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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | LP Fic Sittenfeld, C. 2016 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... West Salem Branch Library | LP Sittenfeld, C. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Wonderfully tender and hilariously funny, Eligible tackles gender, class, courtship, and family as Curtis Sittenfeld reaffirms herself as one of the most dazzling authors writing today.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND THE TIMES (UK)
This version of the Bennet family--and Mr. Darcy--is one that you have and haven't met before: Liz is a magazine writer in her late thirties who, like her yoga instructor older sister, Jane, lives in New York City. When their father has a health scare, they return to their childhood home in Cincinnati to help--and discover that the sprawling Tudor they grew up in is crumbling and the family is in disarray.
Youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia are too busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to get jobs. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master's degree and barely leaves her room, except for those mysterious Tuesday-night outings she won't discuss. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters, especially as Jane's fortieth birthday fast approaches.
Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible . At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip's friend neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming. . . .
And yet, first impressions can be deceiving.
Praise for Eligible
"Even the most ardent Austenite will soon find herself seduced." -- O: The Oprah Magazine
"Blissful . . . Sittenfeld modernizes the classic in such a stylish, witty way you'd guess even Jane Austen would be pleased." -- People (book of the week)
"[A] sparkling, fresh contemporary retelling." -- Entertainment Weekly
"[Sittenfeld] is the ideal modern-day reinterpreter. Her special skill lies not just in her clear, clean writing, but in her general amusement about the world, her arch, pithy, dropped-mike observations about behavior, character and motivation. She can spot hypocrisy, cant, self-contradiction and absurdity ten miles away. She's the one you want to leave the party with, so she can explain what really happened. . . . Not since Clueless, which transported Emma to Beverly Hills, has Austen been so delightedly interpreted. . . . Sittenfeld writes so well--her sentences are so good and her story so satisfying. . . . As a reader, let me just say: Three cheers for Curtis Sittenfeld and her astute, sharp and ebullient anthropological interest in the human condition." --Sarah Lyall, The New York Times Book Review
"A clever, uproarious evolution of Austen's story." -- The Denver Post
"If there exists a more perfect pairing than Curtis Sittenfeld and Jane Austen, we dare you to find it. . . . Sittenfeld makes an already irresistible story even more beguiling and charming." -- Elle
"A playful, wickedly smart retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice ." -- BuzzFeed
"Sittenfeld is an obvious choice to re-create Jane Austen's comedy of manners. [She] is a master at dissecting social norms to reveal the truths of human nature underneath." --The Millions
"A hugely entertaining and surprisingly unpredictable book, bursting with wit and charm." -- The Irish Times
"An unputdownable retelling of the beloved classic." -- PopSugar
Author Notes
Elizabeth Curtis Sittenfeld was born August 23, 1975 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is an American writer. Her titles include: Prep, the tale of a Massachusetts prep school; The Man of My Dreams, a coming-of-age novel and an examination of romantic love; and American Wife, a fictional story loosely based on the life of First Lady Laura Bush.
