Speaker 1: Hey, this is Sanny and Samantha and welcome to Steffan
Speaker 1: Never Told You projection of iHeartRadio, and welcome to another
Speaker 1: edition of book Club. This month, we are reading Eb's
Speaker 1: a Boys twenty nineteen novel Pride, a Pride and Prejudice remix,
Speaker 1: which he has us to take on Pride and prejudice
Speaker 1: in our modern day with black and Afro LATINX characters.
Speaker 1: The author also draws on personal experience. She grew up
Speaker 1: in Bushwick, which is a big part for the story
Speaker 1: takes place and has Haitian roots like the main character.
Speaker 1: So I'm very very excited about this because I have
Speaker 1: never read Pride and Prejudice.
Speaker 2: I did we not DoD yeah, because it was much shorter. Well,
Speaker 2: I'm about to and make you read Pride and Prejudice.
Speaker 1: Now I'm annoyed. I love this, and I know you
Speaker 1: have strong opinions about like the film and TV adaptions.
Speaker 1: I do opinions, yes, So I'm very very excited. This
Speaker 1: is gonna be fun because I'm gonna I'm going to
Speaker 1: break down the plot of the book and then I'm
Speaker 1: going to ask Samantha to tell me the comparison. I'm
Speaker 1: very very excited. Also, I really want to read Zavoy's
Speaker 1: other other works. We had kind of a list of
Speaker 1: what we were choosing for this month, and she had
Speaker 1: another one on there that I really wanted to do
Speaker 1: because she's written a graphic novel on Octavia Butler. She's
Speaker 1: also written for Marvel's Black Panther. She did a whole
Speaker 1: thing about Acoyer coming to the United States, so hopefully
Speaker 1: we can come back in the future.
Speaker 2: So when we were talking about books for this month,
Speaker 2: I forgot about this, but I had seen someone I think,
Speaker 2: post it or talking about this book and her doing it,
Speaker 2: and I was so excited. So when Annie reminded me, like, hey,
Speaker 2: this is an optional, was like, oh, yes, immediately, Yes,
Speaker 2: we need to do this one because I love good
Speaker 2: adaptations anyway, and I do this was a good adaptation.
Speaker 2: And before we start, let's do a quote from the
Speaker 2: author about the original. Yes, as we all have to
Speaker 2: give homage to thank you to the great literary figure
Speaker 2: Jane Austen for writing and publishing Pride and Prejudice in
Speaker 2: eighteen thirteen. Amidst everything that was happening in her world
Speaker 2: at the time, Austin gifted us with a story about
Speaker 2: not only love, but class, expectations and a woman's place
Speaker 2: in the world, even as she a woman in nineteenth
Speaker 2: century England, had the audacity to write, observe and speak
Speaker 2: truth to power with such wit, humor and grace. And
Speaker 2: that's what I have to keep telling. Like one of
Speaker 2: my good guy friends we read this. We had a
Speaker 2: small like three person book club, and this was I
Speaker 2: think at the beginning of our book book club because
Speaker 2: we had to talk about the fact that, yes, people
Speaker 2: think of it as women's romance today and knowing that
Speaker 2: in eighteen thirteen she was talking about being single and
Speaker 2: daring to choose who to love and marry and really
Speaker 2: like giving it back to society and having a conversation
Speaker 2: about the fact that she could talk back and did
Speaker 2: talk back to anyone and everyone, including you know, people
Speaker 2: who were of royal heritage.
Speaker 1: So it was really lovely.
Speaker 2: And the fact that she was such an icon in
Speaker 2: that level that she dare speak her opinions got to
Speaker 2: get a kudos.
Speaker 1: So this book was genius, yes, and I believe I
Speaker 1: saw today some I've seen it before, but like a
Speaker 1: viral post where someone was like, just remember Jane Austen
Speaker 1: was self published, and she also, you know, I gotta
Speaker 1: say it, she was one of the first she had
Speaker 1: fan fiction writers of her work. So it was a
Speaker 1: very like consequential work. And this was a very fun
Speaker 1: update of it, even though I haven't read the original,
Speaker 1: so I got a different experience. But yeah, correct, I
Speaker 1: love it. I'm ready. But okay, I'm going to run
Speaker 1: through the plot of this book real quick. So it
Speaker 1: centers on Afro Latina teenager and proud Bushwick resident Zuri Benitez.
Speaker 1: She grew up in an apartment with her parents and
Speaker 1: her sisters and a sort of matchmaker named Madrina. Zuri's
Speaker 1: extremely proud and fond of her neighborhood. She's outspoken about
Speaker 1: any gentrification. She's also worried excited about the possibility of
Speaker 1: attending historically black university, Howard University in Washington, d C.
