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The Jane Austen Book Club

By Karen Joy Fowler

(152)

| Hardcover | 9780670915583

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Book Description

A sublime comedy of contemporary manners, this is the novel Jane Austen might well have written had she lived in twenty-first- century California.

Nothing ever moves in a straight line in Karen Joy Fowler's fiction, and in her latest, the complex dance of modern love has never been so devioContinue

A sublime comedy of contemporary manners, this is the novel Jane Austen might well have written had she lived in twenty-first- century California.

Nothing ever moves in a straight line in Karen Joy Fowler's fiction, and in her latest, the complex dance of modern love has never been so devious or so much fun.

Six Californians join to discuss Jane Austen's novels. Over the six months they meet, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens. With her finely sighted eye for the frailties of human behavior and her finely tuned ear for the absurdities of social intercourse, Fowler has never been wittier nor her characters more appealing. The result is a delicious dissection of modern relationships.

Dedicated Austenites will delight in unearthing the echoes of Austen that run through the novel, but most readers will simply enjoy the vision and voice that, despite two centuries of separation, unite two great writers of brilliant social comedy.

Critics

  • An altogether bad idea

    The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler 288pp, Penguin, £12.99 You can see where Karen Joy Fowler got the idea for this novel, because she shows you. Near the end of this book she includes excerpts from the "opinions" of family and friends that ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • Don't pick this one for next month, ladies

    The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler Viking £12.99, pp304 In America, this novel has been a huge hit and very well reviewed to boot. 'Exquisite,' raved one critic. 'That rare book that reminds us what reading is all about.' But I read this v ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

8 Reviews

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  • 1 person find this helpful

    This is a story about 5 women and 1 man on how they get together to discuss Jane Austen's books and how their lives evolve.

    The idea about how great literature could affect our lives, is interesting. However, the book is written in the style of old ladies' nagging - lots of irrelevant details ... (continue)

    This is a story about 5 women and 1 man on how they get together to discuss Jane Austen's books and how their lives evolve.

    The idea about how great literature could affect our lives, is interesting. However, the book is written in the style of old ladies' nagging - lots of irrelevant details about side characters, just like how your grandma would tell you about the neighbor's son's colleague's cousin's aunt's daughter's lover's childhood. (Really, I couldn't care less about these side characters who have nothing to do with the main plot!)

    Unfortunately the plot isn't great either. The main charactors do evolve but it is not clear if the evolvement has anything to do with Jane Austen's "literature". ("Literature" is not the same as "books.") Inspite of the tedious conversion on how much they loved Austen, it seems that the only actual function of Jane Austen is that her "books" brought these characters together into a book club.

    I only had to finish the book because I paid 8 pounds for it. I definitely won't recommend this book to anyone.

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    material girl said on Jun 7, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    The Jane Austen Book Club

    This book seems to draw mixed reviews however I found it funny and enjoyable. To be fair I must also say that I enjoyed the movie much more than the book. I found it easier to connect with the characters in the movie and preferred the resolutions developed for the movie over the ones in the book.

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    Readingrat said on Mar 27, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • One of the few exceptions: when movies are hundred times better than the books. I don't want ruin my love for Jane Austen and for the Jane Austen book club movie :/

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    ninnilovesmay said on Jan 22, 2012 | Add your feedback

  • a very calm book. ordinary people, ordinary lives and suddenly you find yourself inside the story, as if you, also, were part of the club ^_^
    this is the magic of both Jane Austen and K.J. Fowler (it reminded me of Joyce's "The Dead", in this)

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    Chiara L'Onironauta said on Sep 8, 2009 | Add your feedback

Book Details

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9780670915583 Hardcover $20.91 -- The Book Depository
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