Jane By April Lindner By April Lindner
Summary Jane By April Lindner
Finally! The second book on my list of Top five worst books I'll ever read. Actually, that was the only reason I finished the book. I just knew it belonged on the list.
Where to begin? Let's start with the cover. The cover is the only redeemable aspect of Jane. The characters, dialog, writing, and plot are dismal. As you can see, I said PLOT. Yes, Lindner took one of the most beloved plots in literature and found a way to make it ridiculous. How you may ask? Mr. Rochester, oh I'm sorry, I mean Nico Rathburn is a rock star hoping for a comeback. In this novel, his favorite word is the F word and one of his worst fears is that he may be seen as a soccer dad. Lindner also tries to convince the reader that the most unbelievable thing that could happen today is for a rock star to marry his 19 year old nanny. Really!!!!!
Here is some of the witty dialogue I told you about. Picture it. Jane was walking on the side of the road and Nico almost runs her over, but fortunately he spins out of control and just misses her. He is hurt, but still manages to get this gem of a remark out of his mouth, Where could you be walking to all the way out here in the middle of nowhere? I suppose you're one of those fitness walkers. Oh, it burns!
I could say more, but I might start to hurt the author's feelings, so to all my friends, DON'T READ IT.
9788024917818 I have had my eye on this book ever since I saw it pop up around the blogosphere a few months back. As you know, I am a sucker of the largest order for a good retelling. Retold fairy tales in particular are a weakness of mine, but when I saw that April Lindner's upcoming novel JANE was, in fact, a modern retelling of Jane Eyre, I didn't know my heart could beat quite that fast. I got my masters in literature, specifically Victorian lit, and Jane Eyre has been a special favorite of mine ever since I first read it on a cross country road trip when I was 14. As I am also a huge fan of historical fiction and YA, I think we can safely say I am sitting just about dead center in this novel's target audience. But it should also be noted that quite a bit of that quickening heartbeat can be chalked up to this breathtaking cover. I want to marry this cover. I think it perfectly conveys what you are getting with this package--from the misty moors landscape feel, to the girl in the timeless outfit that could be either Victorian or present day, to the bold pink lettering of the title. It's a modern Jane Eyre. It's got some excellently updated twists. It is at once faithful and fresh. In other words--it's the real deal.
Jane Moore walks up the stone steps of Discriminating Nannies, Inc. with several desperate hopes in her heart. Having just completed her freshman year at Sarah Lawrence, she is forced to drop out and search for work as a nanny when her parents are killed in a car crash and her indifferent siblings make off with what inheritance there is, leaving Jane to give up her education and scramble to support herself as best she can. An art major with only a few child development classes under her belt to qualify her for the job, she feels certain the agency won't deign to look twice at her short resume, but will send her packing in short order. It turns out, however, that she does have one rare and highly sought after qualification. Shy and somewhat taciturn by nature, she does not bother to keep up with popular culture. And, as such, she just might be the perfect nanny for one of the agency's high profile clients. Nico Rathburn, an enormously famous rock star who is trying to mount a comeback tour, has recently found himself in need of a nanny to look after his five-year-old daughter Maddy. And, just like that, Jane is off to Mr. Rathburn's Connecticut mansion Thornfield Park. With a single suitcase containing all her meager belongings, she approaches her new position with some hope but much more trepidation, wondering if she'll be up to the task of being in such close proximity to the rock star's infamously wild lifestyle and temperament in addition to taking care of his little girl. But Thornfield Park turns out to be not at all what she expected. And neither does Nico Rathburn.
