussion we learn the story of Jocelyn, a dog breeder who like Austen's heroine could be described as handsome, clever and rich. The second section and book is the turn of Sense and Sensibility and we focus on Allegra who, like Marianne, is convinced passion should be the focus of life and is something of a drama queen. At that point I was already wondering what role each would take on as the book proceeded. Would the token male be identified with Darcy, the most famous of Austen's male characters? Would Sylvie, going through a difficult divorce, the quiet caregiver, get a second chance at love like Anne Eliot?

I think poor Grigg was my favorite. I felt almost embarrassed for my gender at the way the others treated him in the novel. Bernadette thought he shouldn't have been included in the club, Allegra is rudely challenging to his first remarks and Jocelyn is condescending and dismissive about his love of science fiction. At the end, when he suggests they read Patrick O'Brien's nautical adventures next, the collective reaction is that you could go from O'Brien to Austen, but you can't stoop from Austen to O'Brien. I find that bit of book snobbishness a shame. Great literature should broaden, not narrow, and ironically O'Brien was himself a fan of Austen, and it shows in his style. There's also this odd use of first person plural--use of "we," "us" and "our" that didn't work for me. Yet at the end I did feel affection for all the characters, and I admit I got a geeky enjoyment in wallowing at all the Austen lore. (Including my silent, "You tell them, sister" at complaints of the Mansfield Park film adaptation.) So, not sure if this is for Austen lovers only, but as one that qualifies as a fan, yes, I did enjoy it. show less