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A review by avieherman
Jane & Me: My Austen Heritage by Caroline Jane Knight
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
The writing felt a little stuffy and there wasn’t a ton of forward momentum.
The author painted a strong picture which made the loss of Chawton resonate, but the book felt longer than it had to be. I only kept reading because I wanted to see how she lost Chawton, tried to leave her past behind and then came back to her heritage — an expectation that was set in then intro and then met. The final chapters were the most Jane-Austen-centric, which was what I wanted from the book, but it felt like it turned into a promotion for the author’s charitable organization — notably, the publisher seems to be the author’s own company.
It was an interesting read, but a bit slow and would have benefited from a stronger narrative arch.
The author painted a strong picture which made the loss of Chawton resonate, but the book felt longer than it had to be. I only kept reading because I wanted to see how she lost Chawton, tried to leave her past behind and then came back to her heritage — an expectation that was set in then intro and then met. The final chapters were the most Jane-Austen-centric, which was what I wanted from the book, but it felt like it turned into a promotion for the author’s charitable organization — notably, the publisher seems to be the author’s own company.
It was an interesting read, but a bit slow and would have benefited from a stronger narrative arch.