A Novel with Thoughts and Ponderings

MY JANE AUSTEN SUMMER

Author: Cindy Jones ISBN: 9780062003973 4/2011 CONTEMPORARY (AUSTEN INSPIRED) Publisher: WILLIAM MORROW

My Jane Austen Summer by Cindy Jones
Lily has squeezed herself into undersized relationships all her life, hoping one might grow as large as those found in the Jane Austen novels she loves. But lately her world is running out of places for her to fit. So when her bookish friend invites her to spend the summer at a Jane Austen literary festival in England, she jumps at the chance to reinvent herself.

There, among the rich, promising world of Mansfield Park reenactments, Lily finds people whose longing to live in a novel equals her own. But real-life problems have a way of following you wherever you go, and Lily's accompany her to England. Unless she can change her ways, she could face the fate of so many of Miss Austen's characters, destined to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Going into MY JANE AUSTEN SUMMER I was excited, because I have always had a fondness for MANSFIELD PARK by Jane Austen.  While it's not my favorite, it's in my top three, despite the overall passiveness of Fanny.  Then also, the premise had me interested—I would honestly love to attend some sort of Jane Austen summer camp for adults.  Wouldn't it be fun to be surrounded by others of a like mind, whom you can discuss the books with and argue the finer points on?  Also it was just nice to a see an Austen inspired book NOT centered around PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.  I get tired of those.

Unfortunately my spirits fell pretty quickly.  Lily describes herself as a stalker; she's snooping on her ex-boyfriend's life from a distance in her car.  Not that he is a grand love of her life, or that it was a dramatic break-up...she just couldn't help but obsess. 

This wasn't exactly reassuring to hear from the main character and narrator.

They are, however, pretty truthful.  I wouldn't say she is blind, exactly, but she sort of tricks herself into believing that whatever is happening—in her love life, her regular life, whatever—there is a grander purpose to it.  She picks up a romance with a fellow vacationer at the festival and things spiral from there.  I never felt as if it was a good relationship, or a good place for her to be in.  If anything, it extenuated everything that was wrong in her life.  The less said about her liaison with another Austen actor, the better.

The whole 'Jane Austen' imaginary friend thing was a little bit weird, too.  I honestly was confused at times, wondering if it was meant to be the REAL Jane Austen, or if it was all in her head.  Lily is well beyond the age when such things are 'cutesy,' and truthfully speaking, it creeped me out a bit that it took her so long to get past it.  It's one thing to think 'What would Jane Austen do in this situation?'; entirely another to have a spectral manifestation of that question answer you.

I think I might have been able to overlook these things if I understood where Jones was going overall.  Was Lily meant to learn a lesson (if so, I don't think she did)?  Was it meant to be a cathartic release so that she could move on (ditto)?  I kind of got the impression that Jones wanted us to feel as if the ending had given Lily strength in some manner, but all it really did was annoy me for her fickleness.

In the end, this is really only a book to pick up if you want to play spot the Jane Austen references.  It's liberally dosed—both about her books and the popular culture movies, books, and media about those books—and almost worth it for that alone.  Otherwise, I would skip this and read the actual MANSFIELD PARK itself; at least that main character finds her voice at one point.

Alexandra Cenni

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