The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler

Fiction. Paperback from Penguin Group. Published in 2005. 279 pages. Purchased at Border's Books, Costa Mesa, CA.

I had about ten minutes to find a book and did not have my "to look for" list with me, so I started just browsing around to see what caught my eye. Naturally, anything with Jane Austen on the cover will be sure to receive a double take from me. (A quality many women have and I'm sure that the publishers were banking upon.) I wasn't really sure about it, but decided to give it a go. It was good airplane reading. I don't think it will be worthy of a reread, though I really enjoyed the section at the end of the book titled "The Response". It contained quotes on Jane Austen's novels starting in Jane Austen's day and ending in 2003 with a quote from J. K. Rowling.

Publisher's summary:
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 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.

Online book shopping:
Powell's: The Jane Austen Book Club
amazon.co.uk: Jane Austen Book Club
amazon.com: The Jane Austen Book Club: A Novel
Audible.com: The Jane Austen Book Club