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A review by jacki_f
Emma by Alexander McCall Smith
3.0
This is a retelling of Jane Austen's book, transported to the present day. Alexander McCall Smith would seem to be the perfect person to rewrite Austen - they both share a fascination with people's behaviours and attitudes and a delight in little observations about the way that people act. The first part of this book is quite delightful, but somewhere along the way it starts to drag, though I had a hard time figuring out why that was.
One issue is that this seems to fall into a halfway zone between a faithful retelling of Emma and a story in its own right. It has an odd timelessness to it and doesn't really feel like a modern story or something that would happen now. But a greater issue is that Emma never becomes terribly likeable and her eventual love interest George Knightley has no personality whatsoever. I just didn't care about any of these people, I didn't like any of these people and I didn't believe in any of these people.
Having said that, it has its charms. McCall Smith's gentle humour and subtle moralising is present throughout and very enjoyable to read. It's a light read and interesting to see the decisions that he made on how to adapt elements of Austen's original story to our times.
One issue is that this seems to fall into a halfway zone between a faithful retelling of Emma and a story in its own right. It has an odd timelessness to it and doesn't really feel like a modern story or something that would happen now. But a greater issue is that Emma never becomes terribly likeable and her eventual love interest George Knightley has no personality whatsoever. I just didn't care about any of these people, I didn't like any of these people and I didn't believe in any of these people.
Having said that, it has its charms. McCall Smith's gentle humour and subtle moralising is present throughout and very enjoyable to read. It's a light read and interesting to see the decisions that he made on how to adapt elements of Austen's original story to our times.