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The Jane Austen Book Club - Karen Joy Fowler I wanted very much to like this book. The summary, the reviews, made it sound like a book I would like; a book about women, getting together and discussing Jane Austen, living their lives and dealing with heartaches in between. Well, I did like it, just not very much. It's well-written, it's amuzing in parts, and I was very fond on the focus on politeness that all the women seemed to share. The focus on appearances and exteriors of kindness. It's not something you see much in books, or anywhere, these days.

But the book didn't go deep enough. It's impossible to care deeply for six characters in only 250 pages. I was interested in Prudie, and I really liked Allegra, but the other women were almost caricatures. And the men--even the one man in the book club--are plot devices, romantic foils. Not complete in themselves.

I wouldn't recommend this, but if someone were interested in the subject matter, I'd go ahead and tell them to give it a go.