Austen Redux

The fourth in a series called “The Austen Project,” modern versions of Jane Austen’s classic novels, Eligible is a highly enjoyable book in its own right, made even more fun if you have read the original, Pride and Prejudice.  (Others in this series have been penned by British writers Alexander McCall Smith, Joanna Trollope and Val McDermid, rewriting “Emma,” “Sense and Sensibility” and “Northanger Abbey” respectively.) The story is told through the eyes of Liz Bennet, a writer for Mascara Magazine in NYC, who, along with her older sister Jane, a yoga instructor, is called home to Cincinnati when their father suffers a health scare.  What Liz finds is complete disarray:  the family home, a large Tudor, is crumbling; younger sisters Kitty and Lydia don’t have jobs and spend their time at a cross-fit gym, obsessed with a paleo diet; middle sister Mary doesn’t work either and is pursuing her third master’s degree while disappearing mysteriously every Tuesday night; Mrs. Bennet, when she’s not fluttering about over plans for an auxillary club luncheon is compulsively shopping on-line; and Mr. Bennet – along with his wife – has no health insurance, so the family has racked up huge debts due to his medical problems.  Liz decides that if she doesn’t take charge in this laissez-faire household, no one will, contacting repairmen and a real estate agent as well as setting up a meeting between her father and the hospital administrator concerning the bills.  Meanwhile, Jane and Liz meet the Bingley siblings and their friend Fitzwilliam Darcy.  As in the original story, Jane and Bingley fall immediately into lust, if not love, while Liz and Darcy trade barbs that remind one of Benedict and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, an antagonism that at first disguises but finally gives way to a mutual attraction.

Sittenfeld advances the ages of the Bennet sisters – Jane, the eldest, is 40, and Lydia, the youngest is 24 – thus making Mrs. Bennet’s hand-wringing over the single status of all five daughters more reasonable for a story set in the present.  Sittenfeld adds other contemporary touches:  Jane, having all but given up on finding a husband has been going through IVF treatments. Liz has been living in NYC  and involved with Jasper Wick (Austen’s Mr. Wickham), a married man over whom she has mooned for a decade and who has finally started sleeping with her, claiming that he and his wife will soon separate;  Jasper’s best line to Liz is, “I love you. . .in my life.”  The LGBT community has a surprising impact on the Bennet clan – no spoilers here, however; and Mr. Bingley (known here as “Chip”) is well known for his role on “Eligible,” Sittenfeld’s version of “The Bachelor” – a hilarious and appropriate update for a story that is all about finding husbands.  A running joke in the novel is that everyone pretends not to watch the program but they all do, particularly Mrs. Bennet who is addicted to trash reality shows.  Darcy is a neuro-surgeon in a well-known Cincinnati hospital, a role that suits his stoic and arrogant personality.  Austen’s obnoxious and overbearing Mr. Collins, the heir to the Bennet estate due to primogeniture laws, appears here in the form of Cousin Willie, a wealthy west coast financier who seems more likeable albeit socially inept.  When he is unsuccessful in obtaining Liz’s hand in marriage, he promptly moves on to her best friend Charlotte, who quickly moves to California to live with Willie.  There are hilarious conversations between Liz and Charlotte when Liz goes to visit that include a discussion of Willie’s snoring problems.  Sittenfeld moves Austen’s ball scene, in which the Bennets are humiliated, to a party at Chip’s apartment, attended by all of the sisters.  In a lively game of charades, the sisters prove both inept at signing and embarrassing in their guesses, with Lydia and Kitty frequently shouting out scatologically and sexually  laced language. 

I fondly recall a snow day when my daughters were in high school and the whole family was off for the day.  Comfortable in our pajamas and armed with mugs of hot cocoa, we watched the 5-1/2 hour BBC production of Pride and Prejudice.  Then, we promptly loaded the abridged Keira Knightley version and watched that too.  Clearly, I thought, we are all suckers for any Austen-related tales.  I was surprised then, when I mentioned to one of those daughters that I was listening to this book based on P and P, and she responded that she was not interested in reading it and that she didn’t understand why people feel the need to duplicate stories that have already been told and told well.  I see her point; still, it was great fun to see the complexities of class, courting (to use an 18^th century term), and family relationships played out on a modern canvas with contemporary sensibilities.  Sittenfeld is a talented writer and proves worthy of the task.

