When a book lover picks up a novel purporting to be a retelling of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, said book lover may be forgiven for having certain anxieties. Has our beloved Jane not suffered enough indignities this year, dear reader? Her unfortunate bout with zombies, her entanglements with sea monsters... it hardly seems fair to subject the Austen canon to yet another reimagining. But take heart, Austen fans, for the newest entry is Cathleen Schine's The Three Weissmanns of Westport, and it is a marvelous book. Schine has proven herself skilled at the comedy of manners (most notably 1994's Rameau's Niece), and her books are as effervescent and full of charm as any being written today. The Dashwoods--pardon, the Weissmanns--are in good hands.
The titular Weissmanns are mother Betty, recently displaced from her Central Park West home and abandoned by her husband of nearly 50 years, and adult sisters Annie and Miranda. They have taken refuge from a cold, cruel Manhattan in Westport, Conn., in a dilapidated cottage owned by garrulous cousin Lou. The parallels abound but the resolutions for these three look a bit unlike Austen's. The world, apparently, is a different place than it was in the 19th century. The mating rituals are familiar, however, as are the economic concerns.
Happily the pleasures in revisiting Austen quickly become secondary to the pleasures of reading Cathleen Schine. Her skills as a comic novelist are apparent from page one: "Irreconcilable differences?" she said. "Of course there are irreconcilable differences. What on earth does that have to do with divorce?" And this gem, on Miranda's downfall as a hotsy-totsy literary agent whose stable of authors, memoirists of a certain stripe, are revealed to be big fat liars:
"Because in real life people make things up," she said to Oprah.
But Oprah shook her iconic head and Miranda was overwhelmed with shame.
There are holidays, tears, secrets and jokes--all the familiar elements that one expects in a good domestic comedy. While enjoying the book fully on its own merits, every once in a while the reader is reminded that she is seeing through to something else, a palimpsest of two other sisters, in different clothes, in different times. And that, dear reader, is the next level of joy that Cathleen Schine provides us with in this, her newest book, a delight.--Michael Wells
Shelf Talker: A charming comedy of modern manners that uses Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility as a touchpoint. Warm, witty and wholly enjoyable.
Michael Wells has been selling books since he was 17 years old. He spent his college years deep in the libraries of the Midwest. After moving to Seattle he began working at Bailey/Coy Books, where he eventually became manager of the store, a position that he held for 15 years. When Barbara Bailey retired in 2003, Wells purchased the store. Bailey/Coy Books closed in November 2009, but Michael's book-loving ways continue.