Speaker 1: So the novel begins with the family preparing for the
Speaker 1: return of the oldest sister, Janney, who has been away
Speaker 1: at Syracuse and is the first in the family to
Speaker 1: go to college. So at the same time, a once
Speaker 1: broken down house across the street has gotten a massive makeover,
Speaker 1: further stoking Zuri's concerns about gentrification and a rich black
Speaker 1: family with the last name Darcy moves in and uh oh.
Speaker 1: The two black boys about Zeri's age are hot. There
Speaker 1: are a lot the girls go to introduce themselves just
Speaker 1: as Janay arrives and it's clear Janey has a connection
Speaker 1: with Annsley, one of the Darcy brothers. Zuri is resistant
Speaker 1: to these connections, to the connection between Annsley and Janey
Speaker 1: in particular because she doesn't want to lose what little
Speaker 1: time she has with her sister, and thinking that these
Speaker 1: boys will never understand where they as a family comes from.
Speaker 1: So Zuri is immediately turned off by the closed off
Speaker 1: Darius Darcy. She's just like this guy's no good. I
Speaker 1: don't like him. A lot of drama unfolds, Zuri's family
Speaker 1: throws regular block parties for the community, and Darius seems
Speaker 1: to look down his nose at the whole thing. Zuri
Speaker 1: pretty much chaperone's a date with Janey and Annsley, still
Speaker 1: not approving of this match, but ends up with Darius
Speaker 1: after the two go their own way and they spar
Speaker 1: about their differences in class and experience, with Zuri informing
Speaker 1: him you can never understand and through this she meets
Speaker 1: a guy named Warren who she views as more hood
Speaker 1: and goes with him in a seeming attempt to prove
Speaker 1: a point and perhaps make Darius jealous. Zuri agrees to
Speaker 1: chill with Warren, refraining from saying that they are going
Speaker 1: on dates. Warren tells her that he and Darius used
Speaker 1: to be friends and implies that Darius sort of romanticized
Speaker 1: hood life. Warren won a scholarship as a child to
Speaker 1: a fancy private school where Darius was going, but eventually
Speaker 1: he grew bored of it and it got him suspended somehow.
Speaker 1: The story's kind of murky, and this only solidifies Zuri's
Speaker 1: opinions of Darius, like okay, I knew it. Then, the
Speaker 1: Benito's family is invited to the Darcis for a fancy
Speaker 1: cocktail party, and at this party, Darius overhears Zuri's younger
Speaker 1: sister basically joking about wanting to bag a French fan.
Speaker 1: And then Darius goes to speak with his brother Annsley,
Speaker 1: who then breaks up with Janey, leaving her heartbroken, which
Speaker 1: only further enrages Zuri. She and Warren have another chill
Speaker 1: hangout thing, something she is pretty much trying to hide
Speaker 1: from her very very nosy family. Very when you're going
Speaker 1: to get a man family and they're texting regularly by
Speaker 1: this point her and Warren, Zuri admits to Janey she
Speaker 1: is worried about her future, about leaving Bushwick for Howard,
Speaker 1: what if she doesn't like it. So Janey purchases her
Speaker 1: a round trip ticket on a bus so she can
Speaker 1: visit the campus. Zuri immediately loves it there and is
Speaker 1: unashamed of how much she wants to get in. When
Speaker 1: she learns one of the professors performs at a local
Speaker 1: place called Busboy and Poets, she goes and performs one
Speaker 1: of her poems. The whole book is kind of interspersed
Speaker 1: with her poems. Only, surprise, surprise, Darius is there with
Speaker 1: his younger sister and his uptight friend Carrie, who Zuri
Speaker 1: believes he is dating. Georgia convinces Zuri to come with
Speaker 1: them to get chili dogs, and then Darius offers her
Speaker 1: ride back to Bushwick that night. Zuri reluctantly agrees, since
Speaker 1: she has now missed her return bus. However, this means
Speaker 1: a Losstter dinner with the paternal Darcy grandmother, who interrogates
Speaker 1: Zuri and judges her and her neighborhood. Zuri like fights
Speaker 1: right back and furiously calls her out and decides to
Speaker 1: take the later bus instead of going back with Darius,
Speaker 1: but he basically forgets to drive her to the bus stop.