Reader, I loved this book so much I can't stop thinking about it. I had such a gut feeling about JANE from the first time I heard about it and it really is one of the most satisfying feelings in the world when your first uninformed impressions of a book come true. It was honestly difficult putting this one down at night and then getting through the next day all the way until reading time once more. I kept eying it, sitting there in my purse. I finished it somewhere in the vicinity of 2 AM a couple of nights ago, with an enormous grin on my face and no one to talk to about it. You see, this is an incredibly faithful retelling. I was actually caught off guard at how closely it sticks to the original tale. What made it even more astonishing, however, was how April Lindner managed to keep so much from the original story and make it her own at the same time. It exists in the marvelous space, where the old and the new meet and wonderful things happen. Nothing about it felt odd or disjointed. This Jane is definitely a descendant of the original. She is just as independent, just as practical and plainspoken and consistent. And Ms. Lindner delicately brought out her vulnerable side, born of such a solitary upbringing, and my heart went out to her. I loved her and worried about her. I wanted to protect her from what I knew was coming. But the thing is? She didn't need me. She was fully up to the task of her story and I was free to sit back, mesmerized, and enjoy the whole thing unfold. A favorite passage from one of Jane's few remembrances of her childhood (taken from my uncorrected ARC):
On one of my days off, cold rain kept me in my room until late afternoon when the sun finally broke through. I pulled on my rainboots, grabbed my raincoat and my tackle box full of art supplies, and hurried out the door. It felt so good to be outside that for once I didn't stop at the high iron fence surrounding Thornfield Park. The guard on duty was a young, open-faced man with long blond hair. He waved me through the gate, smiling, and looked for a moment as though he wanted to speak to me. I considered stopping to introduce myself, but the very thought brought a flush to my cheeks. I looked down at my feet, letting my hair fall forward to curtain my face, and kept hurrying on.
Smile at the other children, I remember my mother telling me at the little playground near our house. Don't cling to me. Go over to the monkey bars and say hello.
I followed her instructions and walked over to the monkey bars. I even tried to say hello to the laughing girls hanging upside down from the topmost bars, but they were so happy and familiar with each other, their long hair sweeping from side to side like banners, that I felt the words die in my mouth. I stood frozen a long time until, still laughing and chattering, the girls unfurled down to the ground and ran off to the swings.
My mother's anxiety about my social skills grew more acute the older I got. By the time she was your age, Jenna had three boys fighting over her, she would say. Why don't you ever go on dates? Usually I would brush the question off and retreat to my room, but once I made the mistake of answering.
I'm not as pretty as Jenna, I said, as though it needed saying.
If you smiled you'd be more approachable. She put a hand on my arm. Isn't there a boy you like?
There was: Michael, a popular boy with creamy skin, roses in his cheeks, and dark brown eyes, a basketball player. I'd liked him since fourth grade. Unlike the other popular boys, he wasn't unkind to girls like me. Once in junior high when the bell rang, I left my pencil case on my desk, and he ran after me, shouting my name.
You forgot this. He pressed the case into my hands. It's nice. You wouldn't want to lose it. He was gone before I could thank him. But he knew my name. And he had cared enough to run after me. The next time I saw him, I wanted to speak to him but hadn't dared to.
Well? asked my mother. There's no boy you like?
I couldn't bring myself to utter his name, to break the magic spell of secrecy and expose my crush to the ordinary light of day. Not really.
My mother withdrew her hand. You're a cold fish, she said.
Tears rose to my eyes. I knew there was no use pleading my case, and before I could think of anything more to say, she turned and walked away. I'm not, I whispered to the empty room.
I love that whisper sent out into the void. She is not. And her spirit will not be dimmed by rough treatment on the part of people who ought to love her. And--while we're on the subject of love. JANE features a splendid one. I have noted that, despite my love for the original book, I often have trouble with May-December romances, in which there is a large age gap between the two principal characters. But I was immediately and fully behind Jane and Nico. Nico is . . . well, Nico is hot. Yeah. You're going to love Nico. The rock star angle works exceedingly well and definitely adds a sexier tone to the novel as a whole. His history is nothing if not cringe-worthy and it is in turns painful and hilarious watching these two beings from different worlds interact. Their relationship is handled so simply and naturally that it somehow becomes its own entity, both echoing and extending the relationship that inspired it. I fell in love with them on their own merits, if you will. At times, my pulse raced for them. This book has the potential to be an excellent crossover novel as these two are old souls and their romance reflects that, enhanced as it is by the modern setting. Happily, the writing matches the characterization. Assured and smooth, I felt shored up by the words. How many books have you read where you already knew exactly what was going to happen, and yet they still held you spellbound? Because that's exactly what happened to me here. As with the best retellings, JANE will leave you utterly satisfied, and with a strong desire to pull out that old copy of Jane Eyre and settle in for a nice, long visit with old friends. 9788024917818 1.5
I really did not enjoy this book, about 100 pages in I started flipping through it. It had the bones of the story of Jane Eyre, but lacked the beauty and weight of the original story. And for the record, Mr.Rochester would never have the occupation of a rock star. 9788024917818 Let me start by saying that I love Jane Eyre. There’s something so effortless about the way Bronte weaves her stories that even if I may not like the plot, I will invariably read her book for the strength of the prose alone. The mastery of the words, the beauty of the sentences – all these things that has the literature buff in me swooning.
