The Family Fortune: Laurie Horowitz

From clever teen movies to Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones books, the universality of Jane Austen stories masterfully lend themselves to retelling like few others. In The Family Fortune, Laurie Horowitz cleverly retells Persuasion, moving the time and place to Boston, now.

The Fortune family's money has unfortunately trickled away, due to the habits of Jane's foolish sister and father. Only Jane remains sensible, working on her esteemed literary review as a part of the philanthropic Fortune Family Foundation; her journal has discovered many great writers including her one lost love, Max Wellman, whom she didn't marry years ago because of the advice of family and friends. Now, with the Fortune family fortune dwindling and appearances to uphold, Max has come back into her life.

Ms Horowitz creates a fine jewel of a story, taking an already strong plot and updating it for modern sensibilities, though much of Austen's originality remains intact. In fact, the lengths to which the book goes to retain facts is astounding and funny - one character in particular suffers a head injury from a skiing accident to undergo a necessary personality change. Much like the Austen originals, the characters of the Fortune family are clever and deftly painted; scenes with Jane's listless, bored, and married sister, in the depths of rural suburbia with her family and in-laws, stand out as particularly cutting and funny. All the classic elements are retained, from the handsome scoundrel to the colorful family to the past, secret indiscretions. But the beauty of The Family Fortune lies in the fact that the story is accessible, funny, and interesting even for non-Janeites; one does not have to have read Persuasion to enjoy The Family Fortune. Ms Horowitz does a masterful turn telling a classic story of love lost and regained, with all the odd and amusing characters you cross along the way there.