Tuesday, January 02, 2007
book report: The Brontë Project
The Brontë Project: A Novel of Passion, Desire, and Good PR
by Jennifer Vandever
I didn't love this book, but I did like it. It's about Sara, a graduate student who is trying to track down lost letters written by Charlotte Bronte. She is engaged to Paul, another grad student with a much more workable thesis proposal. They are planning to get married within the year, when suddenly Paul decides that he needs some space to decide if Sara is really the one for him. Sara suspects that Paul was motivated by flirtatious comments from Claire, the sexy French "Diana Studies" expert (yes, that's Diana as in the princess who died in the car accident...). So Paul departs for some sexy research project in France and Sara comes unglued and discovers that a bad breakup removes one's sense of irony. For example, she had never realized what a deep and profound meaning could be found in REO Speedwagon's "Keep On Loving You".
From there the plot gets sort of lame... Sara hooks up with a movie producer, realizes he's a jerk, goes to France to find Paul, blah blah blah. Chicklit ending.
But Vandever is a good writer, and there were several bits of this book that made me laugh out loud. There was the REO Speedwagon revelation, and there was Sara's teenage devotion to "Wuthering Heights" and her therapist parents' response: "Now how could Cathy and Heathcliff used their communication skills to improve their relationship?" If she writes another book, I'll check it out. I just hope she improves her plot-writing skills a bit first.
by Jennifer Vandever
I didn't love this book, but I did like it. It's about Sara, a graduate student who is trying to track down lost letters written by Charlotte Bronte. She is engaged to Paul, another grad student with a much more workable thesis proposal. They are planning to get married within the year, when suddenly Paul decides that he needs some space to decide if Sara is really the one for him. Sara suspects that Paul was motivated by flirtatious comments from Claire, the sexy French "Diana Studies" expert (yes, that's Diana as in the princess who died in the car accident...). So Paul departs for some sexy research project in France and Sara comes unglued and discovers that a bad breakup removes one's sense of irony. For example, she had never realized what a deep and profound meaning could be found in REO Speedwagon's "Keep On Loving You".
From there the plot gets sort of lame... Sara hooks up with a movie producer, realizes he's a jerk, goes to France to find Paul, blah blah blah. Chicklit ending.
But Vandever is a good writer, and there were several bits of this book that made me laugh out loud. There was the REO Speedwagon revelation, and there was Sara's teenage devotion to "Wuthering Heights" and her therapist parents' response: "Now how could Cathy and Heathcliff used their communication skills to improve their relationship?" If she writes another book, I'll check it out. I just hope she improves her plot-writing skills a bit first.
Labels: book reports
