seriously romantic: eligible by curtis sittenfeld

i've said before i'm not a purist. and to be honest the reasons i hesitated about reading eligible was because i wasn't sure about curtis sittenfeld because everyone and their mother loved prep and i hated it and since then i've been reluctant to read her novels. But this was a pride & prejudice update! and it's totally one of my all-time favorite books, so how could i not read this update from the austen project. 

and i'm glad i did. while sittenfeld's opening line doesn't match the iconic "it's a truth universally acknowledged..." she still manages to thoroughly update the story, while keeping both the lightness and piquancy of spirit of the original novel. 

i don't need to summarize the story, if you're reading this without having somehow come across p&p before i admire you even if you are not my people, and somehow think you must be a magical unicorn. if you don't like p&p, i'm pretty sure you won't like this. if you did, and you are familiar with the story, you will still find some surprises in this one. sittenfeld updates characters and the story, she excises some plot point that wouldn't fit the modern retelling, changes the roles for some characters--increasing the use of some while reducing the amount of time spent with others. it all works. 

even though this was a retelling it was still fresh and fun. you could tell that sittenfeld enjoyed putting her own spin on the source material. and i think that kind of joy an author has when they are telling a story they are enjoying makes it sparkle just a bit more. in the end, i really enjoyed this. i was predisposed to like it. but it's also the truth.