Re Jane: A Novel

by Patricia Park

Jane Re--a half-Korean, half-American orphan--takes a position as an au pair for two Brooklyn academics and their daughter, but a brief sojourn in Seoul, where she reconnects with family, causes her to wonder if the man she loves is really the man for her as she tries to find balance between two cultures.

• ISBN10: 0525427406
• ISBN13: 9780525427407
• Publish Date: 7 May 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 25 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Viking Press Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 346
• Language: English

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

Well, this is a messy journey. It did drag in certain places and felt way too long towards the end. But I loved it. Especially the conclusion. There is so very much to love in this book, I don't know where to start. It seems the one thing people resoundly hate about it is calling it a re-telling of Jane Eyre. So let me present a different perspective on that.


In Defense of Beth & This Re-Telling:

"Bertha Mason is a complex presence in Jane Eyre. She impedes Jane’s happiness, but she also catalyses the growth of Jane’s self-understanding. "- Spark Notes.

Ding-ding-ding!

I think people, especially other white women reviewers, aren't giving proper credit. Beth is an interesting fully fledged character, if you look at her intersectionality. There is a gap between white feminists and racial intersectionality, not to mention the classism, and elitism. Like making the want ad for an au pair too wordy, literally saying we're in a post racial society, so there wasn't room to mention they were looking for a Chinese woman. And the transracial adoption. And how all the academics Beth looks up to and works towards being like are old white straight men! One of whom hits on Jane out of nowhere like the sexist, racist pig he is.

And who does Jane end up cutting out of her life at the end of it?

In fact, I'll so far as to say this is the Jane Eyre retelling for those who said FUCK MEN, and wanted the women to team up and smash the patriarchy.

Rochester sounds like a huge asshole anyways and Eyre should've left him for what he did to his wife and lying about it rather than for being married. Being a missionary in India is fucked up and not a good thing. Having the crazy wife kill herself and them sweep him up and bare his children? Yeah, not seeing the moral superiority and feminist value there.

This version about nunchi, dual heritage, different types of families, and finding a passion beyond a man is better take. It does explore love versus autonomy and substitute mothers. And thank gods it's not all about Christians and Christianity.

I don't condone cheating. I've DNF'd books for cheating. However, it happens. It's something that's personally painful for me but it needs to explored. It's controversial and in a way pushes the limits of today's literary scene like Jane Eyre did at the time. Only now we're smart enough to appreciate it ;)

In Re Jane, I find it more believable and understandable. Jane has obvious issues due to her childhood and has never been romantically affectionate before. Falling in love with a man in a crumbling marriage, she's impressionable, vulnerable, and desperate. I can see the slippery slope of them all keeping secrets from Beth with her impossibly high demands. And I find it disconcerting how there's so little backlash against the men for their far more reprehensible behavior (for both Ed and Rochester).

Notes Made While Reading:
Interesting about the "f" sound in Korean
Retail is HELL
haha love Unice
"post racial" bullshit
Aww Juan
lol Nina & her making fun of acedemic feminism "my uncle speaks better english"
They got Thanksgiving right.
Oh the fake turkey...
Therapy isn't a bad thing!
lol the fashion circa 2001
More Nina love - celebrate it.
He's married Jane, shut up.
oh god why skip the financial interview?
Not in her office!!
holy crap the graphic awkward oral vaginal sex.
She is freaking out.
Sure it's he couldn't keep it up and not that he came early?
holy shit she left!
holy shit 9/11. She would've died!
holy shit ED!
haha uncle worried and can't deal.
Interesting about Korean subjects in sentences, most important info first.
left her 100,000 & "share, not shame!"
That's BS about Big Uncle getting everything
Aww Auntie Emo
Sudden decisions galore
Interesting how Flushing is more conservative than Seoul, but makes sense. In Sol it's progression, Flushing sees the outside as corruption and giving up. Faces going more American in Seoul.
Chandler from friends. oy. jay z fan.
"development of myself schedule" so stealing this phrasing!
love the soap opera - lol
Jane you're being pretty stupid abt jeolous with Ed and beth
you made the choice first!
haha setting up chandler with monica
"rotting away in the bottom crisper of my mind"
Aww Nina.
omg, the "real American" scene in the bar
"Nina is a fucking genius" (nina says something) "Nina also has no fucking nunchi!" LOL
demonstrations down town b/c soldier found not guilty for running two korean kills down with a tank
"I've seen you around cannoli, you're more excited about that than Chandler"
omfg just tell her to shut up
holy shit finally her dad.
awww emo they say "watermelon" instead of "cheese"
poor devin
can't believe ed lost his family home
what about ed?
They are going to start a business together
There we go.
Feeling slow and dragging with 2.5 hrs
good decision
yeah saw the blackout and shower coming
great car ride scene
gentrification
love the epilogue

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

The hype Re Jane received caught my attention, but that is all it was hype. Re Jane could have been a clever Jane Eyre retelling but instead, we received a bad adaptation of The Nanny, annoying voice and all.

The writing was mediocre and got tired of the amount of likes that were being used in conversations and the valley girl speech used in general. It seemed out of place in Queens and would have made more sense in California.

In Chapter 38 of Jane Eyre, the heroine Proclaims "Reader, I married him." Park nodded towards this line many, many, many times (think Donald Trump saying "China" ). It was a nice inclusion the first time, but as it was used throughout the novel got old really fast and extremely repetitive.

The biggest downfall for me was that Jane has an affair with Ed Farley, the novel's Mr. Rochester. Morally, I believe that to be wrong and have always had a hard time getting past that in books. Not only did she have a sordid affair but a cringeworthy sex scene was also spun into the mix and felt very unnecessary. Whatever happened to "they went into the bedroom" end scene? Where is the imagination when everything is laid out in front of you.

When Jane moves to Korea, I thought we were done with Rochester wannabe and the story would take a different course. How wrong I was, she pines for him and returns, trying to make up not only with him but to become BFFs with his daughter again, and was puzzled when she would have none of it. The fact that an attempt was made for said homewrecker to ingratiate herself with the family she wronged seemed improbable and completely inappropriate and left my eyes rolling.

The ending tied anything there was to salvage up in a tidy bow and became and enlightenment of Jane Re finding herself. Reader, unfortunately, I could not marry the enjoyment felt for Jane Eyre to Re Jane and came away disappointed.