Book Review: Jane Austen in Scarsdale

As a general rule, I avoid things that aren't Jane Austen but want to be. This includes the hundreds of "Pride and Prejudice Sequels", and books that are updated remakes. But this book was given to me by Matt's grandma, so I felt like I should read it.

Right up front, the book is honest: this is an updated re-write of Persuasion. I read Persuasion once in the summer of 2003 and I don't remember it very well, which is probably for the best. I can't spend the review telling you how things don't line up. I remember just enough about Persuasion to tell you that the author of "Jane Austen in Scarsdale" got the story right.

Almost everything else about the book, however, is a mess. Mercifully, the story is light and "fun" enough that it's not a punishing read. But the author is very fond of adverbs and wordy sentences in particular. The book could have used another round of good editing. The writing compares more to Stephenie Meyer than Jane Austen. My most grievous complaint about the book, though, is the sheer amount of characters that the author throws at you. The main character, Anne, works as a school guidance counselor. The reader ends up being privy to student after student whose stories are unmemorable - when the author refers to them later, trust me, you won't remember who they are either. Consequently, with so many characters, you wind up not caring about characters that you're supposed to, either. The parade of characters also causes the story to stall out like a person learning to drive stick. Just when the story starts to pick up, it stops. Then it starts. Then it stops. Sta--no, stops.

The final 1/3rd of the book, the author finally gets her head on straight and devotes herself to the real story. My other (minor?) complaints are that her title could have been much more creative - it feels like it was tacked on purely as a selling point. It's not even like the character enjoys Jane Austen and sees how her life parallels the book Persuasion. Nope. Jane Austen herself is only mentioned once, in a scene where grandma Winnie says that sure, Jane Austen worked things out for Anne Elliot in Persuasion, but things didn't work out for her. I suppose the reader is supposed to appreciate the mention, but it was corny. Very corny.

The only thing that this book has going for it is that it actually mentions Maple Shade, New Jersey by name. I lived there for seven years, and this one sentence was the highlight of the book.

I do not recommend this book, at all. It's a very quick read - once I got going, I finished it in a small handful of hours. But while the book is mildly entertaining, so are lots of other books. Read those instead.

However, if you WANT to read the book, because you're really strange like that, please let me know and you can have it.

On a scale of 1-10, I give this book a 3.