Sittenfeld attended Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, before transferring to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. At Stanford, she studied Creative Writing. At the time, she was also chosen as one of Glamour magazine's College Women of the Year. She earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa. In 2018 she made the bestseller list with her title, You Think It, I'll Say It.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
With her latest, Sittenfeld has crafted an entertaining modern update of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, though one that at times strains credulity. Like their Regency counterparts, the 21st-century Bennets are approaching crisis-potential financial ruin as a result of Mr. Bennet's heart attack-but are blissfully oblivious. To put things right, Liz, a successful magazine writer, and Jane, a yoga teacher contemplating artificial insemination, return from New York City to the family home in Ohio. When Chip Bingley, the former star of a Bachelor-esque show and still single, enters the scene with his arrogant sister Caroline and the seemingly pompous Fitzwilliam Darcy in tow, it's clear that romance is on the horizon. While the story is compulsively readable, the pop culture references make it unwieldy at times. As always, Sittenfeld soars when it comes to portraying relationships, and teens will particularly enjoy the witty barbs that fly between Caroline and Liz. Often, however, the author's attempts to hew closely to Austen's plot result in some odd choices. Where in the original, Mrs. Bennet's desire to marry Lizzy off to the unctuous Mr. Collins stemmed from understandable motives, here, her insistence that Liz become involved with her cousin, a socially inept dotcom millionaire, is downright bizarre. Nevertheless, this is an overall breezy read that will have savvy teens laughing. VERDICT Although this work doesn't hold up under close scrutiny, it's an utterly engrossing, hilariously over-the-top send-up that will appeal to Sittenfeld fans, Janeites, and lovers of chick lit.-Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In Sittenfeld's amusing modern-day retelling of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bennet writes for a women's magazine, Jane Bennet teaches yoga, Lydia and Kitty Bennet are CrossFit enthusiasts on paleo diets, heartthrob Chip Bingley is a reality-TV star, and Fitzwilliam Darcy is a neurosurgeon. Austen fans will recognize Liz and Darcy's instant dislike for each other, their serial misunderstandings and sexual tension, and Jane's quiet goodness, Bingley's sister's snobbishness, and Darcy's sister's vulnerability. Sittenfeld adeptly updates and channels Austen's narrative voice-the book is full of smart observations on gender and money. Reader Campbell handles the large cast of characters with ease, deftly portraying different personalities with different voices, most memorably the catty Caroline Bingley, the dryly sardonic Darcy, and the flustered, melodramatic Mrs. Bennet. This audiobook is a fun addition to the growing canon of P&P-inspired fiction, perfect for summer beach listening. A Random House hardcover. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Sittenfeld takes on the challenge of modernizing Pride and Prejudice as part of the Austen Project in her fifth novel (Sisterland, 2013, etc.). Gone are the rolling hills of the English countryside. In Sittenfeld's latest, Longbourn has been transformed into an oversized and neglected Tudor in the upscale Hyde Park neighborhood of Cincinnati. The Bennet sisters range in age from 23 to pushing 40, all unwed but certainly not inexperienced. Kitty and Lydia are politically incorrect CrossFit fanatics; Mary cares little about the crumbling state of her family's affairs as she collects online degrees; Jane is an ethereal beauty of a yoga instructor who wants very badly to become a mother; and Liz, well, Liz is a New York-based magazine writer who fixes everyone else's problems as the Bennets find themselves together again after a health scare (and Mr. Bennet casually reveals he has no health insurance, oh, and two mortgages). The modernization of this classic story allows for a greater and more humorous range of incompetency and quirks; for example, Mrs. Bennet now has Valium and online shopping to distract her from constant anxiety. These familiar characters must deal with issues far beyond class and the all-important institution of marriage; everything from sexuality to racism to eating disorders and single parenthood factor in. And it's all written in a giddily charming blend of 19th-century novel-meets-21st-century casual swearing: Liz finds her enemy, Caroline Bingley, "looking bitchily gorgeous in an expensive frock." Oh, it's about time we get to the Bingleys and our man of the hour, pensive neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy. As the Bennets deal with financial ruin, Cincinnati welcomes a new doctor, Chip Bingley (and friends), to town; he's recently starred on the Bachelor-like reality show Eligiblewhich (surprise) did not end in love. In the end, it takes an exceedingly long time, with Liz busy being the "voice of reason amid a cacophony of foolishness," for Darcy to feel significant to the story. Delight in this tale for its hilarious and endearing family drama, but don't expect to get the same level of romantics and Darcy-inflicted swoon that make the original untouchable. