Jane Austen in Scarsdale

Categories: Romance , Rediscoveries , Fiction

Here’s something cheerful.

Paula Marantz Cohen writes charming modern-day Jane Austen tributes. Her Jane Austen in Boca was a very funny take-off on Pride and Prejudice, set in a Florida senior community, where any widower with any means at all must be in want of a wife.

Now with Jane Austen in Scarsdale, she takes on Persuasion, in a tale of a mild high school guidance counselor who has lost in love.

Anne was once talked out of marrying a young travel agent, Ben, by her imperious grandmother. Ben has since gone on to found a wildly successful line of cultural travel guides. Now he’s back in town to enroll his nephew in Fennimore High School. All of the required complications ensue.

It’s hard to capture the spirit of an Austen novel, as the many readers of the many, many recent knock-offs can attest. Cohen hits the mark. No assembly balls or empire dresses, but plenty of gentle satire (the book’s subtitle, Love, Death, and the SATs, hints at the mockery of the modern college application frenzy) and a satisfying romance.