Title: At least it got me to read Austen
Review: The best I can say about this book is that it got me to read Jane Austen. Karen Fowler can write well, but this story falls flat and goes nowhere. It is a kind of chick lit light. Even readers who like this book admit it lacks a plot, and I'll add that it lacks any likable, interesting, or understandable characters. We get snippets of background on each of the six members of the book club, but that doesn't help our understanding of their present circumstances or behavior. All of the discussions of Austen's books are superficial - the discussion questions at the back, as bad as they are, are better than anything in the story. Fowler also makes a strange tie-in to science fiction, presumably because she is also a science fiction writer? All of the characters are confused about life and love, but not in an interesting and insightful way. If Fowler was trying to write a modern parody of a generic Jane Austen book, then I would say it is too generic.
Is this product review negative?