I won’t say that Jane Eyre is timeless. I mean, yes, the themes explored in Jane Eyre are timeless but the actual events? No, not so much. At least, I don’t think so.
Jane retells Jane Eyre from a modern perspective. The character is a nineteen (or perhaps 20?) year old girl who is simply called Jane. Now this is going to turn into a comparison and I guess that it would have been inevitable.
There is a reason Bronte introduced the reader to Jane when she was a young child. It let the reader experience the sparseness of Jane’s childhood, her sufferings in the boarding school, it developed her character and made her into the heroine that people love so much. We are with her as she develops from the precocious Jane to the dignified Jane. Who can forget the scene in the parlour when Jane finally spits outrage at her Aunt for the vile things she has had done to her? Or that tender scene when Jane says goodbye to her only friend at the boarding school. This lays the foundations of a sisterhood between Jane and her female readers; makes Jane accessible to her readers and creates a reason for Jane to be the way she is.
Lindner does not devote as much time to Modern Jane in her childhood and therefore sacrifices a gradual development of character. We are, instead, presented with a cold, remote Jane who we are “told” has suffered through certain indignities and cruelties due to neglectful parents and horrendous siblings. I could not relate to this Jane. I mean, I could understand the reason for her coldness but it wasn’t something that led me to empathize with her. If we had been shown some of her childhood, then yeah. Also, we didn’t see any boarding school in action, we didn’t see Jane with a spark. We see Jane as a very boring creature who - I mean, come on now, you are living in the 21st century, in America. You really want to tell me that you have no choice but to become a nanny against your will? I mean, there are such things as student loans and state colleges. It’s a time when opportunity is available for the taking and yes, I’m getting carried away. But see, this is the bit about logic. It didn’t make sense to me.
Moving along, Nico Rathburn. Yeah. Hm. Right. No. He didn’t work for me. I’m sorry. I tried really hard to like him but I couldn’t help but thinking YOU CREEP THAT GIRL IS ONLY NINETEEN YEARS OLD.
You see? I couldn’t get over it. Why did he love her? You mean to tell me that he, being as beautiful as he purportedly is, with as large fan base as he has, he can’t find anyone prettier and more charming than Jane? Because really, a limp noodle would be more interesting than this Jane. Why does he love her so darned much? Why? I don’t see it. And okay, I thought the original Rochester was weird too but this one, with his childish behaviour? Come on, dude. You are, I’m presuming in your 30′s. Mid-30′s. Yet the manner in which he behaves? Even a teenager would express horror at it. There’s no charm in it. He just seems to love playing head games and you know what that means right?
Loads of relationship counseling.
Moving briskly along. In this century, keeping the crazy wife at home? Not so probable. I mean, come on. Nico says “I’ve seen those places, they’re horrible.” Um… you are a rich guy and you can afford people who will treat your wife with kindness – people who KNOW what they are doing instead of that under-cover-alcoholic, not very responsible caretaker who seems to be too drunk to keep a proper eye on the crazy woman. If you love and respect her that much, keep her in a place (with proper medication and professional help) where she’ll have at least a semblance of happiness. This is the 21st century. That kind of reasoning just does not work in this instance. I think Lindner should have tried something else. A deviation from the original to maintain the credibility. In Original Jane Eyre, it works because the modern reader can accept that things have no progressed as far as they have today but in these times, it’s not probable. Not impossible but not something you’d expect someone like Nico Rathburn to do.
And St. John. He’s kind of an asshole, isn’t he? I thought that in the original novel too. He seems more ridiculous in this day and age than he did in the original. I mean, hello, you’re not going to be alone in Haiti. There are other aid missions out there so you can have people you can talk to (I mean, he’s insinuating that Jane will be the only one he can be close to and understand in Haiti – if you don’t think that’s evincing superiority where the Haitians are concerned – well, then, I don’t know what to say it to you.) And why can’t you let Jane make up her own mind without being all insistent about it. Let’s not talk much about him.
