Texts From Jane Eyre
There are far too many people who cast aspersions on the lingual practices of text messaging. This abstracted disapproving group dislikes the abbreviations and believe it to be a dumbing down of the English language. Their complaints are the usual sort of frothing at the mouth in the name of literature purity: It’s not literature, it’s never going to produce literature, Shakespeare would roll in his grave, etcetera, etcetera. Well Mallory Ortberg does not merely spit on such concepts, she frolics in them with her hilarious book Texts From Jane Eyre: and Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters.
The book is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, a series of conversations in the familiar style of text messaging, either between characters from classic (and some modern) literature, or authors and their beleaguered friends and family. While the humor is entirely dependent on familiarity with the works and authors being parodied, these are mostly the books we either read back in English class in high school, or have permeated the cultural hive mind to the point that you’re probably familiar with the books without even having read them. With that entirely dry explanation out of the way, let me tell you this:
This book is gut-bustingly funny. It is not hyperbole to say that I hurt myself laughing from the content of this book. Author Mallory Ortberg, co-founder of The Toast, treats nothing as sacred and skewers each and every book and author with her wit. I don’t want to oversell how funny this book is, but this book is really, really funny. Check it out from your local library today.