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- The Jane Austen Book Club
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- Author: Karen Joy Fowler
- Reviewer: Sonali T. Sikchi
- Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons (2004)
- ISBN: 0399151613
- Rating: * * * * Quills
- www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0399151613/scriquil
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- People magazine has declared us to be living in "a Jane Austen moment." What has, suddenly, unexpectedly, made Austen so hip? In 1995, Hollywood actress Emma Thompson and director Ang Lee vividly brought Austen to the limelight through "Sense and Sensibility." Since then other Austen novels, such as "Persuasion," "Emma" and others have also been made into films. However, "Clueless" and the wildly popular "Bridget Jones's Diary," riffs on "Emma" and "Pride and Prejudice" respectively, Austen-lite if you will, have made Jane Austen into an adjective, with the unfortunate, incorrect infamy of being the founder of chick-lit.
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- The latest book off the presses The Jane Austen Book Club, however, stands apart from the usual Austenesque offerings these days, with its complex cast of people, intricate relationships, social commentary and the astonishing power of dialogue rife with shades of meaning.
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- "Each of us has a private Austen," writes Karen Joy Fowler in this bestseller, a book about a book club that reads only works by the 228-year old author. Through the individual perceptions of Austen that each of the five women and the one man bring to the club discussions, we discover the characters' personalities and quirks. As Fowler deftly weaves the various threads of the story together, she demonstrates what Austen does best: keenly observing and strongly critiquing the economic circumstances and social and cultural restrictions that limit people's choices in life.
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- This book club in California's Central Valley meets for six months in each of the members' houses. Starting out in Jocelyn's house, since it was her idea and she handpicked the members, we focus on Jocelyn and her past and present life history. Even though the prologue briefly outlines bare minimum details of each of the six persons and we have some idea going into the rest of the book what to expect from everyone, the individual sections, organized by club meetings, adds layers to the club host's story as well as uncovering bits of the other people's stories.
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- Jocelyn runs a kennel and breeds Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Queenie, Sahara and others are the only family she has. She met Sylvia at a summer camp when they were both 11 years old. And they have remained friends for more than 40 years, even through Sylvia's marriage to Jocelyn's former boyfriend David. Now that 32-year marriage is in the separation phase of its break-up. When Allegra was 19, Jocelyn spent six months introducing Sylvia's daughter to suitable men, despite Allegra's advertised preference for women. Since that fiasco, Jocelyn has, just as earnestly, spent 11 years producing suitable young women. At 28, Prudie is the youngest of the group, teaches high school French and is the only one in the club who is married.
At 67, Bernadette is the oldest member, a kind, thoughtful grandmotherly sort, who loves to ramble on and on. And then there is Grigg: A dapper man in his early forties with incredible eyelashes and a shockingly non-elitist love of science fiction.
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- This comprises the thoroughly dissimilar group put together by Jocelyn, united only by their interest in Austen's works. As we understand each individual person, and see their marriages dissolve, affairs begin, love happening, we discover their different Austens. And we start questioning ourselves, "Who is my private Austen?"
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