Columbia, South Carolina’s The State is sponsoring a Reader’s Circle to discuss Such a Girl, a modern re-telling of Persuasion by Karen Siplin.
Nine years have passed since Kendall Stark broke up with her boyfriend, Jack Sullivan. Back then, her college friends had convinced her that Jack was going nowhere, he was a slacker and she would be better off with someone else.
And now Kendall meets him unexpectedly on the street.
Siplin set her novel inside a luxury hotel, where Kendell works as a hotel operator. Jack Sullivan, by contrast, is a successful owner of a New England microbrewery.
Reviewers have compared Siplin’s novel to “Bridget Jones’ Diary,” which is a modern retelling of Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” However, Siplin cautions Austen fans that her novel is only loosely based on “Persuasion.”
“I like that central idea of a woman giving up someone she loves because of society, but I didn’t want my book to be based too closely on Austen,” she says. “So much has changed since Austen’s time. When you are modernizing a classic, you want to write a book that people can identify with now.”
Despite how much has changed since the 18th century, Siplin knows why readers still love Austen: “(Her) writing still speaks to as many people today because her ideas of love, class and family issues are timeless.”
We here at AustenBlog Headquarters find ourselves quite smitten with Ms. Siplin.
More information about the book can be found at the author’s website.