I feel that there’s a distinct difference in the culture that Jane Eyre was written in and the one Jane is written in. Jane, the modern version, has been written for a culture that is part of a time past. And that is why it does not work. Jane Eyre answered the desire women had for strength, it was a relevant piece for that time period and that’s what made it successful. Another reason for the success was Jane’s character – that strength she illustrated by running away from Rochester, surviving on her own and then going to be him as a woman, capable of directing her own destiny. She chooses to return to him. This Jane does not show that strength of character. In fact, I remember her saying that she does not know why she ran away. That negates all the necessary growth (or in this case, lack of it) that she did while away.
A successful modern version would have retained the themes apparent in Jane Eyre and known when to deviate from the original and when to retain the plot. It would have successfully addressed the contemporary issues or found a way to address the questions of logic that this one ignored. Jane would have been a woman that evoked admiration and sparked in her female readers a desire to emulate. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it did not and I did not want to be anything like Jane. The original Jane has a vibrancy that she keeps suppressed. This Jane…well. You should know what I think.
9788024917818 Another retelling of Jane Eyre. Nico Rathburn is a rock star in need of a nanny. It actually wasn't as trite as it sounds. The writing is good, but the tone is a bit flat at times. I was in the mood for a spot of Jane Eyre. I'm not very fond of these retellings but fell prey to the interesting book cover. 9788024917818

What if . . .?
Jane Eyre got her job at Discriminating Nannies, Inc.
And Mr. Rochester drove a fast car on a hairpin turn.
And they both ran into each other, of course, then floated on plastic rafts in the pool, flirted at rehearsals for his world rock band tour, and, oh yes, endured all the angst and self-doubt, jealousy and drama of the original tale.
Well, then you would have Jane—April Linder’s sparkling new novel of impossible love, tragic deceit, and . . . a wicked fine guitar solo.
9788024917818 this is my review from the beginning of the book to where i ended on page 212. so if there is anything better past that, i will never know.
and now my review..
you have got to be kidding me?! i am surprised that none of the reviews that i read brought up the ludicrous fact that Jane has sex with Mr. Rathburn. is that what makes this retelling enchanting for a new general of readers? because who is her target audience that April would completely alter and, in fact, disregard this most important and character revealing decision that Jane makes? Ms. Bronte's Jane Eyre's decision to wait to be with the man she loves is a building block on her firmness of character, on her morals. why turn her into an everyday slut for the sake of reaching a younger audience?
in Ms. Bronte's jane eyre Mr. Rochester tries to convince Jane to live with him and sleep with him saying, “Who in the world cares for you? or who will be injured by what you do?”
she replies,
“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God. … Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this. … If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth—so I have always believed. … Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot.”
THIS is Jane Eyre. THIS is a role model for every generation of readers. a woman who stands by her morals and respects herself, even in moments of temptation and trial. 9788024917818 I thought for sure I'd like this, no matter how terrible it was, because I'm 100% trash for Jane Eyre, so how could I possibly not love a modernised retelling?!
Turns out that when the main character is awful and ridiculously judgmental, things don't go exactly the way you want them to...
I made it a whopping 38 pages into this book before I noped my way out of it, and it's for one simple reason: Jane. She's a pretty awful character, and I had no desire to be in her head for another 330 pages.
So the basic gist of the story is that Jane is a 19 year old college student at Sarah Lawrence. But she's forced to drop out and become a nanny when her parents are killed in a car accident. Her older sister wants nothing to do with her, and her older brother sells the family home and disappears with the money. Jane is left basically penniless and goes to a nanny agency.
