The Jane Austen Book Club

A relative gave me the hardback of this book along with the movie for my birthday, knowing what an avid Austen fan I am since getting my English degree but not having read it herself. While certainly a quick read...finished it on a 3 hour flight...I found finishing it a labor of love to please my relative. While some of the individual stories are humorous, quite frankly this "book club" could have been discussing any number of authors' works. This is rather ironic, because most of them were suppose to be such self-professed Austen purists. Yet I found very little akin to Austen's themes, even with he smattering of Austen quotes throughout (with perhaps the exception of the character of Slyvia and Austen's Persuasion) I think Jocelyn was suppose to be an Emma figure, but Fowler really missed the mark with character development. (I give credit to Fowler for selecting Austen as the author of choice to help her boost sales.) This is the first time that I actually hope the movie will be better than the book.

To date the only series of books that I have found not authored by Austen but that come pretty close to being very much in her style is Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen Mystery Series Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor: Being the First Jane Austen Mystery. Hope someone will make movies of those...love period pieces.

When, on page 5 of this delightful, ironic homage to Jane Austen, the narrator lists the "six of us" -- the six members of "The Jane Austen Book Club" -- the reader should recognize that the narrator is herself one of those club members. Which one? The novel leaves us guessing, as we explore each member's point-of-view, personal experiences and individual response to Jane Austen.
Karen Joy Fowler is not so pretentious or presumptious as to invade Austen's authorial territory. She does not attempt to imitate or reinvent the "master." Instead, she keeps it light, offering a modern romance of manners in which we learn a little, but not alot about each character and a little, but not alot about each Austen novel. (As one reviewer notes here, the plot summaries aren't offered until the end of the book -- that's no accident.) In short, this novel is an homage to Jane Austen that is both respectful and self-depreciating, loving and mirthful, joyous and rueful. Much like Austen herself, whose spirit is evoked rather than dragged onto the table in this very enjoyable book.
Having presented the Jane Austen read and appreciated by each character, the narrator (who may be Jocelyn -- or could Ms. Austen herself be the silent, but observant, guest at the banquet?) closes with a series of quotations from Austen, each of which appears randomly in a fortune-telling ball, but is rejected if doesn't reflect the desires of the questioner. We end up with the quotation that the narrator prefers, but are left to wonder who has really had the last word, the reader, the narrator or Jane Austen. The answer is obviously: all three. The novel has no single meaning, and the reader no single interpretation; "The mere habit of learning to love is the thing." (Jane Austen , 1775-1817)

Book clubs, meet-ups, etc are quite prevalent these days. The title alone seems interesting. But alas the book does not deliver. Only a small portion of the book is spent on book club meetings, where the conversation is scattershot and shallow, although perhaps little more could be expected with the myriad of similar characters produced by Austen in her works. Much of the book is devoted to rather lackluster, meandering mini-biographies of the club members.

It is only the sub-plots of Sylvia's separation from Daniel and dog-breeder Jocelyn's interest in the only male of the group Griggs that give the book any real interest or continuity. The book doesn't run out of steam because it never gets off the ground - there's no focus to speak of.

In this case, the recent movie of the same name is far more interesting and better done. While retaining a good bit of the plot, what little there is, the character interactions are far more engaging. See the movie, forget the book.

"The Jane Austen Book Club," by Karen Joy Fowler, is a delightful blend of the old and the new. With smooth and effortless style, the author relates how six people, one man and five women, come together to talk about Jane Austen's books. During the meetings of the book club, not only do the members explore Jane Austen's life and novels, but they also reveal a great deal about themselves.

Jocelyn and Sylvia are in their early fifties and have been friends since they were eleven. Bernadette is sixty-seven and although she has made a career out of being married, she is currently single. Allegra, Sylvia's daughter, is a blunt and beautiful woman, with a quick wit and an acerbic tongue. Sylvia's husband, Daniel, has just asked for a divorce after over thirty years of marriage. She is still bewildered by the changes in her life. Prudie is the only happily married member of the club. She teaches French and has an irritating and pretentious habit of dropping French phrases into the conversation without translating them. Grigg is a man in his early forties who doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the book club, but he does provide a much-needed male perspective.

Fowler is deliciously witty. She pokes fun at and deconstructs, among other things, book clubs, friendship, marriage, and Jane Austen. At the same time, Fowler brings her six protagonists into focus, giving us a peek into their childhoods and providing perspective on how they became who they are now.

Jane Austen's books are worlds unto themselves. Austen cleverly and astutely examined the mores of her time, especially as they related to love and marriage. Fowler does the same. She reveals that each of her characters has suffered disappointments and harbors painful memories and secrets. None of them, however, has given up on life.

The dialogue in this novel is hilarious and poignant. The author includes a summary of Austen's novels at the back, along with a droll, tongue-in-cheek "Reader's Guide" that is the essential element of all modern book clubs. In addition, Fowler adds a lengthy section in which she gives critics of Jane Austen their say. Whether or not you are a lover of Jane Austen or a member of a book club, you will find much to enjoy in this breezy and entertaining novel.

As someone who loved the movie adaptation of The Jane Austen Book Club, I must confess I found the book it was based on to be a disappointment.

The characters are interesting and relatable, and some witty exchanges are memorable, but the good points end there. The plot seems to be more of an after-thought. Most of what happens occurs in flashbacks or asides, which would be fine if the club's meetings and discussions were more significant. Usually these boiled down to complaining about the heat and making obvious points about Austen's books.

My main problem, however, was with the writing style. It read like those terribly "literary" short stories I was forced to read in class. "Literary" pieces seems too puffed up with self-importance and theory and making it "real." If you like those kinds of books, you may enjoy this one.

There was also a confusing use of the first-person narrative, saying "we sat on the porch" when every character in the group is referred to by name. My guess is it's supposed to make the reader feel included in the book club, but more often than not it took me out of the story -- the completely opposite effect.

Compared to the movie, it was plodding and shallow. The movie was faithful enough (but presenting the same information better) that I saw any new scenes or details as deleted background to what I already loved.

I love the premise of readers' lives coinciding with Austen's books, but if you have a choice: watch the movie.

I had read some other reviews before reading this book and I went into it ready to quit after a chapter or two, but the characters did end up pulling me right along to the end. Overall, I did enjoy the book but was left somewhat disappointed at the end. The novel has wonderful yet tantalizingly small portraits that left me wanting to know more, and do the end felt rather abrupt and also, ultimately, left a few of the characters feeling a bit flat. A good read nevertheless!

My sister threw me this when I was teaching `Pride and Prejudice' in High School. If there were lots of clever parallels I dare say I missed them: I've only read 'Mansfield Park' in the last few years, and maybe `Emma' a couple of decades ago. Whatever, the novel on its own got me in from the first few pages. It's a nice structure for her to work in - alternative perspectives and ages - and she realises it capably. The characters' histories are probably more interesting than their interplay, but both are engaging. She found a receptive audience in the SF references: any friend of Ursula K. LeGuin is a friend of mine. While she didn't play it for titillation, the references to sexual deviation popped up often enough to justify raising my eyebrows at the preoccupations of the author. Still, they hardly swamped the novel which, while having a useable plot, ran on interesting and plausible character portraits.

...to read the novel before seeing the film adaptation. Because usually, the comparison does the movie no favours.
However, as I've learned here, sometimes there's a greater risk to seeing the film first.

As much as this is meant to be a review of the novel, the truth is that having seen the film, my view of the book is informed in so very starkly a way that I fear I cannot offer up as objective opinion as I otherwise might have.

