There’s
something about Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” that has intrigued readers
and writers for years. In this retelling of the classic tale, Liz Bennet is a
magazine writer based in New York and sister Jane is a yoga instructor, soon to
turn forty. Jane’s biological clock is ticking and she starts a round of
artificial insemination treatments.
When their
father is taken ill, the sisters return to the family home in Cincinnati, where
Kitty and Lydia go out to lunch and train at the gym, and sister Mary takes
online courses and disappears on Tuesday nights.
Chip
Bingley, a physician and former star of the reality dating show “Eligible” move
to Cincinnati and meets Jane. Of course, it’s love. But Liz is less than
impressed with his friend, neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy. It might be hard to
imagine Darcy in flip flops, loading the dishwasher, but give it a try.
My favorite
bits of the book are when the author takes a familiar scene or line and
incorporates it into the story. When Jane faints at a lunch with Caroline
Bingley, Liz is without a cr and too impatient to take a bus or cab. Estimating
it to be a 35 minutes run to the hospital, Liz arrives sweaty and exhausted,
only to run into Dr. Darcy. Shades of the mud-covered petticoat!
Good fun for
Austen fans and even readers unfamiliar with the original will laugh at the
antics of the Bennet family.
Backstretch Baby by Bev Pettersen
The Wrong Hero by Nancy Brophy
Vanished by Elizabeth Herter
Lassoing the Sun by Mark Woods
Lonely Planet's National Parks of America
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
And Furthermore by Judi Dench
American Rose: a nation laid bare by Karen Abbott
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