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FindingJane
May 19, 2016FindingJane rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
The Austen book to end all Austen books! If you’ve ever watched obsessively that 1995 BBC series with Colin Firth in the wet shirt, then you know what I’m talking about, ladies. Austen is supposed to epitomize romance for a very select group of people and this book is about what happens when ladies get together to celebrate all that is Regency England as laid out by that witty, acerbic lady writer. Jane’s romantic getaway is meant to be both a tonic and a last hurrah. The inner dialogue sizzles as she tries wrestling with supposedly amorous “suitors” and her own yawing emotions. This is a woman on the cusp, one who thinks she’s done with men but isn’t sure. She needs to get over her Darcy fixation because who could ever measure up to such storied perfection? But it doesn’t hurt to linger in the make-believe because that’s what this place is meant to be…right? The book is funny, uncomfortable, a little bit unhappy. But that’s all to the good—it takes us on Jane’s inner journey from manic fandom to settled and calm womanhood. Like the girl Sarah in “Labyrinth”, Jane clings a little too hard and too long to her silly fantasies. But the author manages to engage our sympathies for her. I never felt impatient or infuriated with Jane’s sporadic inability to let go of her playacting or false expectations because she tried so hard to overcome them. For those who adore Austen or despise her, this book is brilliant comic relief. It’s undeniably chick-lit but it’s about the ultimate chick-lit writer. So who can complain about that?