As a screenwriter/novelist, I'm always fascinated to see how the migration from one medium to the other is achieved, and to what extent it's successful. In the case of 'The Jane Austen Book Club', one thing was consistently apparent: the adaptation succeeded marvellously. In fact, in many ways, the film is a far more satisfying experience.

But allow me to clarify.

Firstly, I have no history, no relationship with Austen's novels. I've read not a one. So clearly, what Fowler waves through her story Austen-wise, was lost on me. Not that I couldn't appreciate that she was clearly a lover of Austen's works and had fashioned a tale as an homage to the writer. I'm sure that a fan of Austen's books would have added many a satisfaction-point onto their final score. But I suppose what struck me most in this sense was the fact that the movie seemed to do a far better job of utilizing the themes and characters than the novel does.

Secondly, while the film is focused, the novel is...well, a lot more of a riff. And perhaps this can be chalked up mostly to the narrator's voice. In the film, it's a typical 'third-person omniscient'. In the book- Well, I still can't figure out why Fowler decided to tell it in first-person omniscient...and then, never really declare that it's being told by Bernadette. In fact, I don't know why she chose to use the narrative voice she did, at all. It makes no sense...first-person cannot be omniscient when we're talking about the narrator having access to information they'd not have access to...and in the end, came off as contrived. In fact, to a certain extent, it ruined the book for me.

Finally, the film, while not utilizing much of the novel's narrative, uses what it does explore much better than the book. In fact, maybe this was what surprised me most, that the movie is much more cohesive, does a far better job at delving into characters...it makes more sense. These criticisms are usually made about the film, not the source material, hence my surprise.

The novel is lovely. A little scattered, a little idiosyncratic, but with some enchanting touches. (Having read the book, I can attest to the fact that the movie missed some opportunities...but the writer/director should be proud of what she accomplished.) I wouldn't glow about it the way some of the jacket blurbs did...but then I'm not an Austen-ite...and I'm not a woman.

I'd like to think that Jane would forgive me both.

According to Jocelyn, it is "essential to reintroduce Austen into your life regularly...let her look around." This is exactly her aim when she launches the "all-Jane-Austen-all-the-time book club" and invites five of her friends and acquaintances to meet and discuss one of Austen's novels every month.
Each of the members "has a private Austen," Karen Joy Fowler tells us in the opening line of THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB. For Jocelyn, a compulsive matchmaker and organizer extraordinaire of other people's lives, Austen "wrote wonderful novels about love and courtship, but never married." Bernadette, the oldest member of the group, has lived a colorful sixty-seven years, including a brief foray into show business and several trips to the altar. Her private Austen is "a comic genius."
Sylvia, Jocelyn's childhood friend, has recently separated from her husband of thirty-two years. Not being a happy ending person, Sylvia's Austen is more practical --- "a daughter, a sister, an aunt." For Sylvia's daughter Allegra --- a strikingly beautiful, self-described "garden-variety lesbian" --- Austen writes about "the impact of financial need on the intimate lives of women."
Prudie, a high school French teacher afraid to visit France because it might not live up to her expectations, is the youngest member of the group at twenty-eight. Her Austen is the one "whose books changed every time you read them, so that one year they were all romances and the next, you suddenly noticed Austen's cool, ironic prose."
As for Grigg, no one knows who his private Austen is. The only man in the group, he initially raises suspicion among the other members --- for being a man, for being a man in a Jane Austen book club, and for showing up at the first meeting with an obviously brand new collection of Austen's works.
Chapter by chapter, Fowler uses a different Austen novel to illuminate each of her characters. As the months flow by, Jocelyn, Bernadette, Sylvia, Allegra, Prudie and Grigg each face their own changes and challenges. Life, death, marriage, love and friendship were subjects that made for great storytelling in Jane Austen's day ... and they still do, two hundred years later in twenty-first century California.
It will make for a richer reading experience if you're familiar with Austen's novels, but don't despair if you're not; turn to the back of the book for a synopsis of each story. When you finish the last page of THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB, you won't be able to resist the urge to more thoroughly acquaint (or reacquaint) yourself with EMMA, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, NORTHANGER ABBEY, MANSFIELD PARK and PERSUASION. You might even have a better appreciation for them having read this book first.
In 1826, Sir Walter Scott said about the late Jane Austen, "That young lady had a talent for describing the involvement and feelings and characters of ordinary life which is to me the most wonderful I ever met with.... The exquisite touch which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting from the truth of the description and the sentiment is denied to me."
What was denied Sir Walter Scott flows effortlessly through Karen Joy Fowler's pen. THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB is a pleasure to read. It is a fun, cleverly crafted, witty and thoroughly modern tale that shows us exactly why Austen's novels retain their timeless appeal. Like Austen, Fowler paints the everyday in such a way that makes it easily recognizable, capturing the subtleties of social interaction, family dynamics, the complexities of friendship, the nuances of courtship and the fragility of life.
Included in the book is a reading group guide with a twist --- each of the six characters has contributed "questions for discussion." One of Sylvia's questions asks, "Is a good book better the second time around?" I'll know the answer as soon as I finish reading THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB ... again.
--- Reviewed by Shannon McKenna

THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB, the latest novel by Karen Joy Fowler, centers on six acquaintances--five women, one man--who gather once a month for six months to discuss the novels of Jane Austen. They are Jocelyn, the founder of the club, an uptight middle-aged Rhodesian Ridgeback breeder; Sylvia, whose 30-year marriage has just ended in divorce; her daughter Allegra, a beautiful lesbian with a history of bad relationships; Bernadette, a spunky old lady with a string of high-profile ex-husbands; Prudie, a reserved French teacher who compulsively switches languages in the middle of conversation; and Grigg, the only man, a science fiction reader who's new to the area, and new to Jane Austen. Each chapter of the book represents one month, in which the book club meets to discuss one of Austen's novels at the home of the person who likes that novel best. In each chapter, then, we learn not only about one of Jane Austen's novels, but about one of the members of the book club who that novel reflects in some way.

You don't have to be a Jane Austen fan to enjoy THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB, because it's more of a character study than a study of the novels themselves. Not really a plot-driven work, the novel focuses on the somewhat ordinary lives of the characters--the loves and losses they experience during a six-month period, the ways they interact with and learn from each other, how they interpret Austen's novels through a veil of their own experiences. Having some familiarity with Austen's characters is recommended, however, just so the comparisons between them and the six people reading about them are easier to draw. If you are unfamiliar with Austen's works, brief synopses of her plots and characters are available at the end of the novel.

I myself adore Jane Austen's books; PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is my favorite novel. Austen is one of the only authors I can think of who has remained so popular and so compulsively readable for 2 centuries. The issues she writes about are always fresh and relevant; her writing never stops being witty and insightful. She has a discerning wit that few of today's authors can match. In THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB, Fowler has succeeded in deliberately mimicking Austen's keen sense of language and witticism to produce an entertaining tribute to one of the greatest writers of any era.

Fowler, even when she's not mimicking Austen, is a very gifted writer. Her characters are brilliantly developed; she reveals them layer by layer, month by month, chapter by chapter. She also very effectively utilizes a first-person narrator that encompasses the whole book club. My favorite chapter is Chapter 5, "in which we read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and talk with Bernadette," and in which so much is subtly revealed about the characters.

If you are a fan of Jane Austen, you'll love THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB. If you've never read one of Austen's novels, if you've never even heard of her (are you hiding under a rock?!), then you couldn't ask for a better introduction to this author's wonderful novels and unforgettable characters than Fowler's beautiful, simple novel.

