A few years ago, a
friend urged me to read Karen Joy Fowler’s We
Are All besides Our Selves. This story
told of animal rescue people who plan to release a number of caged chimpanzees
used in experimentation. As much as I
liked Besides Ourselves, this Fowler
novel adds to my admiration of Fowler, while adding to my collection of books
with a book club theme. The Jane Austen Book Club pre-dates the
first Fowler I read, and it is a worthy addition to my collection.
A “Prologue” lists
the members and adds a thumbnail description of their interests and
background. Here are main
characters. Fowler writes, “Each of us
has a private Austen. // Jocelyn’s
Austen wrote wonderful novels about love and courtship, but never married. The book club was Jocelyn’s idea, and she
handpicked the members. […]
Bernadette’s Austen was a
comic genius. Her characters, her
dialogue remained genuinely funny, […]
Prudie had once seen Bernadette in
the supermarket in her bedroom slippers; she was the youngest at twenty-eight. […]
// Jocelyn met Sylvia when they
were both eleven years old; they were in their early fifties now. Sylvia’s
Austen was a daughter, a sister, and an aunt, […] who wrote her books in a busy sitting room” (1-2). Corinne,
Sylvia’s daughter, was the fifth member.
Bernadette
suggested, “I think we should all be women, [ ] The dynamic changes
with men. They pontificate rather than
communicate. They talk more than their
share’” […] “Besides, men don’t do
book clubs, […] They see reading as
a solitary pleasure. When they read at
all” (3). Lastly, the sixth member was
Grigg. Fowler writes, “None of us knew
who Grigg’s Austen was” (4-5). I really
enjoyed watching these six people reveal their innermost feelings about Jane
Austen and each other. Incidentally, our
club has several male members who admirably participate.
My only regrets
about this book is the limited number of members—my club averages about 10-16 per
meeting, but the novel only accounts for six meetings. In an epigram, Fowler quotes Austen’s great
novel, Emma, “Seldom, very seldom
does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that
something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken.” My love of Jane Austen is second only to the
Brontës. I feel the urge for an Austen
survey in the near future.
In one interesting
discussion, the group creates “A partial list of things not found in the books
of Jane Austen: locked-room murders; punishing kisses; girls dressed up as boys
(and rarely the reverse); spies, serial killers; cloaks of invisibility;
Jungian archetypes, and most regrettably, doppelgängers; and cats” (43).
Allegra weighs in
with a criticism of Austen. Fowler writes,
“Alegra was trying hard not to express any of Corinne’s opinions, but every
time she spoke, Corinne’s words came out.
Corinne was in no mood to praise a writer like Austen, who wrote so much
about love when the world was full of other things, ‘Everything in Austen is on
the surface,’ Corinne said. ‘She’s not a
writer who uses images. Image is the way
to bring the unsaid into the text. With
Austen, everything is said’” (74).
I found the
discussions of this club fascinating. I
also see many of my friends in our club sharing the same thoughts. I am happiest when not everyone agrees to
love, like, or hate a particular book.
Sharing this small corner of the 18th and 19th
centuries is what I love most about literature.
If you haven’t read Austen in a while—or at all—she is certainly worth
the time and effort for many wonderful stories.
Karen Joy Fowler’s The Jane Austen
Book Club is an enchanting place to begin or revisit the world of Jane
Austen.
--Chiron, 5/6/18
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