A Worthy Austen Interpretation

Hands down, here's the best book I've read all summer, maybe all year:

Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice by Curtis Sittenfeld

Let me just say that if this book had been written by anyone else, I would have been too skeptical to read it. I don't watch films based upon Austen novels and I don't read spin offs. But. Curtis Sittenfeld hasn't let me down yet (Read: An American Wife, Prep, Man of My Dreams, and Sisterland) and when I saw that she was attempting something as ballsy as a modern interpretation of one of the world's best novels, I had to read it.

When I saw this book, I impulsively recommended it to my MIL and various other peeps whom I now realize will not like it at all. Because, the thing is, Austen's books were proto-feminist in nature. They served as satirical social commentary (gender commentary, class commentary) of her time, thus she included sensational situations and characters in order to highlight things she considered worthy of thought and reflection. But, when we read the novels today, these events can come across as tame and cute. A younger sister eloping with a disgraced man would not have been considered cute in the nineteenth century; it would have been disastrous. A daughter refusing multiple (financially-promising, stable, mutually-beneficial) offers of marriage and thus condemning her family to a life of social and financial degradation was shameful, almost unimaginable. Austen's books are so enjoyable because of her sentence structures and witty dialogue and almost-impossible plot developments and climax resolutions. But it's too easy for us to focus on the British accents and the petticoats and the blushing girls and dashing young men - and we miss some remarkable themes.

Sittenfeld captures these themes in characters who are modern equivalents of the Bennetts, Bingleys, and Darcys (Darcies?), tangled up in complex and embarrassing conundrums. Chip Bingley is the star bachelor of a reality-TV show, Eligible, which is taking America by storm. He and his good friend and neurosurgeon, Fitzwilliam Darcy, relocate to Cincinnati where they work at the renowned Christ hospital. Yoga instructor, Jane, and her younger sister, Lizzy, a journalist for Mascara magazine, return to Cincinnati (from their homes in New York City) over the summer to care for their father as he recovers from heart surgery, while they try to manage the estate, their shopaholic mother, and the other three unpredictable, thoroughly unhelpful Bennett sisters. Chaos and hilarity ensue. And true love. And their happy ever after, eventually, of course.

The book mirrors the plot line of Austen's original almost flawlessly. But there's language and s*x. Remember how sassy Lizzy is? Well, imagine her as a 38-yr-old New Yorker, folks. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, especially, are perfect. Sittenfeld nailed their characters and their dialogue. I highly recommend this one! Now I have to call my MIL...and apologize. I need a drink.