The characters in THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB discuss all six of Austen's novels, alternating between each other's houses. Each character is assigned a book. The six characters include best friends Jocelyn and Sylvia; Sylvia's lesbian daughter Allegra; Prudie, a French teacher; Bernadette, the oldest member of the group; and Grigg, the only man.

The characters don't spend that much time discussing Austen's novels. Fowler relies on flashbacks to help us get to know each of the characters; several are also going through emotional traumas. Sylvia's husband has left her after thirty years of marriage; Allegra is breaking up with her writer partner; Grigg is falling in love with Jocelyn.

I enjoyed the sassiness of the characters. This is Prudy: "Hadn't Allegra complained to her that Bernadette always did repeat herself? (Hadn't Allegra said this more than once?)." Prudy also compares cliques in her school in relation to their drug of choice: Drama (pot); student government (alcohol); sports (steroids); yearbook (glue). Another funny part was when Allegra found out her writer lover was using her personal life in her stories; later on, at a library fund raiser, one of the novelists who's assigned to each table, steals Bernadette's stories about her early career as an entertainer. Good writers borrow; great writers steal.

I also got a kick out of the Grigg character's confrontation with Jocelyn over science fiction. Jocelyn looks down on genre fiction, and spineless Grigg finally stands up to her.

There's not a whole lot of plot in THE JANE AUSTIN BOOK CLUB but the characters are similar to those in Austen in that they seem to learning how to love, as one of the characters puts it.

Fowler also provides an addendum that includes synopses of Austen's books (which will be really helpful when the characters discuss the individual books) and another section where various literary figures and critics comment on Austen's novels, starting in 1812. Most of them loved her. Mark Twain's comment was the exception: "Every time I read [Austin] I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin bone." One wonders why, if he hates her so much, he's reading her again.

That was how I felt reading this. Not outraged, as some Austen fans have been. But certainly cheated. I enjoy Austen enough that I was looking for some interesting discussion on her, discussion central to the plot and characters. Instead I found 6 characters who just weren't compelling to me. Their stories are told mostly through flashback. Unfortunate, since flashback has a quality of stopping the story dead. Most of the flashback centered around adolescent sexual experiences, which didn't help.

Only in the first chapter do they have much discussion of Austen. Perhaps other chapters were intended to have more, but the editors didn't think readers would be interested. But who would pick up a book called The Jane Austen Book Club who didn't know enough about the books to follow the discussion?

The author's use of popular culture is mostly successful, though sometimes annoying. One chapter written as email exchanges I chose not to read. It's an annoying device, perhaps because email seems trivial. A poetry reading is set in a sex shop, apparently for no other reason than to mention that it's sex shop. (It's a chain store, which gives an additional aura of product placement.)

One thing I must give her credit for, and that is avoiding the current trend of fashion obsessed heroines. Sex in the City appears to have convinced a generation of women that they are not adequate without shoes or clothes with a recognized name. Great for the designers. I'm not so sure about the women.

In all, I would say the book is a good idea not fully realized. If she had found a way to make the stories grow out of the discussion and the group, I think it could have been a truly interesting novel.

This book is dreck. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, do not waste your time or money. Fortunately, I bought the book used, so at least it came at a low price. This story is a series of digressions that the author probably told herself are riffs on Austen themes. This could not be farther from reality. The book is a poor excuse for riding on someone else's fame to sell a series of silly vignettes. While some of the vignettes are decently written (funny and/or poignant) they don't really add up to a novel, much less a novel pretending a relationship to Jane Austen. And the denouement (can't say there is a climax in this story) is sleep-inducing at best. Ugh. Enough said.

Like many others, I picked up this book solely on the mention of Jane Austen in the title, and on skimming the back cover I was sure this was going to be a good read. Although I had no expectation that it would be in any way like Austen herself, I loved the premise of the book: that the six members of an Austen-only book club, all 'ordinary people, neither happy nor unhappy, but all wounded in different ways', would perhaps come to know themselves better through their discovery of Austen's literature. I liked the idea that each of us has 'our own private Austen', and I found the first few pages both delightful and witty. Unfortunately, Karen Joy Fowler didn't seem able to keep up this momentum throughout the rest of the book.

As other reviewers have said, this is more a character study than a plot driven novel. In theory, that doesn't both me at all, but there isn't even really enough character here for the book to feel substantial. I found the flashbacks into each character's past interesting, although not very well linked with the person they had become in the present - I often found myself wondering why Fowler had chosen to tell us something in particular about one of the characters, but whatever her reasons, they eluded me. Again, in theory I thought that some of her characters could have been fascinating people, but there was nothing to lift them off the page and bring them to life. I particularly wanted to know more about Allegra, the lesbian daughter of Sylvia and Daniel whose partner Corinne stole stories from Allegra's past and submitted them as fiction to various publications (with most of them getting rejected because they weren't even any good).

From reading some other reviews, I also see I'm not the only one who was irritated by her use of the collective voice. Most of the scenes in which the book club meets, she narrates with the words 'we', 'us', 'our', etc. And yet every single one of the six members is also referred to in the third person. I gather that these scenes are meant to appear as though the entire group is telling the story, but instead it comes across as though there's some secret narrator, some hidden person in the room that is active in the text but whom we don't get to know about. As a literary device it is not very effective; I found it constantly distracting.

My one concession to the novel is that Karen Joy Fowler does have the occasional sentence or paragraph that sparkles with wit and insight, and there are echoes of Austen in some of her turns of phrase or the way she structures a passage. I enjoyed that the book club members often discuss Austen characters as though they were real people (even though they themselves seldom seem real), and they have some interesting ideas that wouldn't have occurred to me. I like this paragraph where Sylvia and Allegra are discussing the possibility that Charlotte Lucas was gay:

"'Are you saying Austen meant her to be gay?' Sylvia asked. 'Or that she's gay and Austen doesn't know it?'

Sylvia preferred the latter. There was something appealing in thinking of a character with a secret life that her author knew nothing about. Slipping off while the author's back was turned, to find love in her own way. Showing up just in time to deliver the next bit of dialogue with an innocent face. If Sylvia were a character in a book, that's the kind of character she'd want to be. But wouldn't." (p171)

For readers who aren't familiar with all (or any) of Jane Austen's novels, there are short plot summaries at the back, although I have to say that if I were relying solely on her descriptions of each book, I probably wouldn't give any of them chance - she can't even make *them* come alive! There are also 20 pages of quotes and reviews people have made about Austen, but even this could have been culled by about half, for some are certainly more interesting and insightful than others.

My guess is that readers who pick up this book primarily because of their admiration for Austen will have higher hopes than others who pick it up just for a bit of light reading. The book is not all bad though, and I don't feel like I wasted my time in reading it, but ultimately it wasn't as fulfilling as I had hoped.

I purchased "The Jane Austen Book Club" for one simple reason: there was a jacket blurb from W.S. Merwin. Could W.S. Merwin be wrong? I certainly didn't think so.

I don't consider myself a "Janeite" (as the term sounds vaguely foolish, and I would never go to a convention of devotees) but I have read and loved all of her books, several biographies, and I developed the ubiquitous crush on Colin Firth in the 90s.

I find it curious that hating Jane Austen has become such an institution. I fail to detect anything in her work (or her life, certainly!) which merits such hostility.

The (negative) reviews of "The Jane Austen Book Club" appear to fall into three groups: People who can't stand Jane Austen and thus hated this book; People who haven't read much Jane Austen and thus didn't really care about the book; and people who adore Jane Austen, and felt betrayed when the book didn't proceed in the direction which they deemed appropriate.

