Put down your diary, Bridget Jones.
Make way for Curtis Sittenfeld, whose amusing if crass new novel Eligible (Random House, 488 pp., *** out of four stars) is the latest “modern retelling” of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s beloved Regency romance.
Sittenfeld, witty author of Prep and American Wife, seems the woman for the job in the 21st century, as Bridget creator Helen Fielding was in the 1990s.
If you’re updating the adorably contentious love story of “Liz” Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy for 2016, you have to throw in texting, reality TV, hookup sex, start-ups, transgender politics and yoga, right? So it would seem, and somehow it mostly works, even if gentle Jane is probably rolling over in her grave in Winchester Cathedral.
Austen’s 1813 classic comedy of manners, money and marriage is holding up quite nicely on its own, thank you. But give Sittenfeld props for diving into her chick-lit satire (sanctioned by The Austen Project) with gusto, and making interesting choices — some work better than others — about how to move the long-gone world of ballrooms and “marriageable” girls into the present.
All five contemporary Bennet sisters are eligible, and these spinster sisters are considerably older than their Austen counterparts. The eldest, Jane, is 39, with our heroine Liz, a New York-based magazine writer, nipping at her heels at 38. They have men in their lives, but not the right ones. (Liz’s longtime jerk of a boyfriend is married and named Jasper Wick, a wink-wink to P&P villain Wickham.)
Back home in Cincinnati as their father recovers from a heart attack, Liz and Jane meet Chip Bingley, a local doctor and the most recent bachelor on the hit TV reality show Eligible, and his snooty friend, the neurosurgeon Dr. Darcy.
We know where this will end, but it’s fun seeing how Sittenfeld gets us there (even if 488 pages seems excessive). And what she does is not always predictable, either. The vile Lady Catherine de Bourgh of P&P is now the cool Kathy de Bourgh, a feminist icon. Sittenfeld’s Darcy turns out to be mighty likable, while Liz is mighty annoying. Droll Mr. Bennet is spot-on and very Austenesque. Sittenfeld's younger Bennet sisters, especially Lydia, are just downright gross at times.
Hey, these are tacky times. So put aside your prejudice, Janeites. Eligible is good for some giggles on the beach. And a little romance — as convoluted and tortuous as ever — never hurt, either.
