Summary and Reviews of The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler

Media Reviews

San Francisco Chronicle Karen Joy Fowler deserves every success this savvy, episodic but chamois-smooth novel can bring.

The New York Times - Richard Eder The thoughts are more than literary discussion. They bring out the characters and emotions of the participants along with the tensions and sympathies that flit and filter among them. Ms. Fowler has the genial notion to see in the book club — that newish American cultural phenomenon — a society resembling nothing so much as one of those sets of country gentry among which Austen constructed a social comedy where irony stiffens sentiment, and pain is a cool afterthought.

The New York Times Sunday Book Review - Patricia T. O'Conner What results is Fowler's shrewdest, funniest fiction yet, a novel about how we engage with a novel. You don't have to be a student of Jane Austen to enjoy it, either. At the end are plot synopses of all six Austen novels for the benefit of the forgetful, the uninitiated or the nostalgic.

The Washington Post - Michael Dirda It's just as hard to explain quite why The Jane Austen Book Club is so wonderful. But that it is wonderful will soon be widely recognized, indeed, a truth universally acknowledged. 

Time Out New York Fowler has fashioned a deft, witty multiple-character study and closely observed comedy of romantic manners.

BookPage Though Fowler takes Austen as her inspiration, she clearly possesses her own unique voice and gift for storytelling.

Christian Science Monitor I'm instinctively wary of genetic engineering, but Karen Fowler may have produced a literary equivalent of the elusive Super Tomato.

The New York Times Book Review - Margot Livesey What strikes one first is the voice robust, sly, witty, elegant, unexpected.

Booklist - Donna Seaman Starred Review. Fowler, a captivating and good-hearted satirist, exuberantly pays homage to and matches wits with Jane Austen in her most pleasurable novel to date by portraying six irresistible Californians who meet once a month to discuss Austen's six novels. Fellow Austenites will love Fowler's fluency in the great novelist's work; every reader will relish Fowler's own ebullient comedy of manners, and who knows how many book clubs will be inspired by this charming paean to books and readers. 

Kirkus Reviews Bright, engaging, dexterous literary entertainment for everyone, though with many special treats and pleasures for Janeites.

 Alice Sebold A luxuriant pleasure!