To all of these naysayers I respond: Pooh!

True, it is fluffy, but surely there is a place for such things. And to the reviewers who called it "Chick Lit" - it is no such thing. I don't recall a single mention of Manolo Blahnik, which is, I believe, a requirement for inclusion in the genre.

If you are familiar with the works of Jane Austen (and the cast of characters therein) you will enjoy this book, as long as you know at the start that this novel is not about Jane Austen or her books. It is about a book club and its members.

And after all, would W.S. Merwin lie?

The Jane Austen Book Club is a sophisticated, yet delightful story about how fiction, in this case fiction by Jane Austen, intersects with the lives of readers. It becomes clear very early in this well-crafted story about reading that the characters, all members of The Jane Austen Book Club of course, have their own ideas of who Jane Austen really was.

The book very possibly answers the question, is it possible for a reader to remain neutral when reading a literary classic, or fiction at all for that matter? The answer is no. And for any reader who has ever been told they were wrong about what a particular story meant (remember those old college English classes?), they will be happy to read about a group of people who also have a hard time separating their views of life with those in the literature they read.

Filled with fun and equal doses of wit and wisdom, much like an Austen novel, The Jane Austen Book Club entertains and is very well worth reading. Even if you aren't well-versed in all things Jane Austen, if reading is a big part of who you are, you will thoroughly enjoy this novel about human nature and how our triumphs and flaws draw us to the novels we read.

Karen Joy Fowler `s The Jane Austen Book Club: A Novel was highly recommended to me by both my wife and twenty-something daughter, both of whom are Austen fans of the highest order. I'm not, but in the interest of family harmony I decided to give it a whirl.

The book, as has been well chronicled in previous reviews, centers around the mostly female members of a book discussion group centered totally on Austen's various works. One need not be an Austen addict to get the gist of the literary references sprinkled throughout the text as there are summaries of the Austen works at the back of this novel rendered in sufficient detail to get on up to speed on that score. Not that the Austen references are all that scholarly-they have a lot more to do with the members of the group than anything relating to Austen's works per se.

The book is a rather lighthearted and fluffy affair. There's no real angst or anomie in this group, just the ordinary social and familial afflictions that would accrue to any group of middle aged, middle class Californians. There's nothing startling, exciting or salacious to whet one's appetite.

However, Fowler can write, the group may not be extraordinary but are nevertheless interesting and the action-such as it is-is diverting and entertaining.

I'm not quite sure what the hype surrounding this book was all about. It's nothing special but makes for very engaging and entertaining, if not particularly noteworthy, beach or airplane type reading.

I have to admit: I enjoyed this book tremendously and I went back and reread favorite sections. However, I am a Jane Austen devotee and I am always interested in the opinion of others on her various books.
And you get a number of opinions in "The Jane Austen Book Club." Six Californians get together to read all six Austen novels. With five women and one semi-hunky man, complications are bound to ensue. And they do...though not necessarily in the way the reader might think originally. The six characters are all interesting and their stories are told in part. In many ways, it reminded me of being in a book club: you see one side of an individual, and not necessarily the side that the rest of the world sees.
I would recommend this book to Jane Austen fans. Fowler inserts all sorts of opinions on various texts. My favorite moment occurs when Fowler's book club members debate the sexuality of one of Austen's characters and wonder if Austen realized that she had created a gay character!
However, if you are not a Jane Austen fan or have not read much of her work, I believe that this would be a tough read.

This book deserves five stars for its sincere attempt to honor Jane Austen's writing. At the same time, it deserves three stars for the effectiveness of its story and style.

The book has an interesting premise: "Each of us has a private Austen." The premise is explored by having five women and one man meet for a few occasions to discuss their favorite Austen novels. By choosing the novels they choose and what they have to say about them, the characters unintentionally reveal lots about themselves. At the same time, their private lives and loves move in mysterious ways to become harmonious. It's all very Austenish, if it's not very good Austen.

Joycelyn is the perpetual matchmaker, who never finds a match for herself. She thought of starting the Austen book club and recruited its members. Bernadette is an older woman who has moved past pretension and appreciates the humor in life. Grigg is a bachelor whose tastes usually run to science fiction and who has a little trouble fitting in with the women. Sylvia is Joycelyn's oldest friend, and her marriage has just broken up . . . despite Jocelyn having fixed Sylvia up with her husband, Daniel, who was Joycelyn's boy friend originally. Daniel has now flown to a new love. Allegra is the most spirited member of the group, and she's deep into her lesbian love life although not always clear about what's going on there. Allegra is Sylvia's daughter. Prudie is the most serious Austen student, and appreciates all aspects of her writing. Prudie is a high school French teacher who likes to share phrases a little too much and is the only person with an on-going marriage.

The book alternates between relating snatches of the book club meetings with looking into the personal relationships of the members. The book club snatches are a bit too brief for my taste and almost seem designed to avoid offending those who might not know anything about Austen.

If you haven't read everything that Jane Austen wrote, there's a brief set of notes on each novel discussed in this book starting on page 252.

The best part of the book's back materials comes though in quotes from Jane Austen's family and friends about her writing, and prominent writers since then. These sections are worth the price of the book alone! Very nice.

I enjoyed the book, but it fell below my expectations. I suspect the problem was that the book is too short to fully develop the characters, relationships and the book club interactions. You are expected to "fill in the gaps" without many dots to use. I found myself comparing this book to the non-fiction, Reading Lolita in Tehran, and found this book looking light in the comparison.

"This is the novel that Jane Austen might indeed have written had she lived in twenty-first-century California," the dustjacket for the hardcover version of this book boldly claims, and any dedicated Austen fan will undoubtedly take issue with this statement. Austen was, first and foremost, a writer who possessed a superior talent for narrative and characterization. Neither of those talents are on display in Karen Joy Fowler's "The Jane Austen Book Club," a novel that uses thinly veiled retreads of Austen plotlines as its basis and characters that have vague echoes of Austen's own characters. And yet TJABC does nothing fresh or innovative with these rehashes, at least nothing as modern or clever as it seems to think it's doing. Here's the big fault: TJABC has a creaky plotline as a novel and Fowler's characters lack depth even without the comparisons to Austen (which only serve to make this novel's faults more pronounced). Perhaps the most offensive aspect of the "homage" is that Austen's novels were always of great social relevance. Sure, there is lots of romance and comedy, but what made her novels classic was the undercurrent of social criticism that was woven into them. Fowler has written a trifling romantic comedy and attempted to pass it off as deep, and a few tired jokes about how nerdy science fiction fans are (really, Ms. Fowler, could you have picked a more tired cliche, or an easier mark than that? I doubt it) do nothing to make TJABC any sharper or more pointed.

Six people with a "private Austen" philosophy decide to form the "all-Jane-Austen-all-the-time book club". Jocelyn's private Jane is love without marriage; Bernadette felt Austen was a comedic genius; Sylvia's private though is she is everyone's favorite single female relative; Grigg the lone male member seeks the masculinity of Jane; Allegra's Austen wants financial female independence; Prudie desires solace in reinterpretation and early death.

Over the months this sextet discussed Austenian views on the requirements by society to marry whether love entered the relationship or not and other societal demands on individuals to conform. However, these discussions serve as back drop to the emotional uproars in each of their lives. Jocelyn has never tasted love and fears she never will; Prudie desires untouchable males, but wants never to have a fantasy thought about her spouse; Bernadette in her sixties figures she can do anything so no longer uses a mirror to look perfect; Sylvia is heartbroken as she loves her spouse even as they divorce; Allegra and her girlfriend split; Grigg understands first hand unrequited love.

