THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB

by Karen Joy Fowler
 
In a previous issue, I reviewed We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler.  I loved that book so much, that I gave it as a Christmas gift and found myself exploring what else Fowler had written.  Happily, I found The Jane Austen Book Club, written nine years before We Are All Completely… Although very different from her other book, The Jane Austen Book Club is similarly innovative both in its story and in the way that Fowler tells it. 
 
Our main character, Jocelyn, founds the Jane Austen book club and hand picks its five other members, all of whom she knows, but most of whom don’t know each other.  Each month the book club meets to discuss one of Austen’s six novels.  As a reader, what you come to understand is not only do each of the book club’s members respond to Austen’s books in a way in keeping with his or her own character, but in many ways their characters resemble the characters in Austen’s novels. 
 
This is a charming story of six individuals who love to read and who love Jane Austen, but for very different reasons.  Each of them is living in a very different phase of life and so, not surprisingly,  reacts to different aspects of Austen’s characters and their life choices.  I enjoyed the story and the writing so much, it inspired me to read or re-read all of Austen’s novels.  I think it might do the same to you.  Enjoy! (Liz)