My goal this year is to read nothing but fluff and fantasy. I started to read, Loving Frank, by
Nancy Horan, but I couldn't handle the separation of Momah, the married woman who falls in love with Frank Lloyd Wright, and her children. Not enough fluff for me.
So I turned to The Jane Austen Book Club, by Karen Joy Fowler. I enjoyed the book, but I didn't find the characters rich enough for me. I struggled to remember who was who and unlike books filled with different characters, I could barely visualize anyone. It was enjoyable though. And added bonus: I got a lead on a number of different science fiction authors. Science fiction is in line with my goal of fluff and fantasy. But back to JABC, here is a blurb from the publisher:
From the Publisher
In California''s central valley, five women and one man join to discuss Jane Austen's novels. Over the six months they get together, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens. With her eye for the frailties of human behavior and her ear for the absurdities of social intercourse, Karen Joy Fowler has never been wittier nor her characters more appealing. The result is a delicious dissection of modern relationships.
Dedicated Austenites [which I'm not] 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. "This exquisite novel is bigger and more ambitious than it appears Fowler''s shrewdest, funniest fiction yet, a novel about how we engage with a novel. You don''t have to be a student of Jane Austen to enjoy it, either. . . Lovers of Austen will relish this book, but I envy any reader who comes to it unfamiliar with her. There's no better introduction."
No comments:
Post a Comment