The value of having a group of people read the same book

The basis of any literature class is usually a common text, providing an opportunity to collectively study a writer’s techniques, to explore the questions raised and to make connections to other touchstones in our lives.  It is the value of reading and discussing literature within a community.  So too for a book group.   Selecting those common texts is often tricky, however.  In the school, teachers must consider accessibility, richness of language, significance of issues, and, of course, whether the text will offend.  My experience in book groups, particularly the small one that I was in for 17 years, is that while everyone is open to stretching with books one might not have chosen if left to one’s own devices, the reality is that we are all adults and life is too short to spend time reading something that doesn’t interest you.

I raise this topic because I have just finished reading the common book for the high school where I used to teach. Finding a title for 3,000 students, ages 14 to 18, not to mention 200+ faculty members is a daunting task.  The novel chosen for last summer - done so in haste - was a controversial choice and not in a good way.  I am therefore happy to report that this summer's read, I Will Always Write Back by Caitlin Alifirenka, Martin Ganda and Liz Welch, is an excellent pick for a number of reasons. The book focuses on young people, reflecting their concerns, pastimes and struggles.  It is an easily accessible read for teenagers, written in the voices of people their age.  It is particularly appropriate for an IB school with its window on life in another country as well as its clear call to action.  The book demonstrates how one person can significantly effect positive change in the life of another. 

The memoir chronicles the pen-pal relationship of the upper middle-class white American Caitlin and the dirt poor Martin in Zimbabwe.  Told in alternating chapters, it begins when they are preteens and covers a 6-year correspondence that develops first into a friendship and then into a life-altering experience for Martin.  Caitlin’s early chapters are not particularly captivating as they recount her various crushes, changing best friends status and fashion interests – but they ring quite true as the authentic preoccupations of someone her age and station in life.  Martin’s chapters are significantly more interesting and provide a stark contrast.  For awhile, he hides his horrible poverty from Caitlin in his letters, but the narrative reveals that simple things she takes for granted, such as an exchange of photographs or currency are near impossibilities for Martin.  Ganda, his four siblings and two parents share a one-room house with another family, a curtain down the middle providing the façade of privacy. Martin works hard every year in school to be the number one student, setting his long-term sights on attending college in the U.S., but he constantly faces financial obstacles.  Only those who can pay for school can attend and Martin’s family cannot afford to send all of their children.  The situation worsens when Martin’s father loses his job and Martin no longer has tuition money.  In a fluke of timing, Caitlin decides to send Martin the money she made from babysitting one night ($20), which, as it turns out, pays for the entire next semester.  Martin gradually lets Caitlin know how much her money has meant to him, which prompts her to send more and to eventually get her mother involved in helping to first financially contribute to the Ganda family and later to help Martin get a scholarship to Villanova.

There isn’t anything very literary about the book, but Liz Welch, presumably the professional contributor, has done a nice job of folding the alternating voices into a coherent narrative.  If one wanted to discuss the book as a book, there are a number of points to consider.  The epilogue reveals that Caitlin is now 30; the book was published two years ago when she was 28.  Much of the writing, then, was done long after the events.  How much was reconstructed from the letters, how much was accurately recalled, and how much was creatively reconstructed – and to what degree does the answer matter?  You could also talk about the book’s intentions and how those shaped the narrative.  The publisher and authors seem to want to provide a feel-good story that inspires readers  - and I think they accomplish that – but every once in a while I wondered, as did some of Caitlin’s mother’s friends, if Martin and his family were taking advantage of the American family.  Nevertheless, it was a good read - and not just for teenagers - that is a reminder of the great disparity of wealth and opportunity that exists in our world. 

