ENTHUSIASM
Polly Shulman
G. P. Putnam's Sons
Romance
ISBN: 0399243895
208 pages

Julie's best friend Ashleigh is an enthusiast who jumps from one craze to the next, immersing herself and those around her into her latest obsession. One summer it was reptiles, another year it was King Arthur. Julie has always followed Ashleigh's crazes, but when Ashleigh reads PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and is determined to model their lives after the novels of Jane Austen, Julie isn't sure she wants to encourage her best friend in her latest enthusiasm. Not only does Ashleigh refuse to wear anything but long skirts and ballet slippers, she insists they must find love interests by crashing the fall formal dance at a nearby private boys school.

Ashleigh's enthusiasm leads the two girls from one hilarious adventure to another. Convincingly narrated by Julie, ENTHUSIASM takes PRIDE AND PREJUDICE as only one of its literary themes. It is modeled less after any specific Austen book or Shakespearean plot than it is the classic themes of mixed identities, secret crushes, and keen social observation.

The book is deliciously light without being trite, and (biggest surprise of all) it actually had some decent poetry in it, including one fabulous acrostic poem around which much of the narrative centers. Touches of poetry appear throughout, including a hilarious first conversation between Julie and her love interest, modeled on the sonnet dialogue that accompanies first meetings in Shakespeare's ROMEO & JULIET.

In many ways the book shares more parallels with Austen's SENSE AND SENSIBILITY than it does PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Julie plays the pragmatic Eleanor Dashwood to Ashleigh's more emotional Marianne. Like Eleanor Dashwood, Julie hides her true feelings for fear of hurting a friend. Her love interest is more like Mr. Ferris than Mr. Darcy --- he's gentle and slightly awkward, and could never be accused of acting like a snob. There is, however, an obnoxious Mr. Collins-type suitor, which definitely is an appreciable touch.

The only underdeveloped part of the story comes on Julie's 16th birthday (December 17th, Ms. Austen's birthday as well), which is overshadowed by her stepmother's grief upon miscarrying a baby whose birthday would have been the same day. Counting the months, Julie realizes that the baby was conceived long before her parents' divorce and that her father had never intended to reconcile the way he had promised Julie and her mother.

There is also a very awkward and strange moment in a neighbor's greenhouse where she is found crying by a friend's appealing, older brother. They end up kissing and are interrupted by her friend. Neither situation is resolved, but in some ways they make the book more appealing. Messy edges and unexplained situations add a touch of realism to what is otherwise an idealistic romance. Both incidents are a peek beyond the literary romantic haze to the adult world in which courtly love plays no role, and bodies have interests that hearts may not share.

But the harsh, gritty realism often portrayed in young adult novels has very little to do with the many delights of ENTHUSIASM. This is an elegantly written and entirely entertaining book with a fresh and unjaded look at friendship and young love, as likely to appeal to older Austen enthusiasts as it is to young readers experiencing love for the first time.

   --- Reviewed by Sarah A. Wood

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