Debut novel compared to Jane Austen
Another author compared to Jane Austen. . .
Is all this literary? Heavens, no. Harding isn’t trying to be Virginia Wolfe or Margaret Atwood.
Jane Austen? Well, maybe. Except that Harding is harder on her characters than on the society which has spawned them.
But if you’re searching for some literary predecessor to what Harding does in her first novel, Austen is your best bet.
Except, of course, “The Journal of Mortifying Moments” is written in fluid 21st-century prose, and it uses the obvious to its own advantage.
Is it just us or does the novel sound rather Bridget Jonesish?
November 23rd, 2004 at 11:21 am
Huh. Well, I’m certainly surprised to find that Austen isn’t “literary.”
I really hate to disillusion everybody, but not every new novel about a single woman in search of love owes a direct debt to Austen. Believe it or not, she didn’t even invent the romance-story-mixed-with-social-critique format, or the comedy of manners either. She just did them better than anyone before or since.
And it’s Woolf, not “Wolfe.” I hate nitwit reviewers.