06 May, 2010

Jane Austen Ruined my Life

Jane Austen Ruined my Life by Beth Pattillo

Way back in January when I thought "Yeah, I can read 100 books in a year!" I read a review of this on Home Girl's blog. You can read her review here. It was the first in my side bar list of Interesting Books from Other Blogs. As this list grew, I decided I had to start on them, so placed this on hold at the library. It took ages to come in, but finally it did!

Emma Grant's life is a mess. Her husband left her for her teaching assistant and together they have ruined her career. Blaming Jane Austen for it all, (she after all is the one who convinced Emma that happy endings were hers for the taking!) she sets of for England, chasing what she is fairly sure a myth, but if it is true, it could save her career.

Not a taxing read. In fact, less than half way through I had worked out several things that would happen before the end of the book. Despite the predictability, I enjoyed it. It travelled along at a great pace and you were never left waiting for something to happen. I, by the way, am not an Austen fan. In fact I will confess to only having read one of her books, Northanger Abbey, and that was because it was set as a course book in English. However, given that every time I read something that has a link to another book (Like Great Expectations in Mr Pip) I now feel the need to read Jane Austen!