The lovely
Bennet family finally made it to 2016. Jane, the oldest sister, works as a yoga
instructor whereas famous Liz is a journalist for a New York women’s magazine
called “Mascara”. The middle sister Mary is still rather scholarly, preparing
her third Master’s degree, and the youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia spend their
time applying make-up and doing CrossFit workouts. The parents – as in the
original Jane Austen version – are broke and especially the mother is longing
to see, finally, at least one of her daughters being married to a handsome rich
man. The plot is well known, yet Sittenfeld inserts some 21st
century topics such as artificial insemination, transgender partners and well-scripted
reality TV to give the family enough problems to quarrel about.
Admittedly,
I am one of Jane Austen’s billions of fans and not very keen on reading fan
fiction or “borrowed” literary ideas. Yet, Curtis Sittenfeld made something
really new of the plot and I had a great fund reading it. Albeit the overall
plot is identical, he manages to create distinctive characters which are quite
authentic – all these types of young women with their respective problems and
fears exist all over the western world – and depicted in a lively and charming
way. It you loved Liz Bennet in Jane Austen’s novel, you will also find lovable
traits in Sittenfeld’s Liz. By translating the story to our world, he perfectly
transformed the lives of women from then to now and really hit the nail on the
head. The sisters’ thoughts are haunted by the ghosts every woman knows quite
well and thus the old story finds its way into our world.
