Having mentioned in a previous blog post my desire to read something Austen-ish, I picked up The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. Not only was it on my 2008 TBR Challenge list (one down, eleven to go!) but I figured that since the movie has just come out on DVD it might be fun to read it, then rent the movie.

The Jane Austen Book Club revolves around Jocelyn and a group of four women (and one guy) who decide to start a book club and read Jane Austen novels. Within the first five pages, the book club members are introduced in a clever way:

Each of us has a private Austen. Jocelyn’s Austen wrote wonderful novels about love and courtship, but never married. Allegra’s Austen wrote about the impact of financial need on the intimate lives of women. If she’d worked in a bookstore, Allegra would have shelved Austen in the horror section.

Each month the book club members read one Austen novel, then meet at one club members house to discuss the book. Interspersed between the meetings is the story about the individuals in the club. Sylvia is the heartbroken wife who’s husband just dumped her for another woman. Her daughter Allegra has problems of her own with her live-in girlfriend. Grigg, the only male in the book club and a science-fiction reader to boot, joins the club to be close to Joceyln, who is the ultimate matchmaker and now wants Grigg to be Sylvia’s love interest. Add Bernadette and Prudie in the mix and you have an eclectic group of individuals.  

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but once I started reading the first couple chapters there were a couple glaring things that I had a hard time ignoring. First, the narrative felt disjointed and didn’t flow well. In addition, I never connected or really cared about any of the characters.

Of course, there were things that I liked about The Jane Austen Book Club, namely the humor scattered throughout. I also liked the fact that the author gives a synopsis of each Austen book that was discussed within book itself, just in case you aren’t familiar with the original works. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to make me really enjoy the book, so I won’t be recommending it to my friends anytime soon.

As for the movie on DVD, I ended up having a completely different experience. What I thought was just going to be a carbon copy of the book I just read, I found the movie to be so much more enjoyable. In fact, some of the more annoying qualities I found in the book translated much better on film and I found most of the characters likable. I also appreciated the little changes made in the screenplay, which tightened the whole story up a bit. It probably didn’t hurt that Hugh Dancy was in it either (the last time I saw him he was wearing tights in Ella Enchanted)! 

So, my recommendation would be to skip over the book, pop up a big bowl of popcorn and enjoy the movie instead.

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