The Jane Austen Book Club

By: Karen Joy Fowler

Narrated by: Kimberly Schraf

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

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)

Do the readers have to audition?

This reader is more suited to selling laundry detergent or margarine. Her bizarre sing-song was ill-suited to the subject matter and made her sound as though she did not understand what she was reading. Surely publishers audition these performers before employing them. This book makes me think they do not. It was a terrible distraction from the material.

Boring

What can I say? I wanted to like this book, but I just didn't. I have a rule that if I get to page 100 of a book and don't care about the characters or what happens next I give up. Likewise with audio books: If, after listening for two hours, I am bored and unengaged I give up. I listen to many audio books and very rarely do I give up on any, but after 2 hours of this book my thoughts were, " life is too short to endure any more of this". The narrators voice was dull and the story just didn't keep me interested so my advice is, use your precious credits on something else.

Utterly Delightful

I am not a big Jane Austen fan. In fact, I only read one book in High School - Northanger Abbey. But I like the movies. But don't let the title deceive you. This book is not all about Jane Austen. It is about people and the people happen to be in a book club, reading Jane Austen books. There are a wide variety of characters. In each chapter of the book you learn all about one of the club memebers and at the same time they are reviewing one of Jane Austen's books in the book club. The characters are unique and you will admire their strengths and understand their weaknesses. This book was refreshing and a very easy to listen too.

Really bad narration

I have to agree with the reviewers who criticized the narrator of this book. I found her tone so distracting and annoying that I simply stopped listening, although I have been wanting to read this book for a while. I've decided that I would rather read this in paper form than listen to her for another minute.

I'm sorry that I didn't check out these reviews before I selected this book and I will do so in future to avoid being disappointed again.

Enjoyable

Very nicely narrated and a great story. It inspired me to re-read all the Jane Austin books and watch the movies after listening to this.