Karen Joy Fowler, a PEN/Faulkner and California Book Award winner, is the author of six novels (two of them New York Times bestsellers) and four short story collections. She has been a Dublin IMPAC nominee, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2014. She lives in Santa Cruz, California.
Praise for The Jane Austen Book Club
“Ms. Fowler, an original and unexpectedly voiced novelist, takes
her own place among the shining responders. Not just with comments
of her own, though there are some excellent ones, but with the
entire playful structure of her new novel.”—Richard Eder, The New
York Times
“If I could eat this nove, I would...A luxuriant pleasure!”—Alice
Sebold
“It's natural to approach a novel titled The Jane Austen Book Club
with caution, but Karen Joy Fowler's funny, erudite nvoel proved to
be a surprise and a delight, a tribute to Austen that manages to
capture her spirit.”—The Boston Globe
“Karen Joy Fowler creates a novel that is so winning, so touching,
so delicately, slyly witty that admirers of Persuasion and Emma
will simply sigh with happiness.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington
Post Book World
“Start quoting a few of Fowler’s puckish lines and it becomes
damnably difficult to stop...The Jane Austen Book Club amounts to a
witty meditation on how the books we choose, choose us too.”—San
Francisco Chronicle
“The Jane Austen Book Club offers a sparkling rumination on the act
of reading itself and how beloved books can serve as refuge,
self-definition, snobbish barricades against other people or
pathways out of the old self to a wider world. [It is] a terrific
comic novel about a closed society merrily transforming itself by
reading.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s All Things Considered
“[Fowler] does so terrific a job of bringing her characters to life
that Austen’s work falls away like a husk. It’s an impressive feat
of homage, since Fowler essentially borrowsAusten’s great
themes...and makes them her own. Miss Austen would be proud.”—The
Denver Post
Fowler's book, for all intents and purposes, is a character study of six people who meet regularly over several months to discuss six of Austen's works. Jocelyn, in her 50s and never married, is the originator of the club, a control freak who handpicked all the members; Sylvia, her good friend, is in a funk because her husband of 32 years has just left her for another woman; Sylvia's daughter, Allegra, is an attractive 30-year-old lesbian who recently broke up with her lover; Prudie is a twentysomething high school French teacher; the much-married Bernadette, 67, is now single; and Grigg, in his 40s, would love to get married. The group sits around drinking and making aimless, often pointless, conversation about Austen, and into these light, roundabout discussions Fowler intertwines some clever and funny stories. There is not much depth to the characters, the plots are weak, and little happens until the last chapter. Read by Kimberly Schraf, this atypical but deliberate novel is recommended for larger public libraries.-Carol Stern, Glen Cove P.L., NY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Praise for The Jane Austen Book Club
"Ms. Fowler, an original and unexpectedly voiced novelist, takes
her own place among the shining responders. Not just with comments
of her own, though there are some excellent ones, but with the
entire playful structure of her new novel."-Richard Eder, The
New York Times
"If I could eat this nove, I would...A luxuriant
pleasure!"-Alice Sebold
"It's natural to approach a novel titled The Jane Austen Book
Club with caution, but Karen Joy Fowler's funny, erudite nvoel
proved to be a surprise and a delight, a tribute to Austen that
manages to capture her spirit."-The Boston Globe
"Karen Joy Fowler creates a novel that is so winning, so
touching, so delicately, slyly witty that admirers of
Persuasion and Emma will simply sigh with
happiness."-Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book
World
"Start quoting a few of Fowler's puckish lines and it becomes
damnably difficult to stop...The Jane Austen Book Club
amounts to a witty meditation on how the books we choose, choose us
too."-San Francisco Chronicle
"The Jane Austen Book Club offers a sparkling rumination on
the act of reading itself and how beloved books can serve as
refuge, self-definition, snobbish barricades against other people
or pathways out of the old self to a wider world. [It is] a
terrific comic novel about a closed society merrily transforming
itself by reading."-Maureen Corrigan, NPR's All Things
Considered
"[Fowler] does so terrific a job of bringing her characters to life
that Austen's work falls away like a husk. It's an impressive feat
of homage, since Fowler essentially borrowsAusten's great
themes...and makes them her own. Miss Austen would be
proud."-The Denver Post
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