ELIGIBLE by Curtis Sittenfeld

When I first began reading this book, I found it to be frivolous and concluded that perhaps transporting Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to 21^st century America was not such a great idea.  However, I soon changed my mind and became completely engrossed in this guilty pleasure.  The five Bennett sisters, all unmarried, have come home to the family Tudor mansion in Cincinnati to help out during their father’s recovery from heart surgery.  Actually, only the two oldest—Jane and Liz—have come home, because Mary, Lydia, and Kitty already live there.  Jane and Liz live and work in New York, while the other three have failed to launch.  Liz soon discovers that her family’s fortune has now been replaced by a mountain of debt.  Mrs. Bennett, whose lack of good sense is appalling, secures an invitation to a party at which Jane meets and eventually falls for Chip Bingley, a doctor who has just appeared on a reality TV show in which he was expected to choose a wife.  Also at the party is Chip’s friend Fitzwilliam Darcy, a neurosurgeon.  Liz overhears Darcy making snide remarks about the women in Cincinnati, and the two soon become verbal sparring partners and more, especially since they seem destined to keep running into each other.  Their relationship is juicy, delicious, and sexy, and they are too busy insulting one another to realize how much they really enjoy one another’s company.  I would love to see a movie based on this version of a story we’ve seen time and again on film.  It would be so fresh and fun.