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Sittenfeld (Sisterland, 2013) transplants the beloved characters of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice from nineteenth-century Regency England to contemporary Cincinnati, Ohio, in this fun, frothy modernization. The Bennet family has similarly fallen on hard times here, thanks to exorbitant medical bills, reckless spending, and the perpetual underemployment of four of the five Bennet daughters. Liz Bennet, the only one holding down a regular job, as a magazine writer, and her older sister, Jane, rush home from New York after their father has heart surgery. Jane is approaching 40 and has decided to have a child on her own, while Liz is pining for Jasper Wick, the feckless married man with whom she's been having an affair. But the two are soon embroiled in new romances. Jane falls for Chip Bingley, a dashing ER doctor who once searched for a wife on a reality show, while Liz fends off the affections of her step-cousin and finds a novel way to channel her feelings of loathing for the elitist but devastatingly handsome Fitzwilliam Darcy. Sittenfeld has updated some of the characters and story lines to better fit a contemporary setting, but her charming retelling is a delightful romp for not only Austen devotees but lovers of romantic comedies and sly satire, as well. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Best-selling Sittenfeld plus Jane Austen? What more could mainstream fiction readers ask for? Eligible will be supported by a sweeping, many-faceted media campaign and an author tour.--Huntley, Kristine Copyright 2016 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
SPAIN IN OUR HEARTS: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939, by Adam Hochschild. (Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $15.99.) Hochschild, the author of "King Leopold's Ghost," structures this account of the conflict as a collective biography of Americans who fought for the Republican side. He investigates the romantic appeal of the cause and the reasons for its failure. HYSTOPIA, by David Means. (Picador, $18.) In this novel within a novel - framed as a manuscript by a fictional Vietnam veteran, Eugene Allen, written shortly before he committed suicide - John F. Kennedy is entering his third term as president and has founded a program, the Psych Corps, to treat traumatized soldiers. Allen's story centers on two corps agents who have fallen in love and set off to recover a young woman who has been abducted. LOUISA: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams, by Louisa Thomas. (Penguin, $18.) Born in London, the woman who married John Quincy Adams lived across Europe with her family, then her diplomat husband, before coming to the United States. These experiences helped set her apart, as did the trove of writing she left behind. Thomas draws on Louisa's memoirs, travelogues and extensive correspondence to offer a rich interior portrait. FOR A LITTLE WHILE: New and Selected Stories, by Rick Bass. (Back Bay/Little, Brown, $18.99.) In this collection of tales, humans act on their animal natures, and the natural world is suffused with the holy; in one story, an ice storm and powerful arctic front leads a dog trainer and her client to an encounter with the sublime. As our reviewer, Smith Henderson, put it, Bass, "a master of the short form," writes not only "to save our wild places, but to save what's wild and humane and best within us." YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Taste in an Age of Endless Choice, by Tom Vanderbilt. (Vintage, $16.95.) Vanderbilt, a journalist, has written a guide to the invisible forces shaping personal preferences - and the companies trying desperately to understand, and profit from, taste. Taste is both contextual and categorical, he argues, leading to a baffling capriciousness in what people like and why. ELIGIBLE, by Curtis Sittenfeld. (Random House, $17.) A retelling of "Pride and Prejudice" unfolds in the Cincinnati suburbs: Liz, a magazine writer in New York, comes home to find her family in disarray, and meets Darcy, now in the guise of a neurosurgeon from San Francisco who is profoundly underwhelmed by the Midwest. Sittenfeld's version seamlessly transplants Jane Austen's story to a modern American setting.
Library Journal Review
Sittenfeld's (Sisterland) latest is a delightful present-day adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. As in the original, the author demonstrates how doing what is "proper" often culminates in hurt feelings, misunderstandings, miscues, and general hilarity. Sittenfeld is relatively faithful to Austen's plot, characterization, and themes, updating them to 21st-century problems, social issues, and possibilities. Liz Bennet is a New York writer who comes home to Cincinnati to help out when her father is ill, and Fitzwilliam Darcy is a local neurosurgeon. Cincinnati and the family home are integral characters here, younger sisters Lydia and Kitty are obsessed with their CrossFit workouts, and Chip Bingley is moderately famous for his stint on the reality dating program Eligible. Consummate narrator Cassandra Campbell is especially gifted in performing the biting dialog between Liz and Darcy, though she enlivens all of the varied voices. -VERDICT A great listen! Will be loved by Austen fans as well as those who gravitate to charming, funny contemporary fiction. ["Austen fans will adore this new offering, a wonderful addition to the genre": LJ 2/15/16 review of the Random hc.]-Sandra C. Clariday, formerly with Tennessee Wesleyan Coll. Lib., Athens © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.