***BOOK CLUB: Discussion of "The Jane Austen Book Club"***

[septbride2002]

Good Morning! I hope everyone had a chance to finish The Jane Austen Book Club this is where we will discuss what we thought of the book.

Here are a couple of questions to get us started. Please feel free to add any other questions or comments - we are not limited to these.

1. Allegra and Grigg seem to be different then the other 3 members of the book club, did you feel that this kept them from being accepted by the other members?

2. Did you identify with any of the characters?

3. Did you dislike any of the characters?

4. What is your opinion of the book overall?

~Amanda

 

[Crankyshank]

I read it over the weekend

 

[snoopy]

Ooooh, not done yet! Almost though, I'll join in the conversation later in the week. Love the format you are using Amanda!

 

[LoraJ]

Hooray!

I've never been in a book club before. How do we start?


I have to say though, there was one part that really stuck with me that I loved. The women were in their minds making fun of how Grigg (is that how you spell it) brought in the "Complete Works of Jane Austen". And then later on in the book, when Jocelyn tells him what they are reading she says "The Complete Works of Jane Austen", what else is the poor guy supposed to think? LOL!

Maybe I missed something with the audio version, but I couldn't figure out who exactly was narrating. It was always we, but everyone was in the third person.

Oops! Saw the questions later:
1. Allegra and Grigg seem to be different then the other 3 members of the book club, did you feel that this kept them from being accepted by the other members?

I'm not sure if it was because they were different, or that they just didn't have the passion for Jane Austen as the others did. I think they accepted them as people, but would get turned off whenever they would put down Jane, or say that another author was better.

2. Did you identify with any of the characters?
Not really.

3. Did you dislike any of the characters?
Nope.

4. What is your opinion of the book overall?
I enjoyed it. I love Jane Austen stories, so having Jane Austen talk mixed in with interesting characters made and enjoyable book.

 

[septbride2002]

Maybe I missed something with the audio version, but I couldn't figure out who exactly was narrating. It was always we, but everyone was in the third person.

Nope you didn't miss a thing - I had the same problem. Who is talking? For instance at the end when Joyceln starts reading science fiction it is said something like, we understand as long as you also read other books. Who is this we? Because in all honesty I don't think Allegra would care what people read. So is the "We" Sylvia, Prudie, and Bernadette?

The "We" factor is what made me think that Grigg and Allegra were such outsiders from the group. Whenever "WE" was used it really didn't seem to represent what they would think or say.

~Amanda

 

[phisigprincess]

1. Allegra and Grigg seem to be different then the other 3 members of the book club, did you feel that this kept them from being accepted by the other members?
I felt like most of the JABC saw them as "outsiders" or people who had to be there because of an obligation. (daughter, friend, etc)

2. Did you identify with any of the characters?
Not particularly

3. Did you dislike any of the characters?
Grigg kind of bothered me after a while and I can't put my finger on why.

4. What is your opinion of the book overall?
I think the most interesting part of the structure was how the "real life" stories and anecdotes always related back to the Jane Austen book they were discussing. I liked how it didn't always hit you over the head with it, but subtely tied it all together. I thought that was really pretty clever structuring. It was almost like an added bonus for JA fans and JABC readers.

 

[septbride2002]

4. What is your opinion of the book overall?
I think the most interesting part of the structure was how the "real life" stories and anecdotes always related back to the Jane Austen book they were discussing. I liked how it didn't always hit you over the head with it, but subtely tied it all together. I thought that was really pretty clever structuring. It was almost like an added bonus for JA fans and JABC readers.

I've never read any Jane Austen books - would you mind elaborating on this a bit. No pressure! LOL!

~Amanda

 

[Crankyshank]

1. Allegra and Grigg seem to be different then the other 3 members of the book club, did you feel that this kept them from being accepted by the other members? Yes and No. I don't think their "difference" kept them from being completely accepted. I think their lack of passion for Jane held them back.

