The Family Fortune

Lively characters populate this mildly amusing modern take on Jane Austen's The nineteenth-century classic revolves around wealthy Anne Elliot, who is persuaded by her mother's best friend to break off her relationship with dashing but poor Captain Wentworth. In Horowitz's debut, sensible but suggestible Jane Fortune ("I live under the cloud of being Miss Fortune, though I prefer Ms.") splits with writer Max Wellman, the recipient of a fellowship sponsored by her family's foundation. Max soon becomes successful, while Jane endures her fate as a single professional woman surrounded by the vapid and vacuous denizens of upper-crust Boston. (When members of the Fortune family find themselves in dire financial straits, they must rent out their Beacon Hill mansion and winter in Palm Beach--poor souls!) Among the novel's snooty cast: Jane's younger sister, Winnie, a whiny, unhappily married hypochondriac, and Priscilla, the high-society divorcee who serves as catalyst for Jane's romantic demise. While frothy and fun, is a far cry from the astute social commentary of the original Miss Jane.