Jane Austen in Boca

by Paula Marantz Cohen

Book Overview

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a nice Jewish widower must be in want of a wife. Jane Austen centered her classic novels around "three or four families in a country village." So does Paula... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312319754
• ISBN13: 9780312319755
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Funny, Fresh and witty take on Austen Adaptation

Jane Austen - recreated in the Jewish retirement community in Boca - or more precisely a retired version of Pride and Prejudice complete with a creaky Mr Darcy - I think Austen might have been amused. I loved some of the particularly clever touches in it 0 such as in the matchmaker is no longer the mother (Mrs Bennet in P & P) but the daughter. And that the gloss and colour of a priveleged class that didn't have to work in the Regency/Georgian era, has been transposed to the gloss and colour of a priveleged class that doesn't have to work - only these are retired seniors living in gaudy Florida I think it would work better if you know Pride and Prejudice and who doesn't since Colin Firth did his dash as Mr Darcy? But this is an adaptation rather than P & P directly transposed - but some of the humour has extra spice if you know the original. HOwever if you haven't read Austen don't let this put you off, it is witty and fun - and if you enjoy this then read austen next! I loved this - it had some great moments in it and some genuinely laugh out loud moments. It was an adaptation which worked for me. I didn't want to put it down.

I loved this!

This book was hilarious and hard to put down. The details were very true to life and the characters were likeable and believeable. I look forward to Cohen's next book.

Structure and Style in Boca

Cohen adapts Pride and Prejudice to the senior set living in Boca Raton with wit, a keen eye for manners and customs, and a great sense of the rhythms of language and life one encounters there. The characters show why Austen's observations about human nature are timeless, and Cohen embodies in them the qualities of the Bennett sisters, post-menopause. Most impressive is the novel's structure, which brings the characters together--and to some self-realizations--in a formal discussion of Austen herself in one of Boca's retirement communities. The book, while mildly, often hilariously satiric, brims with a generosity of spirit and deep understanding of the generation of septuagenarian Jews and their offspring. Satisfying reading for anyone who enjoys novels of manners, Jane Austen, or finely wrought observations of life in ethnic communities.

Absolutely delightful

This is a rare book in modern fiction. It has an elusive element that many authors seek but few attain: it has charm.Jane Austen in Boca is a Pride and Prejudice novel set in a modern-day Jewish retirement residence in Boca Raton. Unlike many efforts to borrow Jane Austen's plot lines, this book successfully translates the plot into its setting. The characters are witty, sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, but always interesting. Even though I knew perfectly well how it had to come out, I read as though I were in a genuine state of suspense. In other words, the book lured me into its world and into the minds of its characters with enormous success. If only life were really like this! This book is a delightful read. It is elegantly written and beautifully paced. Without Jane Austen's acerbity, it was nonetheless both compelling and comedic (in the classical sense of the term). I look forward to more fiction from this author.