This well written complex character study is not an easy book to read as the story line focuses on the modern issues of six people rotating perspective. There is a somewhat nebulous link to Jane Austen via the "private" Austen inside of each of the sextet's psyche, but that is secondary to the issues each confronts. Fans of contemporary character driven fiction will enjoy this fine tale once the nuance of the methodology employed by Karen Joy Fowler is grasped; this reviewer came close initially to quit reading, but fortunately (for my sake) continued into the second pass and became hooked.

Harriet Klausner

This is a fascinating subject for a book: the history of a book club. The book is neatly divided by Austen's books: each chapter is the book of the month, and depending on which member of the book club is hosting, the chapter focuses on that indivdual's story.

Obviously, you'll get more out of this if you've read most of Austen's oevre, because not only are the characters discussing the books, but the book itself is a meta-novel in which the characters in the club go through very Austen-like romances, reconciliations and turmoils.

It's a very quick read, but some characters were far more compelling than others, and at times I wanted more of the Jane Austen commentary than we got... in other words, some of the chapters were more seamless in combining the book-club conceit with the characters' real lives than others. It also seemed to wrap up too neatly, too quickly. But I've given it four stars because the quality of the writing is excellent and some sections were very memorable. A good summer read for English majors!

Joy Fowler's book, the Jane Austen book club, has rather a nice premise. 6 modern day characters meet once a month over 6 months to discuss Jane Austen's books. Each of the characters hosts one of the evenings which is about one of the only 6 novels which Jane Austen wrote - and that novel reflects something within each of them.

I found as got further in to the novel, however, I was more and more disappointed. The novel is character driven, the two friends one of whom is in the middle of a divorce, the other who breeds dogs and has never married, seemed rather dull right from start. There were some sly inferences from the author, but I didn't find it clever and smart and witty in the way which Jane Austen writes. In fact at times I found it a bit ponderous.

This isn't necessarily a drawback for readers, it was perhaps just my expectation given the name of the book and what I felt the author set out to acheive, that is to align each of the characters with a book.

I finished it and then started to wonder if I had just expected too much of it in the first place. Maybe this would have been a nice read if I hadn't wanted it to be Austen all over again. But there are some similarities with Austen's work, nothing much really happens, it is a strictly character driven book - and there are some nice touches along the way in sly observances. You don't need to know austen's books, but I think it definitely helps; Unfortunately, in the end I thought the book was a bit mediocre - readable but not wildly memorable

I am in agreement with Bibliophile, below, who found the brief but lurid sexual references throughout this novel distracting and detracting from the potentially delightful premise of exploring the lives of five ladies and a gentleman brought together by the beloved novels of Jane Austen.

Praiseworthy items: I enjoyed the subtle humor in some of Fowler's characters' off-beat observations, most definitely enjoyed the references to Ms. Austen's books, was, in fact, delighted, even, when I read an excerpt from Anne Radcliffe's Udolpho's Mysteries (quoted often in Austen's Northanger Abby). Obviously Fowler knows her Austen.

Disappointing factors: I spent some time trying to figure out just how Fowler's characters counterparted those created by Austen (as promised in some of the editorial reviews on the book cover), but failed to make any satisfactory connections beyond some very vague similarities (Jocelyn was apparently the "Emma" of the novel;" Bernadette, perhaps, the Elizabeth, though that was a stretch. The others characters were lost on me.

Unforgivable elements: It seems explicit, often degrading sexual episodes were thrown in here and there to possibly spice up the novel. Austen engendered a genuine admiration in her literary fans without resorting to any such devices. Need I say more?

My recommendation? Skip it.

Five women and one man form a book club specifically to discuss the works of Jane Austen. As each one hosts a meeting, the reader is given a brief history of that person, and an update on their current life. The lives of the book club members have some parallels with the sorts of things that take place in Austen's books, with love, flirtation, and gossip being the centerpieces of interactions between the club members and their significant others. Life and death, love and marriage, divorce and despair all have their turns on center stage in this book. The characters are finely drawn and I was compelled to read the book quickly to see how things turn out. Most certainly this novel has encouraged readers to scurry to their local library to pick up and enjoy Jane Austen's work.

I bought this book on impulse at an airport bookstore, lured by three things: the blurb on the cover saying it had been on the NYT best seller list, the fact that some of the books had a blue cover and some red (I don't know why this appealed but it did catch my eye, as undoubtedly the jacket designers had intended), and last, the fact that it had Jane Austen in the title.

For the life of me, I can't understand the meaningful connection between the narrative of the book and Jane Austen or any of her works, except for the awkwardly employed literary device of organizing the book around a series of book club meetings that discussed Austen's works. If some reader can inform me about the relevance of the the epilogues with quotes by and about Austen, or for that matter the general connection between Austen and this book (other than in a stretch you might say this was a novel of manners),I would be grateful.

The characters in the book were thinly drawn, the dialogue generally kind of staged, and I thought the way the flashbacks were (or more appropriately were not)integrated with the story line showed an amateur hand.

Could some one explain why this book made the best seller list... I would like to be kind but I felt I wasted two days of a vacation reading this book.

Austen is always quoted as describing her novels as:

"The little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush, as produces little effect after much labour".

Well, this is more like paint by numbers on cardboard.

The characters range from totally unlikeable to just plain annoying and each is little more than a stocktype. The plot goes nowhere.

The parallels to Austen are minimal. In an Austen book even the minor characters have wit and life, and here I struggled to care about the main characters. The end is totally ragged, where a Jane Austen novel always ends neatly and leaves the reader wanting more, yet feeling satisfied with the conclusion. Not so here.

I'd say using Austen as the theme for the book club is little more than a gimmick, designed to attract readers with the name of one of those authors everyone is supposed to read as a "classic", but few do. Perhaps it makes people feel good to go about with this book instead of taking on the real Austen novels, but I doubt if this is going to make a "Janeite" of any novice to her works.

As a librarian, I seldom recommend movies over books, but if you want to get a real feel for Jane Austen go out and get the Emma Thompson version of "Sense and Sensibility" or the A&E dramatization "Pride and Prejeudice" , both of which are marvelous adaptations of the original novels. Then give the real thing a try--they're not for everyone, but for those who love the books, what pleasure they bring!!

Last summer when I was working at BAM!, this book had just come out in hardback. I picked it up and flipped through it and it looked interesting enough. However, I had too many other things to read. When it came out in paperback this summer, I bought it. I have never been a fan of Austen, considering her to be overhyped. I figured reading a book, though fictional, about her books, might make me see why she is so popluar.

Six friends, five women and one man, get together each month to discuss a book of Austen. Six books, six months. Jocelyn, an unmarried dog breeder, starts the club as a way to help her friend Sybil get over her recent seperation and pending divorce. Sybil's daughter Allegra, a proud lesbian, joins as well, even though she doesn't like Austen. Young high school French teacher Prudie and old wise Bernadette round out the women. At the last minute, Jocelyn asks Griff, a middle-age man, to join the group, despite the protests of the other women. The book follows the six characters through six months of their lives, inter weaving their anaylis of Austen and flashbacks that advance the present day plot.

Fowler uses Austen's novels as a base for hers. To say it reflects Austen's work is an understatement. However, it is a very good book and makes me want to give Austen another shot. An enjoyable read, except the ending is a bit adrupt.

An absolutely fantastic book ! If you're an Austen fan, you'll love this one !

