“An Instant Classic”

Read what this week’s Time magazine says about Polly Shulman’s book Enthusiasm:

OK, we’re helping out a friend here. But we just had to post Musepal Polly’s latest news about her book:

Please excuse the self-serving email, but:

Time Magazine reviewed Enthusiasm!!!!!!!

ENTHUSIASM
POLLY SHULMAN

Julie Lefkowitz is accustomed to public embarrassment: “When your best friend goes around town dressed in armor constructed from cookware, eyes naturally turn your way.” Julie’s best friend is Ashleigh, and Ashleigh is an enthusiast: she gets obsessed–way, over-the-top obsessed–with things like King Arthur or ballet or juggling. Ashleigh’s latest craze is Jane Austen, and in addition to dressing in gowns and talking in period English, she persuades long-suffering Julie to crash a dance at a fancy all-boys private school, hoping to meet a Mr. Darcy, or at least a Mr. Bingley. Winsome and witty, loaded with lunatic junior-high aperçus (“Juliet’s not even 14 yet,” a young Shakespeare scholar remarks. “He’s going to kill himself over an eighth-grader?”), Enthusiasm has the makings of an instant classic.

(It should be on newsstands now; it’s on the web, anyway.)

47 thoughts on ““An Instant Classic””

  2. Mr. Darcy!
    …yeah, that sounds very cool. -gives thumbs up- I shall do my best to find it!

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  6. (((((((aw, shucks!)))))))

    (Did I get the write number of parentheses?)

    (Here are some extras just in case: ((((((()))))) )

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  7. w00t! That’s awesome! I have to pick this up after checking out the Museblog. Jeeves, ready the car. We’re going to the bookstore.

    Bookstore people: Ah!
    Jeeves: Is it possible to procure a copy of the book Enthusiasm by Ms. Polly Shulman?
    Bookstore p.: H-h-here you go.
    Jeeves: If you would fire up the carburator, miss?

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  10. I can’t believe it! I misssssspelled “right”! I meant to write “right,” but I wrote “write”–I failed to write “right” right. And I call myself a writer! I should call myself a “wronger” instead.

    Embarrassed.

    Pollyhymnia

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  12. I’ve read it!!!!!!!! i would have to recommend it to anyone who likes to read!!!! it’s AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  14. i read it. it rocks.

    Pollyhymnia, it’s merely creative spelling. Just an exploration into a frowned-upon art. There’s a kind of dignity in going against the average creativity. Fiynd a noo creeativ outluk! Bee a darring, imagineativ creetur! Ohpen upe a newe meedium ine wich tooe axpres yoreselfe!

    what’s with all the parentheses anyway?

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  16. i assume the parenthesis are for being discreet.

    ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((*discreetlypieskoko*))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

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  17. ((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((*discreetlypiesem*))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

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  19. Polly Shulman is a friend of mine and a Muse fan. She drops in on the blog from time to time. (MuseBloggers call her Pollyhymnia, after one of the original Greek Muses.) You can read previous posts about her book here and here.

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  20. “Juliet’s not even 14 yet,” a young Shakespeare scholar remarks. “He’s going to kill himself over an eighth-grader?”

    That has to go down in history as one of the funniest things a kid has ever said! And it’s so true!!!

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  22. Don’t worry, Polly. I am going to cajol my parents into taking me to a bookstore today and purchase the books. Mistakes like that-and Zarquon knows I make more of them than you can possibly imagine-are what Musers and editors are for.

    My name is Juliette (age 12) and there’s going to be chaos when I turn 14. I seriously cannot wait until some poor person in my class or whatnot is named Romeo. God, that’d be funny.

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  23. Thanks for the kind words, everybody!

    Juliette–watch out for that Romeo. I hear he likes to climb in girls’ balconies.

    Have you read (or seen) the play? Remember how, before she meets Romeo, her parents are planning to fix her up with a guy named Paris? So watch out for guys named Paris, too.

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  24. Paris Hilton’s former boyfriend, Paris, was on the loose last time I checked.

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  25. PS: The parentheses were to show that I was hiding because I was so embarrassed about having spelled right wrong (that is, write).

    (Those parentheses above, though, are to show that the words inside them are an inessential clarification to the main point.)

    (So are those ones above this.)
    (So are those ones above THIS.)
    (So are THOSE ONES ABOVE THIS!!)
    (HELP!!)

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  29. Where is everybody??????? I’m the only one who’s posted today, and that was at ten in the morning!

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  31. Hello, Violetfire! I’ve been working, but here I am stopping by.

    Where’s everybody else?

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  36. You tell me ,How do you open a starburst with your tougue?
    I can’t even curl my tongue:( :?

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  37. Me neither. But I have a thirty-foot chain of Starburstâ„¢ wrappers. Though I’d rather not use ones that have been opened by someone’s tongue, thank you very much.

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  38. You unwrap a Starburst with your tongue by first putting it in your mouth, and then just using your teeth and tongue to lift up the flaps, and once you’ve done that you can slide your tongue under the crease and just roll it off. It’s really simple, actually.

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  39. Ah, but your brilliance simply makes it sound easy…we bow to your superior powers. ;-) lol

    i’ll have to try it sometime though…

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  43. I bought Enthusiasm yesterday and will read it over Spring Break (in Mexico this year) and then tell you what I think of it. OK, Polyhymnia?

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  44. I hope you like it, Your Majesty! The narrator is named Julie, so maybe that will help make you feel well disposed toward it.

    Violetfire, I just posted the jacket description in the other thread, where you asked for it. Here’s another description, this one by the reviewer from Booklist, a magazine for librarians and people like that:

    “There is little more likely to exasperate a person of sense than finding herself tied by affection and habit to an Enthusiast. I speak from bitter experience.” So begins the wry, engaging narrative in which Julie relates the trials and rewards of her firm friendship with Ashleigh, an enthusiast. Since elementary school, Ashleigh has taken up one craze after another, from military strategy to ballet, from Harriet the Spy to King Arthur, and dragged her best friend along for companionship. But when Ashleigh begins sophomore year speaking Jane Austen’s prose and crashing an exclusive prep school’s cotillion to dance the Founder’s Quadrille, she commits a double fault: she takes ownership of Julie’s favorite book, Pride and Prejudice, and she sets her determined sights on the boy Julie secretly adores. Shulman captures the agony and the irony of Julie’s struggles to find her own way as she navigates the conventions of a culture that, for all its twenty-first-century trappings, still leaves young women hoping that the young men of their dreams will recognize and return their unspoken affections. While familiarity with Austen’s world through her books or, more likely, the movie renditions will deepen readers’ appreciation for Shulman’s impressive first novel, it is by no means a prerequisite to enjoying this involving and often amusing narrative of friendship, courtship, and (of course) true love.

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  46. My brother’s name is mike. Anyway, now that I know what this book is about, I think I’ll get it. If not, I might die. I don’t know why, I just will.

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