Jane Goes Batty by Michael Thomas Ford

I have tried to read this book several times, but the beginning never caught fire
with me until yesterday. Now it is today, and I've finished reading it, and would
have finished the same day I started if not for the kids!

I don't know why I didn't like it in the past, but having finished the whole thing, I
must admit it was quite an adventure. While I'm not entirely sold on the idea of
Jane Austen as a vampire, I do like Ford's treatment of it, because it shows a
cast of other literary geniuses who have joined her as part of the army of the
undead, including lord Byron and Charlotte Bronte. It is amusing here to see
how Austen's vampire (who calls herself Jane Fairfax, amusingly enough one of
Austen's least likeable characters) is rivals with Charlotte Bronte, whose vampire
name is Violet Grey (and no, I haven't read enough Bronte novels to know if that
character exists in her writing or not.) Even more amusing, Austen and Byron call
Bronte "our gloomy friend," and supposedly Bronte holds a grudge against Byron
because he got her pregnant hundreds of years before. I mean, how much fun
can you have with literary characters?

In this modern incarnation, Jane Fairfax/Austen has written a best-selling novel
called Constance, that is being made into a movie. The film crew wants to do
some interviews with her just as her boyfriend Walter's Jewish mother (Miriam
Ellenberg) comes into town. And unlike most mother-in-law/girlfriend
relationships, this one is even more stressful since Miriam is a vampire hunter,
and knows exactly why Jane is bad for her son. The two make nice by the end of
the book, with Miriam extracting a promise from Jane that she must give her a
grandchild within a year, or Miriam tells her son the big secret (and then stakes
Jane.)

There is a subplot about Jane losing her editor at the publishing house and an
evil harridan taking the man's place. That woman ends up dead during an Austen
a-Go-Go event set up by another pink-wearing literary critic/blogger/tour guide
named Beverly Shrop, and the murder is blamed on Charlotte Bronte. If it all
sounds very confusing and amusing, it is, and is well worth the time it takes to
read this book.

No, it's not a classic work of literature. But it's fun that an author has taken
characters that any English major loves, hates, at least knows of, and jams them
all together in a funny, tooth-baring modern mashup. The hardest part to read is
the croquet match between Jane and her mother-in-law that goes on for too
many pages, but that's really my fault for not remembering the rules to that lawn
game. 

 Submitted by Gerti