Book Review: Meet the Benedettos
When it comes to contemporary adaptations of Jane Austen, particularly of Pride and Prejudice, which is arguably the one most people feel the most precious about, the challenge becomes how to adapt a well-known and beloved story into a new context that can stand wholly on its own. Billed as “The Kardashians Meets Pride and Prejudice”, Katie Cotugno’s Meet the Benedettos is possibly the most audacious approach I’ve seen to a modern adaptation, but one that ultimately serves the narrative really well.
In Meet the Benedettos, the titular Benedetto family are one-time reality stars who have since fallen on hard times now that their fifteen minutes of fame are over. Caught collectively between denial and hopelessness, things change when Julliard-trained actors Charlie Bingley and Will Darcy move into their neighbourhood, and take an interest in the family, and in oldest daughters June and Lilly respectively.
Plot-wise, the novel roughly follows the same beats as Pride and Prejudice, condensing key conversations while making sure to preserve the big emotional beats those familiar with the story will still expect to find. While the story primarily focuses on Lilly and Will, the rest of the supporting cast also get their chance to shine in their own POV chapters, though I did find myself wishing we had gotten just a little bit more of them. Nothing is left unresolved with any of them by the end of the story, but I missed out on watching that develop a little more in real time, particularly with June.
The chemistry between Lilly and Will is by far the highlight. Without the societal norms in place to keep them apart, Cotugno makes up for it by giving them other reasons to be hesitant in jumping into a relationship — and indeed other reasons to avoid liking each other in the first place — that feel a lot more believable that hewing closer to the original text would have allowed. The book also takes the liberties of significantly reducing the roles of certain supporting characters who don’t sufficiently support the new version of the story. They’re present long enough to get the point across, but no longer than that.
As a social commentary, the book has a lot to say about the toll that stardom can have on people, particularly those who fell into it young, and fell into the shine of being at the center of attention for a fickle audience. In staying spiritually close to Austen’s text, even as she substitutes Regency England for modern day Los Angeles, Cotugno keeps the spirit of Pride and Prejudice alive in this breezy new romance.
Meet the Benedettos hits shelves on December 5. Special thank you to Harper Perennial for the advance copy for review purposes.