Speaker 1: They argue about music. He tells her that he was
Speaker 1: glad she stood up to his grandmother, and eventually they
Speaker 1: stop to get a bite to eat. Or he tells
Speaker 1: her he is very impressed with her, and one thing
Speaker 1: leads to another and they kiss. Zuri is feeling more
Speaker 1: laid back with Darius until they get closer to Bushwick
Speaker 1: and Darius judges Warren and feeling like he once again
Speaker 1: proved her right, Zuri agrees to meet with Warren the
Speaker 1: next day, only to get a frantic string of texts
Speaker 1: from Darius telling her that Warren had taken sexy pictures
Speaker 1: of his sister when she was underage and ruined her
Speaker 1: reputation basically, which is why she was living with her grandmother. So,
Speaker 1: once again furious, Zuri ends it with Warren then in
Speaker 1: there and agrees to start over with Darius. So she
Speaker 1: and Darius go on a kind of a not date
Speaker 1: where they talk about everything and anything generally have a
Speaker 1: good time, good enough, but she agrees to go on
Speaker 1: a real date with him to a party. However, Zuri
Speaker 1: feels at a place and abandoned. At this party, it's
Speaker 1: mostly rich white people and she doesn't like how Darius
Speaker 1: acts around them. She has an argument with him and
Speaker 1: then they agree to leave, only to turn back after
Speaker 1: she sees a picture of her younger sister on social
Speaker 1: media at the party with Warren, so they immediately turn
Speaker 1: around and find her sister wasted, but okay. Carrie had
Speaker 1: made sure that the same thing that had happened to
Speaker 1: Dary's sister didn't happen to Zuri's sister. After a confrontation
Speaker 1: with Warren, Darius fighting like a real fight, Zuri yelling,
Speaker 1: they go back to the Darcy households so Zuri's younger
Speaker 1: sister can sober up. Before they return home, Darius shows
Speaker 1: her around, They have some heart to hearts about judgment
Speaker 1: and being wrong about each other, and then they kiss again.
Speaker 1: Sirens across the street break the moment. The woman who
Speaker 1: lived on the lower floor, Madrina, who Zuri often went
Speaker 1: to for advice, had died, and with her gone, Zuri's
Speaker 1: father agrees to sell the apartment, much to Zuri's heartbreak,
Speaker 1: so they moved to a place with more space, but
Speaker 1: it is more quiet, it's not as neighborly. Janney gets
Speaker 1: back with Annsley. Darius revealed he had been the one
Speaker 1: to convince him that he should break up with Janney,
Speaker 1: and it's implied he's the one that convinced him he
Speaker 1: was wrong about the whole thing. Keeps dating Darius and
Speaker 1: visits him in her old neighborhood, where he the artist
Speaker 1: that he is, has put their initials in the concrete,
Speaker 1: saying that they'll be forever. She finishes her college essay
Speaker 1: and that's about the end. Nicely done, thank you, Yes,
Speaker 1: so Samantha, Yes, tell me give me some comparison notes.
Speaker 2: She did great. She followed along with it perfectly. Now
Speaker 2: when it's a new rendition, I don't expect it to
Speaker 2: be the same. If you're telling me you're taking a
Speaker 2: movie from the book and then there's already an amazing movie,
Speaker 2: and then you puck up the movie, I'm gonna be pissed.
Speaker 2: AKA the version with care Knightley. Hate it, hate it
Speaker 2: to this day, hate it always, but it's okay whatever,
Speaker 2: But when you have new renditions. Now, I've never read that.
Speaker 2: I think we had a long conversation when we were
Speaker 2: talking about Pride Prejudice in general. I didn't read Pride
Speaker 2: and Prejudice and Zombies. I was told that I should
Speaker 2: read that. So I think we may have to do
Speaker 2: like some features on both. Maybe we should do Pine
Speaker 2: Prejuice and Zombies for like spooky season.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: And then have another comparison, because essentially the friend of
Speaker 2: mine who we read the books together, he was like, no,
Speaker 2: you should read it.
Speaker 1: I think you'll enjoy its goofy's good.
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, okay, and I think it turned
Speaker 2: into a movie, but I'm scared of that anyway. But
Speaker 2: for the comparison, yes, she of course had the dar
Speaker 2: season there she asked, had the Bennetts, but the switching
Speaker 2: of the last name. She did have, of course, several
Speaker 2: of the key characters. And there we've got Georgiana, which
Speaker 2: is Georgia here she's a lovely sister. We have Colin,
Speaker 2: who is the cousin in the book, and he comes
Speaker 2: to try to marry one of the sisters to keep
Speaker 2: the inheritance essentially in the home and the estate, and
Speaker 2: he's an awful person and everybody TuS toir void. We
Speaker 2: have the best friend who ends up with Colin. So
Speaker 2: the flip here is that he is related to the
Speaker 2: mentor Madrina figure who you it's not.
Speaker 1: That way.
