I just found out last Wednesday that A Walk with Jane Austen received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. I'm tickled pink and just plain giddy!
This is a huge honor. PW reviews a select number of books, and gives stars to the top tier. I'm really pretty gobsmacked.
“In this engaging, deeply personal and well-researched travelogue, Smith (a PW contributor) journeys to England to soak in the places of Jane Austen’s life and writings. The book is sure to ride the wave of Austen-philia that has recently swept through Hollywood and a new generation of Americans, but this is an unusual look at Jane Austen. Readers will learn plenty of biographical details—about Austen’s small and intimate circle of family and friends, her candid letters to her sister, her possible loves and losses, her never-married status, her religious feelings, and her untimely death at the age of 41. But it is the author’s passionate connection to ‘Jane’—the affinity she feels and her imaginings of Austen’s inner life—that bring Austen to life in ways no conventional biographer could. Smith’s voice swings authentically between her own raw, aching vulnerability as a single Christian woman battling a debilitating and mysterious chronic illness and the surges of faith she finds in the grace of a loving God. And yes, Smith even meets a potential Darcy at the start of her journey. This deliciously uncertain romantic tension holds the book together as Smith weaves her own thoughts, historical research, and fitting references to Austen’s novels into a satisfying whole.”
A starred review from PW is pretty fantabulous -- congratulations!!
Posted by: Kelly Fineman | August 13, 2007 at 12:34 PM