It tells the story of 6 people, who form the Jane Austen Book Club: Jocelyne, Sylvia, her daughter Allegra, Grigg, Bernadette and Prudie, each representing a different Austen novel. All of them like Jane Austen for different reasons, love different characters (although they decided they all love Charlotte Lucas, whom Allegra suspected was gay).

In each chapter a different book is discussed and we learn more about the person that is hosting that meeting. Karen Joy Fowler does this in a rather unique way, written from a plural form, it's never really clear whom she is representing...

This was the first book of Karen Joy Fowler that I've read (lured by the title and an the store recommendation) and I absolutely adored it ! I'm going to look for her other books straight away !

There's almost nothing I didn't find appealing about this novel in prospect. The juxtaposition (excuse my high falutin triteness) of Jane Austen with the social circle of modern women, the way of framing the skips between characters by book and meeting, devices like the collective voice -- all that seemed like exactly the sort of thing I'd enjoy and take satisfaction from.

I even picked the book up in the store and read the first chapter or so. It's immediately apparent that Ms. Fowler is a polished and thoroughly professional writer. She handled the voice thing without its seeming self-conscious, and within a given scene her descriptive turns of phrase and her sense of rhythm are spot on. This isn't wooden language, it moves right along with skill.

The book isn't even going to get finished, though. It's face down on my bedroom carpet right now, steadily becoming more and more creased along the binding, and I very much doubt I'm coming back. Because, not to beat around the bush about this too much, this thing is all Caroline Bingley and no Elizabeth Bennett at all. The characters, and their collective "we" narrative voice, are all charmlessly clever, unsympathetic, rather harsh people. They discuss Austen's novels not out of love for them, but rather as a sort of arena in which to do battle: who will provide the most adroit observation about today's book? They exclude one another, quite cattily, by dismissing each other's assertions about the marginalia of the stories -- but not a one of them ever seems to have loved Jane Austen, and nobody even mentions the core of any of the books, the heart of it. These people aren't exactly hateful, and they don't hate each other, but they don't seem to be capable of any sort of love either.

By contrast, I think Jane Austen herself had a far more loving, and a much shrewder, and a much more satisfying sense of her characters' fine points and follies and general humanity. For all that Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice is an oaf and a sententious fool, he's sort of likeably pathetic too. I didn't feel nearly as affectionate toward any of the characters in "Book Club" as I do toward Mr. Collins.

Any publisher would appreciate the "pitch" for this novel. I liked it too. At 10,000 feet, as an outline, the book looks great. It just doesn't seem to have any soul, once you get closer. Nothing like Jane Austen's soul, anyway.

Whilst it is has clearly attained mixed reviews, I actually quite liked 'The Jane Austen Book Club', despite going into it with low expectations after reports from friends.

The story is about 6 Jane Austen devotees (5 women and 1 man), each slightly different to the others but who share their bond and friendship through their love of Austen's work. The book follows the formation of a bookclub in which only Jane Austen is discussed, and then leads to the personal lives and philosophical reflection of each of the characters, with each chapter being cleverly devoted to a character and the book which is up for discussion at the next meeting.

Whilst the first half of the book was not nearly as enjoyable as the second half, the book was still overall a worthwhile read. Though it certainly did have a plot, it focussed more on the character development of each of the people who's lives have been touched by Jane Austen, and how they bring her into their day-to-day living and are united together by their admiration of her work. The writing is at times witty and clever and the unconventional structure of the novel suits the story well, .

It may not be a literary masterpiece, but 'The Jane Austen Book Club' nevertheless is light and easy reading, and a thoroughly enjoyable book. It may have garnered mixed reviews, but I strongly recommend that you give it a try, and judge it for yourself.

I eagerly dove into The Jane Austen Book Club, heartened by the laudatory reviews overflowing with excitement at Fowler's homage to Austen's irony, wit, and keen perception. Michael Dirda, of The Washington Post Book World, goes so far as to say that the novel will make Austen fans "sigh with happiness."

If only this were true.

The Jane Austen Book Club, though the reader can sense Fowler laboring to connect its tone and themes to Austen's novels, fails to satisfy. While Fowler attempts to employ irony in her descriptions of characters in order to highlight their quirks, she promptly destroys any effect she might have acheived by explaining the irony to the reader.

One such example comes after Jocelyn, a member of the book club, explains how judges pick winners at dog shows. Fowler writes, "The dog show emphasizes bloodline, appearance, and comportment, but money and breeding are never far from anyone's mind." Clearly this is intended to make readers think of parallels between dog shows and the social structure in Austen's time, but the parallel is drawn with such a heavy hand that it places more emphasis on the author's Wit in thinking it up than the Truth of the statement.

Fowler, if she had learned the elementary lesson of writing, "show don't tell," might have had a prayer of making her readers laugh, but her habit of drawing attention to herself rather than the story makes the reader wonder whether she means to pay homage to Austen or puff herself up. Perhaps this stems from the fact that the reader never really knows who the narrator is. Fowler always uses "we" when talking about the book club, which implies that the narrator is a member, or perhaps a collective "we."

At first I thought the book was meant to be a collaboration of all of the members' memories and experiences, but the sections which digress into long, often tedious descriptions, of various characters' angst-ridden lives do not bear this theory out. These digressions are all written in the third-person omniscient in the same tone as the rest of the novel. Since many of the sections of background consist of the deepest, darkest secrets the characters would not tell to others these would not be included in a collaborative work.

The narrative confusion combined with Fowler's heavy-handed treatment of the irony, are the death-blows to a novel already weakened by poor plotting and thin character development. That people compare this book to Austen's work is unimaginable. Austen's restrained irony left many things unsaid, letting characters reveal their own faults and quirks or putting an analysis of the character in another character's mouth. This allowed the reader to participate in the world Austen's novels create rather than be kept on the disinterested periphery, as Fowler's narration does.

Perhaps this book will introduce readers to Austen's novels for the first time. But I fear that more people will be scared away from them after reading the pretentious, high-school musings of a collection of self-absorbed, shallow people who gather together not to discuss the books of Austen, but wallow in their own cleverness.

Huge fan of Jane Austen, so felt kinship with the characters, and appreciation for the author in bringing that love into a commercial novel, but the story was so thin, plot non-existent, and there was a bunch of set up for nothing. I found myself wandering off during character back stories, was able to skim for a page or two and have no trouble getting back into the present. In connecting the themes of Austen to present day situations/feeling/viewpoints, the book could have had so much more depth and been much more satisfying.

The characters were okay, diverse in relation to each other and developed enough that every reader could identify at least somewhat with one of them. Bernadette seemed to serve no purpose to the story, except to appeal to the elderly women who may be reading, Allegra was appropriately obnoxious, and the rest of them just kinda...eh. The relationship that...sorta develops between Grigg and one of the group members (for those who haven't read it) and the friendship between Jocelyn and Sylvia are the only endearing parts to mostly disappointing interactions.

I had been looking forward to reading this book, but was disappointed. If you love Jane Austen and have patience for mediocre writing, give it a go. If you're indifferent to Austen and are looking for a good book, skip it.

I hope the title doesn't mislead anyone because although it helps to already be a fan of the amazing Miss Austen, it's by no means necessary, as the book is not about Jane Austen as much as it is about this delightful group of characters whom I now feel I know intimately. Each chapter is a new month and the group gets together at someone's house to discuss a different Austen novel, but the chapter is really a glimpse into that person's (the host's) life. Fowler does an incredible job of bringing these people to life in a way that's incredibly insightful and deep even though brief.

