Enthusiasm (review)

Ashleigh is what her friend Julia terms an Enthusiast; she approaches life with an absorbing zeal that creates all manner of embarrassing situations for Julia. Many of Ashleigh's obsessions spring from books, and her latest is a craze for the world of Jane Austen, which leads her to change her grammar and keep her lower limbs covered at all times. It further leads her to propose crashing the formal at the local prep school in search of worthy gallants. Almost thwarted by a rule-bound gatekeeper, they are rescued by two estimable young gentlemen, and their affection for the Darcy/Bingley pair grows through deepening acquaintance peppered with mishaps and moments both tender and indelicate, all worthy of a gentle parody of teen romance filtered through the equally gentle parodies of star-crossed entanglements penned by Austen herself. Julia, thinking that she plays sense to Ashleigh's sensibility, of course misrecognizes both her own penchant for melodrama and her considerable appeal, thinking that those areas are reserved for the more colorful and vivacious Ashleigh. Shulman ably adopts an Austen-tacious tone in the language and dramatic tension while updating the domestic situations; Julia's mother's poverty is divorce-induced, and her father and his new wife are the ones insistent on Julia's maintaining social propriety, attracting the right sort of boy, and being serious about her future prospects. A wry stylistic elegance keeps this tribute more closely tucked in to the Austen universe than others that have come before, like Clueless and Bridget Jones' Diary; readers needn't already be Austen fans to appreciate this blithe romance, but they will likely develop a taste for her after reading of Julia's fate.