Pride and Prejudice

"The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of either merit or sense."

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, 1813

first words

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

the premise

Two young people of England's early 19th century landed gentry must overcome their own pride, false first impressions, and scandal to secure true love in a society driven by materialism and superficiality.

my thoughts

How my soul thrilled to this love story when I was a teenager!  I read it multiple times, once I finally got into the language of the period.  But then life got busy, and it sat on my bookshelf gathering dust.  So imagine my delight when I found I could still thrill to it as an adult, that there were whole passages I wanted to read over and over again, savoring them.  What's more, I could appreciate Austen's keen sense of humor and wry observation of human nature in a way I certainly wasn't able to as a teenager.  When I opened this book for the first time in more than a decade, I did not expect to be laughing out loud quite so often.  I didn't expect Mr. Bennett to emerge as my favorite character. 

And I found it a little astonishing that an entire class of people could have as their chief occupation in life visiting each other for weeks on end, reading, going for walks, attending balls and generally entertaining themselves.  Of course this wasn't so astonishing to my teenage self, since that was my main occupation as well.  But the adult me must confess to envying the Bennetts, Bingleys and Darcys their servants.  Oh to simply decide in the morning what's for dinner and have it show up on the well-appointed table at the appointed hour without lifting a finger! 

others' thoughts

Have you reviewed this too?

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.”

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, 2008

distinctions

~New York Times Bestseller, fiction, 2008
~Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year, #7, fiction, 2008
~Indies Book of the Year, adult fiction, 2009

first words

“Dear Sidney, Susan Scott is a wonder. We sold over forty copies of the book, which was very pleasant, but much more thrilling from my standpoint was the food.”

the premise

In post-WWII London, an author on the hunt for a new book idea begins a serendipitous correspondence with friendly strangers on the island of Guernsey and learns about their hardships and triumphs during the German occupation of their island. Along the way she discovers truths about herself.

my thoughts

It's always a good sign when I read the last page of a book and am sad because it's over.  It's also good when I have the impulse to go back to page one and read it all over again right then.  This book, as so many others have pegged it, is indeed charming.  It's warm, tender, witty, heartbreaking and satisfying (except for how it leaves you wanting more).  It's a book written by booklovers about booklovers for booklovers, and as such succeeds marvelously, dropping delightful allusions at every turn and suggesting much about the power of good literature in our lives, as individuals and as a society.  That in itself makes this book a winner.

Few books are perfect.  This one has its weaknesses, spots I felt were a little too gimmicky or stereotyping.  For example, the "bad guys" in the novel were all pretty flat, and I'm not talking about the Germans.  They were done very well.  I'm talking about the pinched, self-righteous "Christian" townswoman; the tall, arrogant, wealthy American; and the sleazy sneaky tabloid writer. It disappointed me to find such plot puppets poking out among all the wonderfully vivid and real characters populating the pages. They did provide their share of comic relief though, I suppose.  As for my accusation of "gimmicky," I can't really touch on that without spoiling a few plot points, so email me if you're curious, but let me just say that the plot is not what kept me turning the pages.

One of the greatest strengths of this novel is its disarming deployment of irony.  The format is key here; the novel is composed entirely of letters and telegrams sent between the characters, so the reader is given glimpses of each character from various vantage points, allowing those characters to develop complexity in a way that feels natural (and allows for lots of irony).

The interchange of letters and the various voices that emerge from the pages also provide fascinating historical details about the German occupation of the Channel Islands without ever slipping into a history lecture.  The characters simply share their experiences and feelings about what transpired, and the concrete details they include make it all so real and so heart-breaking. This novel successfully weds laugh-out-loud humor with the gravity of war-time atrocities in a way that calls to mind the Italian film Life is Beautiful. Like the film, it is true to human nature, and like the film, this book is not to be missed.

others’ thoughts

Book Nut
Dragonflowers and Books
Dragonflowers and Books (Again!)   includes some great quotes
Dreadlock Girl
Library Queue
My Thoughts Exactly
The Book Nest
The Golden Road to Samarqand

Have you reviewed this book?