Eligible

Like this?  The title of the book is Eligible.

HMSCody

Oh, duh, I didn't see that the title of the thread was the title of the book. Sometimes I need a keeper. Smack, smack.

HMSCody

Michiko Kakutani didn't like it (NY Times). But most of the people I've talked to who read it say it's the best of the "Austen Projects" books, which is damning with faint praise (though they say it's good). I read the S&S and NA updates and found them meh; not bad, but not really memorable. I want to read the updated Emma, because I like Alexander McCall Smith's "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" books, but I think my book club might be reading it so I'm holding off.

Another NYT article said the books aren't selling very well. I don't think they know who their audience is. But they're flogging Eligible all over the place--can't swing a cat the past week or so without hitting Curtis Sittenfeld talking about it. But she hasn't had any Joanna Trollope "fat Americans in Empire gowns" moments, at least. I think the combination of being an American author--the only one so far in this series--and being based on P&P will make it more popular than the others. No news on updates of MP or Persuasion yet, and I wouldn't be surprised if Harper has given up on the whole thing.

Like I said, I don't think Harper knows their audience for these. Is it Janeites, or not? I would say not, but that doesn't make sense. Shoot for a broad audience by all means, but why exclude the Janeites, whose money is as good as anyone's, one would think? What was their motivation? There's a part of me that thinks somebody at Harper saw all those amateur fanfic writers making bank on Austen sequels (a couple did, but most haven't) and figured, "We'll sign up REAL writers and do it RIGHT and then we'll have a room full of money we can dive into, Scrooge McDuck-style, because OBVIOUSLY we can beat these AMATEURS who aren't REAL writers." How's that working out for you, Harper?

After reading the first two books, I opined, because the books slavishly followed the originals in scene-for-scene rewrites (kind of like the American remake of Life on Mars and the first couple episodes of Law and Order UK), that some suit at Harper told the authors to make sure they don't leave anything out, because "You know how Those Austen People are!" But if the books aren't intended for Those Austen People, then what? I repeat, who is the audience?

I kind of feel like writing a blog post on it but would probably be opening up a can of worms. I don't know why I'm so shy about doing that all of a sudden. I think because I no longer have the energy to referee Internet pie fights. Y'all have spoiled me. But it looks like I have one half-written already, doesn't it?