Let's just say this: I normally LOATHE 'chick lit' of any kind and avoid it like the plague, but this novel is the exception. I'll read it many more times, just to sit down with Bernadette, Jocelyn, Sylvia, Allegra, Prudie and Grigg again, as I now feel that they're old friends.

I think many people are reading (or trying to read) this book as an homage or a copy of Austen's work, but it is something more than that. If you are familiar with Austen's novels/plots/characters, you can find many similarities between each novel and the chapters in this book where that novel is being read by the book club. Fowler is not trying to recreate or rewrite Austen...she cleverly draws similarities, however. Don't expect these charaters to be photocopies of Austen's, but instead maybe shades of them if they lived in this century (somewhat like the characters in The Hours). Each chapter is more like respectful nods to Austen...pay attention to setting, characters' viewpoints and their situations. The book is funny and sharp and it is obvious, especially from the Austen quotes at the end, that Fowler respects and well-researched Austen.

There is only one known portrait of Jane Austen. Likewise, little is known about her outside of her writings. This has bred endless curiosity on the part of some and it is about this type of folks that Karen Joy Fowler's novel The Jane Austen Book Club is about.
Only one of the members of this fictious club is a man. Much of the novel revolves the relationship between the female members and the lone male. Fowler does a wonderful job with her rich characterizations; no cardboard characters here.
One of the best aspects of this book is that the novel is followed up by an essay about Jane Austen and her works. There is also an excellent series of thought provoking Questions For Discussion concerning the works of Jane Austen.
This is an excellent, if unusual, work.

Karen Joy Fowler's "The Jane Austen Book Club" received stellar reviews. Alice Sebold's assessment: "If I could eat this novel, I would," graces the front cover.

Given that, it may just be the perfect book for you.

On the other hand, the book didn't work for me at all, and here I'll report why.

It was the great reviews, by the way, that brought me to the book, and caused me to keep reading. I wanted to explore the mystery: why could intelligent people disagree so strongly about the worth of a novel?

As you've learned from other reviews, or just from the title, the book records the meetings of a book club devoted to reading all the works of Jane Austen. The club's members are discussed in sequenctial chapters, via significant memories from their pasts.

In the final chapters, the previously single people are now either dating or married.

Quotes from critical commentary about Austen are scattered throughout the book, and concentrated at the end. So, you get to read assessments of Jane Austen's work by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling and many others.

Sounds great. What's not to like?

This was some of the most forced, schematic writing I've ever read. Never for one second did I believe that any of the characters were flesh and blood people, or that any of the events described within actually happened, or that they mattered at all.

I read works written by college freshmen who have almost no interest in writing. Even these tyros just about always, almost without even trying, wright moments that provide warm, idiosyncratic windows into the human experience that the reader would never access had she not picked up and read just that one homework assignment.

Student writers do this with a bit of too much passion, too much truth, idiosyncratic word choice that shakes up your ways of looking at reality. You come away with insight, and a sense of connection, you didn't have before you started reading.

I never got that experience while reading "The Jane Austen Book Club." Rather than windows opened by passion or spontaneity, I stared at a carefully masoned brick wall.

I got the sense that Fowler got this clever idea -- that she'd honor her heroine, Jane Austen, by rigging up some "characters" who would experience "life events" that could somehow be used to complement a salute to Austen.

One character was sexually molested when she was younger, and another had a psychotic mother, and another had a father who didn't much want to be a father.

These flashback scenes are as dead and unbelievable as the characters inhabiting them. When I read the scene of sexual molestation, I felt no sympathy, no arousal, no interest. I just thought, okay, what point is Fowler trying to make by writing this scene? Like anyone who either is a woman or reads works by women, I'm not unfamiliar with such scenes. There was nothing in Fowler's treatment of this too common theme that worked for me on any level.

Given that it didn't work, I was just, coldly, offended by it.

It may have come to believable life if later impact of the molestation were allowed to show in that character. But that character, like every other character, was just an interchangeable California middle class WASP who likes to read Austen. There was nothing tellingly distinctive about this character.

The scene where a character realizes that his father isn't much of a father was one of the most forced and artificial scenes I've ever read. I didn't believe a moment of it. Why not just slap a label on the character saying, "I'm a bad father"?

Amazingly, these diverse characters who grew up with psychotic mothers or having been sexually molested or with loser fathers end up all being exaclty the same person, basically -- a nice -- emphasis on "nice" with all the blandness that implies -- middle class California WASP who has plenty of disposable income. No one is poor, no one is not, at least functionally, a WASP, no one has any distinctive traits that would disturb the nice, neat pattern.

Life doesn't work that way. People who have been through diverse life events sometimes grow up into being diverse people whose diversity, whose vitality, whose unpredictability, would not fit in a wallpaper pattern designed to honor Jane Austen.

Years ago a movie came out titled "Jane Austen's Mafia." It was a funny title. I'd like to see someone salute Austen that way -- emulate what was best in her, her insight, her facility for capturing the spirit of her milieu, but include the kind of flesh and blood people who surround us everyday, people who can't -- successfully -- be reduced to unobtrusive elements in a nice, neat little schematic diagram.

This is just simply a great read. Deceptively simple writing style, and a device (the book club that only reads Jane Austen, and chapters divided into book-club meetings and their assigned topics) that may seem a little precious or forced when you hear about it -- but it works, and is so very well done.

First, Fowler's writing is just lovely; very understated, with many funny, clever "throw-away" lines. Very Austeney. The characters are quickly sketched yet dead-on, and easily recognized, understood and believable. Wonderful Bernadette, aged artsy verbal rambler and the marrying kind, artistic Allegra, the Emma-like Jocelyn, Brigg (the only male member), Prudie, and Sylvia -- all very distinct characters whose internal musings and memories surprise you and reveal a deep understanding of how we act and react to our lives.

But another aspect I just loved -- and haven't seen commented on below -- is the after-matter. The book includes extensive "reviews" of Austen from both her time (and family!) and after, as well as "book-discussion topics" suggested by the characters. Again, could be an awkward, too-obvious device in the hands of a lesser writer, but Fowler sails on.

This is a great book for avid readers, Austen fans, book club members (who Fowler tweaks ever so gently, again like Austen might). Don't be misled by the simple prose, as it is a deep, deeply moving, and thought-provoking work.

My, but Jane Austen fans are a flinty group. How else to explain the vociferously negative reviews of this charming, heartfelt novel? (One of them is even amusingly titled "Pales in comparison with Austen." Well, uh...yes. Duh.) How dare Fowler even utter the name of The Sacred One, seems to be the tenor of the criticism, with barely a consideration for whether or not the book itself is any good. And it is, trust me. Is it a profoundly moving reading experience that will change your life forever? Probably not. But it's witty, smartly written chick-lit that's a pleasure from start to finish. To be fair, some of the characters could have been fleshed out more, and plot lines tend to go unfinished; but these are minor quibbles. If you're looking for intelligent, intuitive character studies that will bring a smile to your face, look no further. If you're looking for literature as classic and timeless as Jane Austen's...read Jane Austen!

I plodded my way through this book because I hate to give up and I had nothing else around to read. I found the characters boring and their discussions of the books completely uninspired. Also, the author has the annoying habit of telling you too much instead of letting you figure it out for yourself. The only reason I would recommend this book to anyone was for the interesting information at the end--after the novel is finished the author provides information about what other people have thought of Jane Austen as well as a short synopsis of each of her books.

The book club members decide that they want to focus on only Jane Austen, because anything following would be a disappointment, and this is. I found the parallels between the Austen books and the characters to be so shallow, I wasn't always sure what they were.

