Length: 512 pages
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: April 19, 2016
Rating: 4/5 stars
Countless retellings of Jane Austen’s classic, Pride and Prejudice have been published,
made into movies or miniseries specials, but none are so fun and smart as
Curtis Sittenfield’s, Eligible, which
offers a modern day take on Austen’s original rom-com. Liz Bennet is a brash,
quick witted woman living in New York working as a writer for popular women’s
magazine, along with her sister Jane, who is a yoga instructor, both rapidly
approaching forty and still single (much to their mother’s chagrin).
When their father’s ailing health brings both eldest
Bennet sisters back to their childhood home of Cincinnati, they arrive to find
their home in disrepair, the family’s finances askew and the younger Bennet
sisters unemployed and ignorant to their family issues. Kitty and Lydia are too
preoccupied with their social lives consisting of cross fit, manicures and
paleo dieting to help their parents and Mary is a professional student,
completing multiple degrees, and her only social activity consisting of
mysterious Tuesday night outings, where she goes she won’t say.
Chip Bingley is fresh off a season of a popular TV
Reality dating series, Eligible,
where he infamously refused to propose to either woman at the end of the show, and
has relocated from Los Angeles to the mid-west for a position as an ER Doctor
in a Cincinnati Hospital. Accompanied by his friend, Fitzwilliam Darcy, a proud
and aloof neurosurgeon, he encounters the Bennett family at a Fourth of July
barbeque hosted by their co-worker, Dr. Lucas – I’m sure you’re seeing where
this goes…
Complete with modern day character development, events
and scandal, Eligible is a
wonderfully adapted spinoff. Jane Austen had a way of mocking the society and
times in which she lived – this is a large part of why her novels are classics
that are able to be retold generations after they were first published (people
don’t really evolve that much, do they?). They are witty and satirical, subtly
poking fun at those around her. Sittenfield does the same, her modern day
satirical genius flows throughout this hilarious rendition of a much loved
classic. Eligible lends a modern relevance
to an antiquated story via this witty update, which I believe Austen purists
and those unfamiliar with the original can enjoy.
Eligible is
available for pre-order and will be released on April 19, 2016. I couldn’t put
it down, and now I’m drinking more coffee than is probably healthy – but it was
worth it.
-Whit
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