All Roads Lead to Austen d'Amy Elizabeth Smith

On sabbatical, Austen devotee Smith (Writing and Literature/Univ. of the Pacific) embarked on a project to discuss Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma with reading groups in Latin America. Displaying the good cheer and wry humor befitting an Austenite (as opposed to, say, an Emily Brontë or George Eliot enthusiast), she plunged into Spanish immersion classes in Guatemala, then set off for a romantic fling and the first of several reading adventures in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Smith was happy to discover that Austen s genteel 19th-century English setting and formal narrative style proved to be relatable to her eager readers: Nearly all of them recognized their own lives in the plots and affirmed that issues of gender, class and familial obligation transcend era and locale. Smith ably captures the lively, often heated, tone of these literary gatherings and delves into the unique characteristics of each country, showcasing an Ecuadorean park teeming with iguanas, a multi-block stretch of Argentinean bookshops, and a tranquil Chilean monastery complete with its own on-site rooster. While the reading-group discussions tend to blur together by the end, Smith remains an engaging narrator throughout. A reader would need to possess either a truly cold heart or a pathological aversion to Austen to begrudge her the swoon-worthy happy ending to her tale. A delightful romp that should appeal to those who appreciate the savvier realms of chick lit. --Kirkus Reviews 1st May 2012

Taking a cue from Azar Nafisi s Reading Lolita in Tehran, literature professor Smith decided to set up Jane Austen reading groups in six different Central and South American countries: Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina. She wanted to see how readers in those countries would relate to Austen. Do Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma translate well at all? In each place she encounters very different groups of readers, from the working class to the intellectual, from housewives who barely have time to read to members of the Jane Austen Society of Buenos Aires. Almost all of them find something in Austen to relate to. Smith makes a point of acquainting herself with some of each country s own writers, but the book is as much about her travels as it is about literature, so we share her discovery of local culture, as well as her romantic entanglements and her bout with dengue fever. Narrated in a breezy style, this is a fun twist on the fascination with all things Jane. --Booklist - 15th May 2012