If you want to read about characters in parallel with Jane Austen novels, I recommend Bridget Jones's Diary with Pride and Prejudice or Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason with Persuasion. Although there are some distinct differences between the books of Jane Austen and Helen Fielding, there are many parallels, and Helen Fielding is funny.

WARNING TO ALL JANE AUSTEN FANS! WARNING TO ALL JANE AUSTEN FANS! DO NOT--I REPEAT--DO NOT BUY THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB. It is a ruse. The author is using the popularity of Jane Austen to sell her book but believe me, she is not a true fan. The author obviously understands rudimentary Jane Austen but she lacks the ability to bring Jane's subtle observations into her inane dialog and 2-dimensional characters.
The author makes fun of Jane Austen throughout the book in subtle ways. This is evidenced in one way by a scene in which one of the characters defends the fact that Jane Austen does INDEED HAVE GOOD PLOTS! Of course this author thought she could write a book without a plot--as she "sees Jane Austen doing"--and come out with a best-selling book. I am sad to say that is exactly what has happened, thanks to a "glowing" book review in the New York Times and people loving Jane Austen and being duped. It is not clever or funny or witty in any way. It is slow and plodding and so boring, you wonder why you keep on reading it.

The first few chapters have some promise of linking us to Jane Austen--but that is minimal and then in the following chapters, it peters out to nothing. When I read the author's synopsis of each book discussed by the book club, it was clear to me that the author did not like Jane Austen. "One boring character marries another boring character" is typical of her summaries. This author is duplicitous and would not know good writing if it jumped up and bit her on her butt. Not only does the artistry in her writing suck but her ability to accurately use the English language sucks. She uses the word "effect" when she should have used the word "affect". Minor point--but still--how does someone like this get published and given a good review from the New York Times? AMAZING!!!

Jane Austen was a genius and, even all these years later, most of what Jane touches turns to gold, which explains how this piece of garbage became a bestseller. If Karen (shame on her) Fowler had marketed and sold Jane Austen toilet paper, the result would be almost as offensive to Austen's fans as this ridiculous book. After I finished it, I put it in the recycled bin, since I had no interested in keeping it in my house. I hope it's used to make toilet paper. It would be a fitting end to this pathetic novel.

I also bought this book because of the many glowing reviews. What a waste of money! The author uses the pretext of a book club formed to discuss Jane Austen's novels to probe the lives of its participants. However, unlike "Reading Lolita In Tehran," which uses a similar format of a group of students studying Western literature against the fascinating backdrop of a violent and brutal totalitarian Iran, this novel does not succeed at any level. It neither gives us insights into the remarkable works of Jane Austen, nor does it give us insights into the dull lives of the book club's characters. Ms. Fowler's writing is vapid, superficial and unengaging. I felt that I was reading a series of "one liners" gone terribly wrong in a struggling lounge or comedy club with the ubiquitous drumroll and cymbal after each line. How many readers were able to endure the repeated "bulls-eyes" or "as ifs"? For me, the only redeeming part of this novel was at the end, when I read the opinions of famous writers and critics of Austen's fiction. As one reviewer so aptly said, read the novels themselves; they are timeless. This novel, on the other hand, is drivel and is not worth purchasing, even at a garage sale.

What a disappointment for Austen fans!

One can only imagine with what wit the great lady would dismantle the crass club characters bit by-base-bit, should she have suffered to know or read of them. The sometimes sad, always perverse- misunderstood, or unrequited lives of the characters are laid unattractively bare, for all to see but for none to care.

For a group of so-called Austen lovers it is remarkable how little understanding of the novels passes between the feeble, confused, and emotionally crippled minds of these rather unidimensional and weakly sketched literary ladies. Their review sessions reminded me of the bored adolescent monotones of book review day in sophmore english lit.

The book title suggests an examination of Austen books with the promise of quality discourse amongst learned and articulate fans of these great novels:IT DOES NOT DELIVER. The redeeming feature of this book is the readers guide for Austen novels found at the back.

One star for a mere three cleverly turned phrases.

Upon reading this novel, I was expecting some great conversation and maybe enlightening presumptions regarding Austen's five novels. I didn't get this. Rather, I got a few tidbits, unclear as they were, about some of the characters in the Austen novels. I believe that maybe "The Jane Austen Book Club," attempted to mirror events in Austen's novels to events in the lives of Jocelyn, Sylvia, Grigg, Alegra, and Prudie. However, the connections were never completely connected, for lack of better word, and therefore there's a certain assumption left in the novel that all readers would have enough knowledge about each of the novels to make those connections themselves. That's a risky assumption, because even I, a literature teacher, have only read three of the five. If that were the only problem with this novel it could be forgiven. However interesting the lives of the five protagonists are, we never get past a superficial examination of their problems. I was always left with the feeling that I wanted more. The longest reference perhaps being the most boring, a layout between Sylvia and Griggs when his car ran out of gas, I wanted to know more about Jocelyn, about Prudie's seeming disgust for her happiness and husband, Alegra's take on her own lesbianism...I wanted those stories. And who really was Grigg afterall? "The Jane Austen Book Club," does do a fine job of creating a story, but it does a much worse job of grabbing our hands and pulling us deeper in. Reading this book was like eating the crumbs of a great cake already eaten. You know it could have tasted so well, but you're only left with the crumbs.

I was really looking forward to this read, being a fan of Austen as well as book clubs. While I thought the writing was strong enough and tinged with a good sense of humor, I found it mildly boring and fairly plotless. Couldn't come to really care about those characters. Just kept going to find out about Jocelyn and Grigg (I am a traditional romantic at heart) and to find out who was the narrator??? Unless I missed something, the narrator was never identified?? Frustrating.

I picked this book up because I've really enjoyed some of the literary fiction I've read lately (such as The Secret Life of Bees and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), and was looking for something else in the same vein.

Book Club? Austen? Non-glossy cover? I was in.

Yeah, but no. The novel is mostly disjointed, jumping from one ill-drawn character sketch to another. And the thing that bugs me most is -- who the heck is narrating? It's told from a first-person point of view, but you have no idea who the narrator is. Other authors can pull that off (such as Toni Morrison, in Jazz), but it doesn't work for Fowler. If you want good character development, read Margaret Atwood.

If you want Austen -- well, read Austen.

My college age daughter and I just finished listening to the unabridged CD version. It was thoroughly enjoyable to both of us.

The reader finds just the right light, witty tone to approach the material. Each character is voiced clearly. I couldn't decide whether I liked her rendition of Bernadette or Allegra better. Although there are times when you wnat to "turn the page back" to check on something that had already happened, this is one of the best audio books I have listened to in years.

I admit it. As with many popular books, I resisted "The Jane Austen Book Club" when it first came out. I might have skipped it entirely if I hadn't met the author herself and was so impressed by her intelligence and natural storytelling ability that I knew I had to read SOMETHING by her. "Sister Noon" is next on my list, because now I am a Karen Joy Fowler fan.

I won't say it's the best book I've ever read, but it was certainly entertaining. If I were as familiar with Austen's books as I am with Thomas Hardy's, I'm sure I would have been swooning. As it was, she brought me up to speed with J.A., no small feat, and convinced me it might be time to try "Pride and Prejudice" again.

The book is set in CA's Central Valley, my own stomping grounds, so I especially enjoyed its vivid sense of place. Descriptions such as, "He had too much hair and too little neck," make even minor characters unforgettable. And I loved the inclusion of nearly 200 years of discussion and criticism Austen's books have generated. Ok, so maybe it's not great literature, but it's darned good.