Review - The Jane Austen Book Club

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler... not utterly terrible, but not very good, either, in my opinion. The main thing that stuck out to me, throughout, was that the narrator was weird and the narrative jumped about in the most irritating way. It wasn't just that there were flashbacks -- I don't mind those, deployed correctly -- but there were flashbacks and then there were chapters in the present. And the narrator seemed to be a member of the book club, but an unnamed, invisible one. And for all that she closes it at the end with a neat little Austen quote, I didn't feel much closure. Not much happened with Prudie. Allegra and Corinne don't seem exactly suited. Bernadette has another husband, another happily ever after. Daniel and Sylvia are apparently back together with virtually no fuss. Jocelyn and Grigg, the same.

I also didn't really buy into the magic of Jane Austen. Or the theme of Jane Austen's books binding everything together. The members of the club didn't all really know each other, or meet up outside of the group, it seemed.

I did like the way Ursula Le Guin sneaked in there. I'd believe in the magic of her books, any day.

It wasn't really terribly interesting, really. Women being married, or in the process of divorce, or getting boyfriends. Yawn.