The Jane Austen Book Club

I read this book a few years ago, that summer that I attended the Denver Publishing Institute--I even bought the novel at the Tattered Cover's now-defunct Cherry Creek location, and although I found that I could not remember anything that happened in it right before I went to see the movie last night, I did remember liking it a lot. Usually, books that are take-offs, sequels, or even slightly reference Jane Austen novels kind of revolt me--with Bridget Jones' Diary being the obvious exception. But I loved The Jane Austen Book Club. The six people in the book club do not neatly fit in to one of the molds created by the heroines of one of Austen's six novels--for instance, I like everybody in The Jane Austen Book Club, which means that nobody can fit the mold of Fanny Price (Mansfield Park). Despite its girly name, The Jane Austen Book Club is not chick lit--it's literary fiction, a polite, deferential homage to one of the greatest writers the English language has ever seen, but also a novel that stands on its own, with deep, complex characters and beautiful prose.



The movie is no less spectacular. Packed with quiet movie stars who shine in their appointed roles without taking up too much space, The Jane Austen Book Club was an interesting portrait of six people, some of whom aren't even friends, trying to figure out who they are and what their lives mean. Jocelyn (Maria Bello) is a single dog breeder in her late thirties/early forties who is constantly toeing the line between contentedly alone and desperately lonely; Sylvia (Amy Brenneman) is a married woman with three grown children whose husband (Jimmy Smitts) reveals his infidelity in the strangest way, by telling Sylvia they've had a good marriage and "might as well quit while they're ahead," sending Sylvia into a sad tailspin followed by a brilliant, bouncy comeback that has nothing to do with a new love interest; Bernadette (Lynn Redgrave) is an older woman who's been married six times and has no real plot line of her own besides being the energetic spirit that keeps the group together and providing counsel for the younger ones; Prudie (Emily Blunt) is a high school teacher who is considering having an affair with a student despite being married to Dean (Mark Blucas); Allegra is Sylvia's youngest child, a beautiful lesbian who tries to reconcile her parents' divorce with her own desire to love and be loved; and Grigg (Hugh Dancy), the only male member of the book club, a rich nerdy guy who works for a pittance as an IT guy at Sac State to have something do, bikes everywhere despite owning a jalopy that runs on donut grease, and lives in a shiny new development because his accountant told him to buy property, who has feelings for Jocelyn but is too polite to make a move.

The magic of The Jane Austen Book Club is all in the characters; they drive the story, and their chats about Austen are fun diversions that show exactly who they are.