Books From the Backlog #151
Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks.
If you would like to join in, please feel free to enter your link and link back to this post, then spend some time visiting some of the other posts at Carole's Random Life in Books blog.
This week's neglected book:
Re Jane by Patricia Park
Classic Retelling, Chick Lit
5.5.15
Pages: 352
Blurb:
For Jane Re, half-Korean, half-American orphan, Flushing, Queens, is the place she’s been trying to escape from her whole life. Sardonic yet vulnerable, Jane toils, unappreciated, in her strict uncle’s grocery store and politely observes the traditional principle of nunchi (a combination of good manners, hierarchy, and obligation). Desperate for a new life, she’s thrilled to become the au pair for the Mazer-Farleys, two Brooklyn English professors and their adopted Chinese daughter. Inducted into the world of organic food co-ops, and nineteenth–century novels, Jane is the recipient of Beth Mazer’s feminist lectures and Ed Farley’s very male attention. But when a family death interrupts Jane and Ed’s blossoming affair, she flies off to Seoul, leaving New York far behind.
Reconnecting with family, and struggling to learn the ways of modern-day Korea, Jane begins to wonder if Ed Farley is really the man for her. Jane returns to Queens, where she must find a balance between two cultures and accept who she really is.
WHY DID I PICK THIS ONE?
I was given this book in 2015 because a book pal knew I enjoyed classic retellings. This retelling is for Jane Eyre and she was a bit meh on the book so didn't want to keep it. I enthusiastically, and with no investigation, told her 'sure, I'll take it'. I meant to read it right away, but when I read the blurb, it put me off for a couple reasons though her Korean background pulled me in. First, I'm not a fan of cheating on spouses even in fiction and that is what it appears is happening (thank you marketing peeps who made this clear in the blurb) and, also, it seems pretty loosely tied to the Jane Eyre story if at all.
So, it's just been sitting there. I'm leaning toward passing it along without reading it now that I've pulled it down and considered it (and rejected it) for a Retelling RAT I'm participating in this month. Anyone read it and can advise about the parts that make me wary?
