All Roads Lead To Austen: A Yearlong Journey With Jane (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
I was looking forward to reading this book because two of my favorite things came together in one place...Jane Austen and travel writing! I was not disappointed. It was a pretty light-hearted journey through Latin America and I liked the tone and the author's writing and I was very interested to see at the end if she found her Mr. Darcy. There was a great line toward the end of the book that really spoke to me, "I hadn't realized how my trip would really be a road test of values and beliefs...Don't judge too hastily; not everyone wants the same things out of life; people's circumstances color how they respond to everything; we're not all speaking the same language, even when we're speaking the same language." As an Austen fan, I expected to like this book more than I did. The author travelled all over Latin America, practicing her Spanish by holding Jane Austen book club meetings. She was curious to see how Latin American readers would react to Austen’s book, whether they would identify with her characters.The descriptions of the countries and their inhabitants are really interesting. Smith is actually at her best writing a straight travel piece, telling us her adventures here and there, observing the differences between the various countries. She’s a perceptive and articulate observer of the life around her. The book club meetings themselves are on the boring side. Even though I’ve read all of Austen’s novels several times over, I didn’t remember the name of every character, and there are lots of glancing references to all of them. The conversation (translated into English, of course) is recorded at length, and very little of it is really worth it. Every book club has different people, so we don’t get to care about them enough to value their opinions. There’s some romance, and that’s kind of fun, especially since it manages to echo Pride and Prejudice. I did have the feeling that Smith twisted her two suitors slightly so that they would better correspond to Austen’s characters.
What do You think about All Roads Lead To Austen: A Yearlong Journey With Jane (2012)?
Light, but entertaining. Fun after spending a weekend watching 3 Austen-based movies.
—Gary
very good although non fiction it read like fiction. enjoyed it
—PrettylitlleMe
For a quick, entertaining read, I really enjoyed it!
—Sabreen
Once again feeding my Jane Austen fetish
—KairiDark
