The Jane Austen Book Club Audiobook By Karen Joy Fowler cover art

The Jane Austen Book Club

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The Jane Austen Book Club

By: Karen Joy Fowler
Narrated by: Kimberly Schraf
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A sublime comedy of contemporary manners, this is the novel Jane Austen might well have written had she lived in 21st century California.

Six Californians join to discuss Jane Austen's novels. Over the six months they meet, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens. With her finely sighted eye for the frailties of human behavior and her finely tuned ear for the absurdities of social intercourse, Fowler has never been wittier nor her characters more appealing. The result is a delicious dissection of modern relationships.

Dedicated Austenites will delight in unearthing the echoes of Austen that run through the novel, but most readers will simply enjoy the vision and voice that, despite two centuries of separation, unite two great writers of brilliant social comedy.

©2004 Karen Joy Fowler (P)2004 Listen and Live Audio, Inc. Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Fiction

Critic reviews

"This exquisite novel is bigger and more ambitious than it appears. It's that rare book that reminds us what reading is all about." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Sly wit, quirky characters, and digressive storytelling....Like Austen, Fowler is a subversive wit and a wise observer of human interaction of all stripes." (Publishers Weekly)
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The Jane Austin Book Club is beautifully crafted. Interwoven stories of the club members construct a community that is compelling for me as a reader to enter into. Their stories are framed by Jane Austin's to make a socially and historically textured world. The characters are eccentric and the author's descriptive sensibilities are surprising at times and hip. However, the narrator's sing song inflection and high pitch is annoyingly inappropriate for the text. I had to fight against it to enjoy the book.

well written; not well read

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I love Jane Austen, and I've been in a book group, and so I looked forward to this book. I did not enjoy it. I found that I cared little for the characters - I just wasn't interested in their lives - I guess I didn't want to know them. Having said that, the author has a wonderful, wry humor - I just wish her characters were different.

So-so

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I'm a big Jane Austen fan and I thought this book would bring her works into a more contemporary setting. The book started out slow, but I figured it would get better as it progressed. Unfortunately it didn't. There were snippets of each Jane Austen book and the themes were reflected in each chapter, but the whole concept didn't mesh very well. Too choppy at times as each character's story was being told. I had a hard time keeping everything straight. The narrator's voice didn't help either. She sounded condescending at certain points and just plain annoying the rest of the time. I'd like to give it another try, so I'll probably read it rather than listen to it.

Tried to like it, but couldn't

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I have lower expectations for audiobooks. I expect them to help me pass the time driving, cleaning, sorting laundry, running on the treadmill, etc. This book did a good job of that. I didn't have to think too hard and the story was benign. I don't think I'd ever recommend it to anyone as a book they must read as there wasn't much story, the characters were underdeveloped, and there wasn't near enough Jane Austen. However, it was pleasant, I kept listening, and it didn't last too long. If you put it in the 'light read/listen' category instead of with the likes of Jane Austen it is missable but decent. There were times that the narrator was irritating but not enough to avoid anything else read by her.

It passed the time

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I like the story, but I think the narrator's tone is much too arch for the material. Her reading distracts from the story, alas.

Book good, narration not so much

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