Thanks to her studies in art and French literature (which is in no way the same as A knowledge of French, lady at the nanny agency) as well as her disgust about popular music and the fact that she's too stuck up to give a shit about celebrities, she lands a sweet gig as nanny to the five year old daughter of rock star, Nico Rathburn. Who, incidentally, was already posters-on-the-wall famous when she was in elementary school. We're not told how old he is, but I'm guessing at least 35-40, which makes the relationship suuuuuuper icky. (Yes, I KNOW the original features a romantic relationship between an 18 year old girl and her 36 year old employer. But IT WAS THE NINETEENTH CENTURY)
She goes and does a bunch of research on Nico in the computer labs before Sarah Lawrence kicks her ass to the curb, and she finds out that he has a history of drug problems and tumultuous romantic relationships, and gets all Ew, rich people are gross and I want nothing to do with them-y. Soooo...go back to the agency and ask for a different job?
On her way to Nico's fancypants mansion in Connecticut, she tells us all about how hideously ugly she is - including the fact that as a kid, she overheard her parents talking about how hideously ugly she is and how gross and offputting her personality is. CLASS ACT, PARENTS - and says that in high school she at least worked her shit out enough to part her hair in the middle and French braid it every day. Girl. Unless you're spending your life with your hair in pigtails, you can't really do both...
She then sad pandas about her appearance before saying I didn't expend a lot of effort on my looks; I liked to think I had better things to do with my time than shop for lip gloss and clothes. Um. Maybe don't feel shit about your appearance if you put in literally zero effort and think you're above it all? Especially not when you've already told the reader about how thin you are and how green your eyes are.
Anyway, when she finally gets to the house, the housekeeper is shocked to discover that Jane's never listened to her employer's music. She - who's already told us that the full sum of her musical training was playing the violin at the age of seven, which she remembers nothing about - proceeds to give us the following:
At first, I wasn't impressed with the music, much less transformed by it. I'd never liked rock music much; the vocals often struck me as abrasive, more yelling than singing, and more about attitude than talent. The first album was made up of simple three-chord pop songs, with an occasional romantic ballad thrown in. The second was more musically and lyrically complex. I remembered from my research that a critic had called the second album Dylanesque in its wild inventiveness, but to my ear the lyrics were undisciplined, full of free association and cryptic personal statements.
And this, I should add, was the point where I went You know what, Jane? You're a judgmental bitch, and I'm done with you. Flipping through the remainder of the book confirmed that this was an excellent life choice.
But hey - if you like retellings of classic literature where men in positions of power fall in instalove with their teenage employees, give it a go. You'll probably like it more than I did. 9788024917818 I’m truly sorry, but I must say this: If you love Jane Eyre as much as I do, do not read this book. I can honestly say that had I not read Jane Eyre before reading this, this book would have destroyed Brontë’s novel for me—this coming from a girl who’s known the story of Jane Eyre since she was four years old (from watching the Timothy Dalton and Orson Welles film adaptations, finally reading it for the first time at age eleven), and has been in love with it ever since. After finishing Lindner’s rendition, I was left feeling utterly betrayed and depressed.
Lindner literally takes Brontë’s novel and paraphrases it. The only differences in the two books is the modern day setting in Connecticut/Manhattan, some of the names of the characters, the lack of focus on Jane’s childhood schooling, the romance between a rock star and his daughter’s nanny and some minor details regarding St. John Rivers’ future plans (here named River St. John, though his sisters retain the ordinary names of Diana and Maria *rolling eyes*). The rest is exactly the same—the same order, the same conflicts, etc. While the madwoman in the attic story works in a 19th century setting, it just doesn’t cut it here in the modern day.
When I first saw Lindner’s novel, I was intrigued to discover how a modern author would take some of the themes addressed in Brontë’s work and put a fresh spin on it—a variation that while having the essence of Jane Eyre, offered something entirely new. A good example of what I’m trying to describe is Robin McKinley’s versions of the Beauty and the Beast tale. (You can even say that at its core, Jane Eyre is also essentially a variation of this tale as well, in terms of the characterization.) McKinley offers three versions of Beauty and the Beast—Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast, Rose Daughter and Sunshine. While keeping the basic essentials of the fairytale, the dramatic changes to the story and plot in each version make it feel like you’re reading a completely different novel each time. Each story is a further digression away from the original fairytale, but that basic essence still colors the stories. That’s what I was looking for, but it was certainly not what I got.
