Reviews

I keep Curtis Sittenfeld another chance and keep getting disappointed. I loved Prep and American Wife--thought they were both pretty brilliant. This one is more along the lines of a "cute idea"--what if Pride and Prejudice was/was affiliated with a reality show? I'm not a huge Austen fan so maybe it didn't resonate enough with me. I thought it was kind of contrived and unrealistic. And the reality show was kind of tacked on at the end as an "afterthought."

katykelly's review

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5.0

This is the latest in the Austen Project series, a series of contemporary retellings of Austen’s classics by bestselling authors. This has been a bit of a hit-and -miss undertaking. I thoroughly enjoyed and respected Val McDermid’s Northanger Abbey, but greedily ate Sittenfeld's entry up and Eligible is my clear winner so far.

Shakespeare adapts well to the modern world, and done well, so does Austen.
Elizabeth Bennett, Liz, is no longer 'an accomplished walker' but an athletic jogger in her late thirties. She works of course - as a journalist for a women's magazine (Mascara) in New York. At the start of the book she returns home to Cincinatti after Mr Bennett’s heart attack, and finds the family home a mess (no cleaner! Spiders! Mrs Bennett occupied with a society event! Sisters with no jobs!) Always the lynchpin of sense in the Bennett household, she remains very much this now, and able to take charge.

The lovely Jane is now 40 and a trained yoga instructor - with her mild manner and sweet nature this suits her down to the ground. But being a modern woman, she is no wallflower and has been engaged before – but is feeling the pull of motherhood and is secretly undergoing fertility treatment, despite being single.

The two youngest Bennetts are CrossFit devotees, watching their diets, Daly exercising and doing not much else with their time (no straw bonnets to fight over anymore). Mary Is still the scholar, forever studying for another degree but doing little in the way of earning with her knowledge. And Mrs Bennett is still hunting for husbands desperately for her brood, but now focuses most of her energy (and money) on hosting the Ladies Lunch event.

Into this mad Bennett world strolls the dashing Chip Bingley, a doctor and reality TV star who, of course, develops feelings for Jane. And with him the ever-haughty Darcy (still Fitzwilliam), a surgeon (and jogger)

I really liked Sittenfeld's interpretation of the characters, they worked brilliantly in the context of the love-hate relationship, the comedy of social manners. Even the minor favourites are there - Mr Collins is still a relative, but a self-made millionaire, if a socially awkward one. Lady Catherine becomes a feminist icon, in probably the biggest change from the source novel but still features in a pivotal role.

What of the others, I hear you cry? Pemberley (almost a character itself) is still Darcy's family pile, Georgiana his sister has gone nowhere (but is a working woman), and of course Mr Wickham, well.... He gets a much more important role. Now Jasper Wick, we learn right at the start that Liz has been in love with him for years, and despite being married, he is not averse to stringing her along (for me though, naming him Jasper made him much to similar to the Rufus Sewell character in the film 'The Holiday', the same charming rogue with a lovelorn colleague by his side).

So there is our cast. Now as to the plot. I thought this was very nicely updated, I like the changes (the only one that seemed far-fetched was the uproar surrounding Lydia’s elopement). I thought the Eligible TV show, of which Chip Bingley is a former cast member, brought a touch of hilarity and zaniness to the plot, and made it instantly relatable to younger readers. I would have liked more iciness between Caroline and Liz though, I always loved their polite yet barbed conversations.

Mr Bennett’s witticisms have stood the test of time and translation, but I missed Collin’s bumbling and Lady Catherine’s patronage. Jane was perfect, Mary hilarious (and also gets the last word), and Mrs Bennett is brilliantly updated. The situation that develops with the Bennett house was very funny too.

Jasper’s caddish behaviour was a good twist, his connection to Liz a good modern retelling, as so much of the Regency setting just couldn't have felt realistic in the twenty-first century.

It works that the sisters are older, so many women wait now to marry, careers coming first, youthful pursuits pursued for longer. The characters work as mature women as well (it doesn’t seem to matter so much for the men as they all have occupations and don’t go ‘on the shelf’ as women seem to, even in the current century).

Purists beware – sex rears its ugly head. The sisters are NOT Regency (chaste and demure). They are independent modern women and do act as such. This didn't bother me at all, I was surprised at the first instance of this, but took to it straightaway and felt it fitted.

I read American Wife to prepare for this, wanting to get a feel for Sittenfeld's writing – and style-wise they are quite similar, both good contemporary and realistic observations of modern (female) lives.

I love the retelling, the reworking and the very fresh-feeling modern lives Sittenfeld has made for Liz and her (inferior?!) connections. You know the direction the plot will take, of course, but I absolutely relished following Sittenfeld’s contemporary spin on all aspects of the story. I hope Austen would approve. Without any knowledge of P&P you could still love this (and with some suspense, not knowing how the story ends!) but knowing it well, it makes it a clever read as well, spotting the connections and changes made. Delightful.

Review of a NetGalley advance copy.