Add This to Your Summer Reading List:

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

Not a work meaty enough for a book club discussion, this novel works fine as a satisfying summer read.  It gives nothing away to say that in the first few pages of the story, a small chartered plane goes down, killing  9 of the 11 passengers and crew aboard.  A wealthy and powerful CEO of a major news outlet (think FOX) that offers fairly biased commentary, David Bateman, has arranged for the company jet to fly him, his wife Maggie, and their two children (Rachel, 9 and JJ, 4) back from their vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard to New York.  They are accompanied by an Israeli bodyguard who runs the security force that protects the Batemans after Rachel’s kidnapping as a toddler.  The morning of the flight, Maggie runs into Ben and Sarah Kipling, another high-powered couple, also spending their last day at the Vineyard and Maggie impulsively invites them as well as a local artist, Scott Burroughs, with whom she has crossed paths several times, to fly back to the city.  The plane is aloft for only 18 minutes before it plunges into the sea.  Scott, a champion swimmer in his youth (inspired by having seen bodybuilder Jack LaLaine swim across San Francisco Bay pulling a boat), somehow survives the crash and begins swimming.   He hears a cry and, miraculously, the little boy has always survived.  Scott swims with JJ on his back for 8 hours, finally reaching shore.

This is all preface for the real story – or stories.  The book moves back and forth between the aftermath of the crash and the back-stories of all of the people on board, including those of the three crew members.  As investigators try to find remnants of the plane, bodies and the all-important black box, the back stories serve to create possible reasons that someone would want to crash the plane. 

Hawley raises philosophical questions through his main character, Scott, who had taken to painting huge mural –like canvases of disasters (drownings, train collisions, and yes, plane crashes) – prior to the fateful day.  One investigator believes there are no coincidences and pursues Scott as a possible perpetrator of the crash.  Scott himself asks questions about the nature of art:  does it reflect observations of what is already there?  Can art work reflect intention?   Scott has also struggled as an artist, his work not always finding a paying audience.  Does art mean anything if no one wants to look at it?  With the buzz around Scott as the swimmer survivor, his disaster paintings suddenly become worth tens of thousands of dollars.  Hawley invites the reader to think about the nature of celebrity and its largely negative effects.

Bill Cunningham is the smarmy commentator on Bateman’s main news show (Think Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh) and, rather than report the news, he creates a narrative that he thinks people will want to hear.  Willing to illegally bug phones and, in the vein of tabloid photographers, he sends people to follow Scott, whipping up a fairly ridiculous series of news bites that have little to do with reality and more to do with generating ratings and advancing conspiracy theories.  Hawley’s contempt for such people is obvious and the reader feels gleeful when Scott finally admonishes Cunningham with an eloquent speech about truth and privacy.

Throughout, the novel emphasizes both the serendipitous nature of life – e.g. Scott almost missed the plane because the taxi didn’t come – as well as both spontaneous and intentional choices – What does it mean that Scott visits his fellow survivor, JJ? - that have consequences one can’t predict, sometimes like a row of dominoes.  Was it a fluky mechanical error or was something more sinister going on?  Hawley keeps you reading, wondering about the answer to that question until the very last pages when the reason behind the plane crash is revealed. 

What’s in Your Beach Bag?

Beach books are, by definition, works of escape:  mysteries, romances, light fiction that doesn’t require too much of the reader.  There’s nothing quite like the tide lapping at your feet, a gin and tonic in the cup holder and hours to wile away with an engrossing novel.  In anticipation of many lazy hours by the shore, I packed 1 hardback (pressed on me by my dad who thought I would enjoy it), 3 paperbacks and 5 new titles on my Kindle – okay, a bit overly ambitious to be sure, but who wants to get caught short with only the old selection of romance novels in the beach house?  Here’s what I read:

