The Jane Austen Book Club

A first-person plural narrator introduces six members of a book club in California's Central Valley devoted exclusively to the novels of Jane Austen. Jocelyn, a Rhodesian Ridgeback breeder in her early fifties, organizes the group and handpicks its members. Her oldest friend is Sylvia, whom she has known since Girl Scout camp at age 11. Sylvia's husband of 32 years, Daniel, has just asked for a divorce. The club also includes Sylvia's 30-year-old daughter, Allegra, a jewelry maker and self-identified lesbian; Prudie, the youngest member at 28, a high school French teacher and the only one currently married; Bernadette, the oldest at 67, who considers Austen a comic genius; and Grigg Harris, a quiet, dark-haired man in his early forties whom none of the others know. The group suspects Jocelyn has invited Grigg as a romantic match for someone, though they cannot determine whom. Each chapter pairs a monthly meeting on one of Austen's six completed novels with the characters' backstories and private dramas.

At the first meeting in March, the group discusses Emma on Jocelyn's screened porch. Grigg arrives with a brand-new edition of Austen's complete novels, signaling he is a newcomer to her work. When he offers an observation about menace in Emma, Prudie and Allegra dismiss him, and he falls silent. Jocelyn's backstory unfolds through the chapter: her parents' divorce when she was 11, a sexual assault by an older boy at a dance when she was 15, and her lifelong difficulty falling in love. In high school, Jocelyn helped bring Sylvia and Daniel together and served as maid of honor at their wedding. After the meeting, Sylvia confesses that she misses Daniel desperately. Jocelyn reassures her, and Sylvia, noting that Austen always ends with weddings, replies, "We haven't come to the end yet."

In April, the group reads Sense and Sensibility at Sylvia's house, where Allegra has moved in since Daniel's departure. Allegra's backstory reveals her as a person of extremes, artistically talented but emotionally volatile. She met her girlfriend Corinne while skydiving, breaking her elbow on her first solo jump. Over time, Corinne asked Allegra to share her most private stories, then secretly wrote them into short fiction and submitted them to magazines. When Allegra discovered the rejection letters, she fled to her parents' house, devastated by the betrayal, and refused to speak to Corinne again.

The May chapter belongs to Prudie, who volunteers to host the discussion of Mansfield Park. On a sweltering school day, Prudie watches her students and prepares index cards for the evening's meeting. Her backstory reveals a childhood with a single mother who fabricated events, including an elaborate birthday party that never happened. Prudie grew up uncertain about what was real, compensating with diaries and lists. She met her husband Dean at a college bar, where he told her he was going to marry her. What mattered to Prudie was that he thought she was pretty at first sight. Before the book club can meet, Dean arrives with news that Prudie's mother has been in a car accident and is unconscious. Prudie is put on a plane to San Diego, clutching her 42 index cards, refusing to believe her mother is dying.

Prudie misses the June meeting on Northanger Abbey, held at Grigg's rented cottage, because her mother has died. The group is surprised by his cozy home, his well-read bookshelves full of science fiction, and his black cat, Maximum Cat. Grigg grew up in Orange County as the only boy among three older sisters: Amelia, Bianca, and Cat. In fifth grade, his father gave him a science fiction magazine, and the experience made a reader out of him. A parallel backstory reveals that Jocelyn met Grigg almost a year earlier when her dog show overlapped with a science fiction convention at the same hotel. He gave her two novels by Ursula K. Le Guin that she never read. Months later, after losing a tech job and relocating to the Valley, he emailed Jocelyn, and she invited him into the book club. During the discussion, Grigg reveals he has never read Pride and Prejudice, a fact the narrator repeats twice for emphasis.

The July meeting on Pride and Prejudice takes place at a Sacramento library fund-raiser where the group has gathered to support Sylvia, since Daniel is expected to attend with his new girlfriend. Grigg drives Jocelyn, but they quarrel when he asks whether she has read the Le Guin books. She has not. Jocelyn insists she likes "books about real people"; Grigg counters that Elizabeth Bennet is not more real than characters in science fiction. He takes the wrong exit and runs out of gas, and they walk the remaining blocks in the heat. Bernadette's life story emerges over the evening: a childhood as a tap dancer, a first marriage to a politician who ran off with her sister, a visit to a commune where a self-proclaimed prophet introduced LSD, and multiple marriages, none of which could contain her whole self. A mystery writer at their table admits he does not read "women's stuff." Prudie retorts that "Austen can plot like a son of a bitch." Daniel never shows. Prudie, left alone and tearful, accepts the writer's offer to dance rather than sit by herself.

The August discussion of Persuasion centers on Sylvia. Allegra falls at a climbing gym, and though X-rays reveal nothing broken, the scare brings Daniel and Sylvia together in hospital chairs overnight. Sylvia organizes a beach trip afterward and invites Grigg, along with his visiting sister Cat. On the beach, Cat tells Jocelyn privately that Grigg likes her. Jocelyn is startled; she confesses to Sylvia that she had originally invited Grigg into the club as a match for Sylvia. Sylvia refuses: "I took your boyfriend away from you back in high school and it all came to nothing. I'm not doing it again." Jocelyn decides she will read the Le Guin books, and if they turn out to be good, she will consider giving Grigg a chance.

Daniel leaves a letter under Sylvia's door echoing Captain Wentworth's confession from Persuasion: He wants to come home and writes, "in my heart it's always been you." Sylvia reads and rereads the letter, watching her feelings shift. At the final meeting on Sylvia's deck, Allegra gives her mother a birthday gift: a repainted Magic 8-Ball labeled "Ask Austen," containing Austen quotations as answers. Jocelyn turns to Grigg and tells him she read the Le Guin novels and loved them. Their conversation becomes intimate but remains about books. Daniel appears at the door holding a copy of Persuasion and says it is "all about second chances." Jocelyn protests he is not in the club; Daniel replies he will read every Austen novel: "Whatever it takes." Sylvia shakes the ball, and Jocelyn asks what the answer means. "It means he can stay," Sylvia says, and Jocelyn's face shows a flash of relief.

In a brief epilogue set in November, the group meets one last time. Bernadette has married a Costa Rican plantation owner she met on a birding trip and is moving abroad. Grigg and Jocelyn have returned from a fantasy convention together. Daniel has moved back home with Sylvia. Allegra has reunited with Corinne, though the group is skeptical. The Ask Austen ball delivers a final answer: "The mere habit of learning to love is the thing."