Sunday, October 11, 2009

64. Jane Austen Ruined My Life - Beth Pattillo

Guideposts, 2009
274 pgs.
For: adults
Rating: 2

I knew right from the beginnng that this book was going to disappoint, and unfortunately it did. I couldn't stand the protagonist/heroine. I didn't agree with anything she did, felt, or said. The plot was totally unbelievable. The setting was wonderful....the descriptions of London and the surrounding area was detailed and interesting. The facts about Jane Austen were great. It's my own fault. When you know right from the first page that the heroine is a dolt, you should read something else.

Emma had caught her stuffy, boring professor husband cheating on her with his TA. He had helped the TA discredit his wife, and Emma was fired as a professor and left with her tail between her legs. A mysterious woman had written to her from London and tempted her with the possibilites of long-lost Jane Austen letters. This interesting Mrs. Parrot sent her on a series of six tasks, places to from Jane Austen's life, where she was given a photocopy of one of the forbidden/lost letters to peruse. Two handsome professors enter her life, one brand new, one from her past. It's silly, it's not romantic at all. At first I thought that Jane Austen would be peeved, but then I realized that Emma is amazingly like the Emma of Miss Austen's own hand.... I think it's the total and complete ability to be self-centered that makes this book a real two-thumbs down.

(I sure hope that Adam gets on with his life, sans Emma. Please! He's been such a schmuck.)

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