Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

published 2016

Liz started the engine as her mother climbed into the backseat.

 “The phone rang, and it was Ginger Drossman inviting us for brunch,” Mrs Bennet said. “That’s what took so long.” As she leaned forward into the front seat, a look of concern pinched Mrs Bennet’s features. “Lizzy, I’m sure there’s time for you to run in and put on a skirt.”

In her teens or early twenties, such a remark would have irritated Liz, but at thirty-eight, having wardrobe fights with her mother felt preposterous. Cheerfully she said, “Nope, I’m comfortable.” Even if her mother couldn’t recognize it, the shorts she had on were extremely stylish, as were her sleeveless white blouse and straw sandals.

Jane spoke as they pulled out of the driveway. She said, “I think Lizzy looks pretty.”

[Later, at a different social event]

Darcy wore high-quality flip-flops, khaki pants, and a white oxford cloth shirt rolled up to the elbows and plain save for a monogram on the left breast pocket – FCD V it said, and Liz knew from looking online that his middle name was Cornelius.

commentary: A rewrite of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, re-imagined to a contemporary setting in Cincinnati.

Now there’s a book that could have gone either way, and if you look at the reviews from critics and readers you would not be helped – this book was loved and loathed in roughly equal measure. I don’t think anyone can predict how they will react to it: you have to read it.

I absolutely loved it: a five-star book, and one I’m sure I will read again. I like Curtis Sittenfeld very much – her American Wife is one of the best books I’ve read this century. But on the whole I don’t particularly like rewrites and continuations. So I was open, and was completely converted. (In this particular case -  this doesn’t make me any more likely to read anyone else’s remakes.)

The book is completely hilarious, beautifully imagined, tells a compelling and very entertaining story, and skewers modern life with a light touch. And at the same time there is tremendous fun to be had in pairing off the characters with Austen’s originals, and watching and admiring the way she finds a 21^st century equivalent of the original moments, social events and problems.

Mrs Bennet is a wonderful modern equivalent of the original:

“He’s a lawyer in Atlanta, and he’s very active in his church,” Mrs Bennet said. “If that’s not the description of a man looking for a wife, I don’t know what is.”

Amid the jokes there are often great perceptions, or just moments of life.

Even before Willie replied, Liz felt the loneliness of having confided something true to a person who didn’t care. 

Liz remembered… the three or four times they’d crossed paths in their twenties, when their classmates had gathered at bars the night before Thanksgiving.

[In the UK that would be Christmas Eve. When 20+ singles got back to their parents’ house for the festive season, they'd expect a message to have been left about meeting at a certain bar…]

“It’s a master’s in psychology, right?” Liz said, and Mary nodded. “Would you like to be a therapist?” Liz asked,. The notion seemed at best ill-advised and at worst harmful to others. To her relief, Mary shook her head.

My favourite matchup with the original book was the scene where 19^th Century Lizzie walks through the mud to visit her unwell sister: Bingley’s sisters are horrified and comment on her torn and dirty petticoat. In 2013 Liz can’t get a ride to the hospital, so runs there in her athletic gear. Perfect.

I can’t guarantee that anyone else will like this book – always true, of course, but this is an extreme case. While it would be more than usually pointless to argue with someone about it, a lot of the negative reviews criticize the vulgarity, bitchiness and silliness that Sittenfeld features. You do wonder if those people have actually read Jane Austen? To say that dear dear Jane was above such things is simply not true – quite the reverse, she seems to have made it her role in life to point them out.

I thought it was the perfect book, clever and well-written, and not just a light read either – I kept thinking about it after I finished it. Of course many of the situations are slightly unreal, but Sittenfeld has a lot to say about modern life that makes sense. 

I had one problem with the book: the younger sisters use a slang phrase, in a context making it clear it is quite rude. I had not come across the phrase, so I looked it up - and am SO sorry that I did, I would rather not have known. I am not going to tell you what it was.