You’d think that since Lindner is copying her story directly from Brontë’s novel, she couldn’t go wrong. But her paraphrasing cuts the soul out of the dialogues amongst the characters. For me, the language of Brontë’s novel builds the characters… their interactions and that witty banter helped me fall in love with Jane and Rochester and helped me understand how that initial spark developed into a burgeoning romance. Consider Rochester’s profession of his feelings, I think it goes something like this: “I have a queer feeling with regard to you, especially when you are near me, as now. It’s as if I had a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if a distance came between us, I’m afraid that chord of communion will be snapped, and I’ve a nervous notion that I should take to bleeding inwardly.” Compare that beautiful passage to this: “Right. Even as I was giving you shit and you were standing up to me in that quiet, stubborn way you have, I had this feeling about you…that we were, you know… kindred spirits.” I felt like Lindner stabbed me with a penknife and twisted it in my heart. All of my favorite sections… every interaction between Jane and Rochester/Nico Rathburn have been reduced to this. There’s absolutely no chemistry between these two characters; and I couldn’t see how Jane’s affection for her employer developed into a “passionate love.” To me, it seems more like the shallow lustful yearnings of a groupie for her music idol; and on his side, a thirty-something year old man trying to recapture his youth by seducing a nineteen year old girl. Yuck!
Even though Nico doesn’t seem to be very articulate in his speech, I at least expected to be able to read some of his music lyrics—especially the lyrics of the song he wrote for Jane, as a means to get some understanding as to why she fell in love with him. But we don’t even get that—at the most there is one line, which isn’t enough to give any kind of information—since Lindner’s main focus is trying to cram in all the essential plot points from the original novel she’s copying. Yet while she does this, she leaves some of the plot points unfinished, namely the points that resulted from the “major” digressions she made from Brontë’s novel. Completely disheartening.
9788024917818 When I think of Jane Eyre, I think of a dark mystery, beautiful prose, and strongly moral characters. Most of all, I think of the undercurrent of passion that burns through all of its primary characters, from the tortured Mr. Rochester to his poor mad wife, to the zealous Mr. Rivers to the unhappy and neglected Adele, and above all else, in the quietly determined Jane herself. It is very strange, therefore, to read a book based on this story that is so severely lacking in any of those elements.
This book would have been much better off if the author had abandoned the notion of basing this on Jane Eyre at all. But even taken on its own merits as a young adult novel, much of it really doesn't even make that much sense. There's just absolutely no way a girl with so little experience and interest in children would ever be entrusted to be the nanny of someone in Nico Rathburne's position, and no convincing reason (being that this is modern times) why he should not have been able to divorce his wife. And do most girls tend to ask their new employers whether he's been tested for sexually transmitted diseases? The relationship between Jane and Nico never felt genuine or loving or real, and really, very few of the characters have any life of their own either. Poor little Maddy, the whole reason why they come together in the first place, is relegated to merely a plot device, as are the other servants, the band members, Jane's siblings, etc. Nico's rock star status seems especially random and doesn't contribute to the story in any meaningful way, except as the realization of some sort of adolescent fantasy.
Jane herself is also a puzzle. There's no real reason given for her being as reserved as she is, either in her upbringing or her beliefs. Just because someone doesn't wear make-up or read gossip magazines and is bookish (though there's no actual evidence of her reading, by the way) doesn't mean she should be boring, for heaven's sake. This girl has so little about her that is interesting or unique, and what spirit she shows is lifted directly and reworked from Charlotte Bronte's own dialogue.
This doesn't mean that a contemporary take on Jane Eyre is a mistake. I think it's actually a great idea to do a modern rewrite on this story, because it's one filled with dramatic tension and romance and tragedy. But it's important that a good rewrite not only captures some spirit or ideal from its source material, but that it also catches the reader's imagination on its very own. As such, dear Reader, I sadly cannot recommend this particular version.
9788024917818
Novodobé zpracování klasického příběhu o Janě Eyreové je současným milostným příběhem s dramatickou zápletkou. Jane Mooreová se po smrti rodičů vzdá studia na výtvarné škole a přijme místo chůvy malé holčičky, jejímž otcem je stárnoucí bývalý rocker. Dívka se sžívá s malou Maddy a chodem domácnosti Thornfield Parku, postupně začne podléhat kouzlu zkušeného podmanivého muže a poprvé v životě se zamiluje. Dům ale skrývá tajemství, které život všech obrátí naruby. Jane By April Lindner