2. Did you identify with any of the characters? Not really

3. Did you dislike any of the characters? I wasn't too crazy about Bernadette and I'm not sure why

4. What is your opinion of the book overall?
I liked it. I'm a huge fan of Jane Austen with a husband that's a sci-fi reader so I could identify with a lot of the book. I do wish there was a bit more character development. I thought Prudie was left hanging towards the end of the book like once her anecdote was told the author didn't know what to do with her

 

[phisigprincess]

I've never read any Jane Austen books - would you mind elaborating on this a bit. No pressure! LOL!

~Amanda

Could someone do me a favor and give me the anecdotes (just a brief synopsis) of the Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma chapters? I need a bit of prompting since I don't have the book in front of me and I will get back to you Amanda!!

 

[septbride2002]

Could someone do me a favor and give me the anecdotes (just a brief synopsis) of the Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma chapters? I need a bit of prompting since I don't have the book in front of me and I will get back to you Amanda!!

I don't have the book here with me at work. I'll be happy to do it if I could. I know Emma was the first chapter and it was all about social or financial class.

~Amanda

 

[septbride2002]

Bump

 

[phisigprincess]

I'll have to go back and look, but in general, the last paragraphs of each chapter echoed a part of a JA novel or a theme from the book the chapter was named after. I think for example the Emma chapter was about someone not fitting in because of their social class and Emma (as a character) is always preoccupied with social class, standing, etc. It was there for the people who knew the JA books, but it wasn't so obvious that if you hadn't read the JA novel you wouldn't understand the JABC.

 

[phisigprincess]

Here's another question. Do you think Sylvia should have got back together with her husband??

 

[LoraJ]

Here's another question. Do you think Sylvia should have got back together with her husband??

I wouldn't, but they really made him out to be a good guy so that you would be happy with them together.

 

[phisigprincess]

I thought it was kinda shady that he had another person so quickly after her and then everything just got forgiven.... that kind of bothered me.

 

[Crankyshank]

I had a feeling they would reunite from the beginning. I kind of thought it was a cop-out to put them back together. I also thought Prudie's husband was gay

 

[phisigprincess]

Maybe that was my problem. It seemed a little too easy. What are your opinions on the relationship between Grigg and Jocelyn?

 

[Gwene65]

1. Allegra and Grigg seem to be different then the other 3 members of the book club, did you feel that this kept them from being accepted by the other members?

I don't think Allegra was made to be an outsider because she was Sylvia's daughter. But I do think Grigg was made to feel like an outsider. They all had comments to make that were not nice, even condescending.

2. Did you identify with any of the characters?

No.

3. Did you dislike any of the characters?

Yes, I disliked almost all of them, especially Jocelyn. She is a busybody and rude. She gets annoyed with Grigg b/c he was late picking her up? And b/c he ran out of gas? Give me a break! I just really wished I could have smacked her senseless.

4. What is your opinion of the book overall?

I did not really enjoy this book. I felt it did lack substance and even with the character backrounds, I felt they fell flat and I could not have cared less about them. But this is coming from someone who has never read a Jane Austen book. (And I probably never will)

As for Sylvia and her husband getting back together-this is going out on a limb here but didn't that seem to be a very Austen thing to do? Are her books all about romantics? It just seems that would be something she could have put into her stories too.

JMHO.

 

[phisigprincess]

As for Sylvia and her husband getting back together-this is going out on a limb here but didn't that seem to be a very Austen thing to do? Are her books all about romantics? It just seems that would be something she could have put into her stories too.

I would think if Austen was writing this she would have come up with something not as clean to happen with Sylvia. She would probably have her finding someone new or some plot twist... Though JA book's are at heart romantic, they're also very cynical at the same time. She may have had them get back together, but for some reason I don't see her taking such a cop out type ending.

 

[Crankyshank]

I didn't like Grigg and Jocelyn together at all. It seemed forced and another cop-out.
I don't think Sylvia & Daniel's getting back together was Austen-like. Jane's a romantic but she also is very cynical about love and she over dramatizes relationships as her way of poking fun at the dramatics of people in love. There's a subtle humor and comedic bent to her romances.
If the author was trying to be Austen-like, she would have had some sort of plot twist/drama in the story and put more of a comedic twist on it. It seems the author was trying to give a neat no muss no fuss ending to the individual stories.