Last Night in Montreal is an earlier book by Emily St. John Mandel, the author of the brilliant Station Eleven, and you can see here how she has the potential for the later work.  Like her prize-winner, this one is strange and creative, jumping around both in time and perspective.  The theme seems to be the idea of obsession and loss.  Lilia, rescued from her mother by her father after an abusive episode, is always traveling.  She and her father spend years motoring around the United States, never staying anywhere very long.  Even after her father meets a woman and decides to stop traveling/running, Lilia finds that she cannot stay in one place.  She enters into relationships that are deep and which have the potential to be lasting, and yet she always walks out, obsessed with not belonging anyplace or to anyone.  Christopher, the detective hired by her mother to find her, becomes first consumed with finding Lilia and then, when he has the opportunity to catch her and her father, chooses to simply follow them – for years. Michaela, abandoned by her parents (Christopher and his ex-wife) becomes focused on trying to understand her father’s obsession.  All of these people seem somewhat broken, latching on to whatever keeps them going, even if it doesn’t make a lot of sense.  This was the most literary of the books in my bag and, despite some flaws, a novel worthy of a book group discussion. 

The 14^th Colony by Steve Berry is a great beach read passed on to me by my dad who likes political thrillers.  It’s the latest in a series about an intelligence officer, now retired, named Cotton Malone, who is recruited to investigate what turns out to be a plot by old Soviets to bring down the U.S. government.  The key to the whole mystery resides in an old journal written by a member of the Cincinnati Society, apparently a real group that dates from the Revolutionary War.  The book was very much in the vein of a Dan Brown – switching perspectives, fast-paced action, historical secrets, dashing main character.

The Hypnotist’s Love Story by Lianne Moriarty is a satisfying and light read by the author of Big, Little Lies, embodying her trademark style:  changing perspectives, characters who don’t realize what is in front of them, and complicated relationships.  Ellen is a hypnotherapist who believes she is helpful (enabling people to stop smoking, lose weight, gain self-confidence as a speaker) despite the lack of respect that she gets from certain quarters, including her mother, an M.D.  As the book opens, we see her at work with several of her clients, one of whom (unbeknownst to Ellen) turns out to be the ex-girlfriend who is stalking Ellen’s new boyfriend, Patrick.  For a while, the narrative switches back and forth between Ellen and the stalker and the reader is kept guessing as to which of the clients is THE one. As the ex’s background and the significance of her relationship with Patrick and his son are revealed as well as the fact that she knows what she is doing is unhealthy and unwise (but can’t stop), she becomes highly sympathetic.  Even Ellen finds herself strangely intrigued by this woman, failing to completely empathize with Patrick’s outrage.  At several points, the story has the potential to turn dark, but Moriarty manages to include a fair amount of humor and the novel ends on an upbeat note for everyone.

When I discovered a mystery series featuring a “detective” that cleans out people’s homes and runs estate sales, I was impressed with the originality.  C. J. Box also demonstrates some creativity with Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden in this first of a series, Open Season.  The plot, which revolves around the competing interests of oil pipelines and economic prosperity versus ecological preservation, is what you might expect of a mystery set in the west, but the main character as well as the gun-toting, hard drinking, wild west cast of supporting characters are what propel the narrative.  Joe is a hard-working, rule follower who can’t be bought off, qualities that give him a certain nobility.  He’s also a little bumbling at times (losing his gun first to a man he is trying to ticket for hunting out of season and later when he leaves it in a property that is promptly blown up when he walks out the door), making him seem more human and endearing. 

And still reading when we left the beach – After the Fall by Noah Hawley.  A private jet takes off from Martha’s Vineyard heading for New York City.  Eighteen minutes after take-off, it disappears from the radar.  Presumed dead are the head of a major news network, his wife and children, a businessman and his wife under investigation by the Justice Dept., a crew of three, and an artist who accepted a last minute invitation for a ride back to the city.  The artist, a long distance swimmer in his youth, survives and manages to swim for 8 hours, reaching shore with the media magnates 4 year-old son on his back.  The story alternates between the aftermath of the crash and the back stories of the people on the plane which, presumably will eventually shed light on why the plane went down. 

Happily, I have two more beach trips planned this summer, so I will get to those other downloads before too long.  Next up on my list – my book club’s next selection:  My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff, a nonfiction account of her first job in NYC as the assistant to the editor who worked with Salinger.