Speaker 2: And she kind of splits two characters because the grandmother
Speaker 2: in the book and Madrina I think, represent kind of
Speaker 2: one character, like several characters rather but have like overlapping,
Speaker 2: which is to be expected. I loved her portrayal of
Speaker 2: the parents in this one because the parents in the
Speaker 2: Pride and Prejudice are really kind of like, like the
Speaker 2: very beginning is how they how Elizabeth talks about the
Speaker 2: fact that the marriage is awful, it is pretense, and
Speaker 2: not to marry someone you don't like. That's kind of
Speaker 2: the lesson she learns from her parents. So in this
Speaker 2: one she flips in and I really adore it. The
Speaker 2: relationship with the father is right on with all the books,
Speaker 2: and like loving her daughter, loving his daughter, wanted to
Speaker 2: protect his daughter, rite on love that the grandmother, and
Speaker 2: this character would have been the aunt who's trying to
Speaker 2: make her sickly daughter to Darcy, but you know, everything
Speaker 2: flips so she they do a great job with that.
Speaker 2: The girlfriend that's not the girlfriend to Darcy is obviously
Speaker 2: one of the sisters that are awful in the book,
Speaker 2: so great with that, I think I was wondering how
Speaker 2: they were going to take that whole bad guy Wickham,
Speaker 2: which is Warren here is the bad dude who lies
Speaker 2: and tries to slander people. But in the actual book,
Speaker 2: in the Jane Austen's book, he actually runs away with
Speaker 2: the youngest sister, causing a whole scandal because they have
Speaker 2: obviously spent the night together, that's the implication, and if
Speaker 2: they don't get married, it's a huge scandal. They will
Speaker 2: all be ostracized, which is the fear of that's point
Speaker 2: in time. But Darcy makes them get married essentially about
Speaker 2: promising the money and all this stuff. So I was
Speaker 2: wondering how they handled that situation, because obviously for a
Speaker 2: modern day novel, to have a thirteen year old girl
Speaker 2: run away with like an eighteen year old boy not
Speaker 2: so great.
Speaker 1: So I like the way she flipped that.
Speaker 2: I like the way they she because I was wondering
Speaker 2: as the story began and Warren was introducding, like how
Speaker 2: are they how is she going to do this? Because
Speaker 2: that's gonna be a real, real sketch. But the fact
Speaker 2: that he did the whole photos, which is so like
Speaker 2: on point with today in modern technology. I was like, yes,
Speaker 2: good job, great job, great telling of the story, makes
Speaker 2: it new, made it interesting. I love the text because
Speaker 2: in again the book, Darcy writes a letter to defend
Speaker 2: himself and his actions against Wickham, so like and she
Speaker 2: reads in all these things, so it's it's obviously a
Speaker 2: play on that, which is which was brilliant in itself.
Speaker 2: The fighting. Of course, it also made that same sense.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think the book did a great job.
Speaker 2: I love the new interpretations. I really was wanting to
Speaker 2: see the after word. I guess after a thought of
Speaker 2: the I wanted her to be in college. I wanted
Speaker 2: to know she made to Howard. I needed to know
Speaker 2: she wasn't Howard, because it kind of just left it
Speaker 2: as is. But I think it's fantastic. Again, this is
Speaker 2: taking an adult idea because obviously all this was the
Speaker 2: societal idea that you had to be married before twenty
Speaker 2: and if you're not your old spinster, because in the book,
Speaker 2: the Elizabeth is twenty five, So having them being teenagers
Speaker 2: and flipping out like that was very interesting having them
Speaker 2: sell the house that was obviously very different and trying
Speaker 2: to raise their situation up very different as well. But
Speaker 2: of course it's on par with the conversations about gentrification
Speaker 2: in general and just having to adjust to society as
Speaker 2: it is and what that looks like, especially if something's
Speaker 2: being sold. As the building was being sold, it is
Speaker 2: implied that eventually that the Bennetts in Pride and Prejudice
Speaker 2: would have to move when the father dies, So maybe
Speaker 2: that was just kind of a step ahead. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I think she did an amazing job with this book.
Speaker 2: She gave it all of its like flowers and giving
Speaker 2: us so much credit to Jade Austen's characters that were
Speaker 2: developed but put on great spin and originality to it
Speaker 2: that I'm like ready to see this as a movie
Speaker 2: in itself. I'm like, yeah, show me this as a
Speaker 2: Netflix special for teen dramas, let's go.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love that we had such a
Speaker 1: different experience because you know, I was just like, oh,
Speaker 1: and I really enjoyed it, but I didn't have the
Speaker 1: same like ooh, who is this? How can I compare
Speaker 1: them to this? Yeah? It was a beautiful was like, oh,
Speaker 1: look at that.
Speaker 2: Look at this, because like the aunt in the book
Speaker 2: would have been again the mentor here and like having
Speaker 2: that different types of religion and like coming through.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, I like this, come on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was really good and like you said, I too.
Speaker 1: When I got to the end, I was like, oh no, wait,
Speaker 1: what happened. It's sort of just kind of like implied
Speaker 1: she's gonna try to like make this relationship work and
Speaker 1: hopefully she'll get into Howard. But it does end before
Speaker 1: you know, and she's in this new neighborhood, so it's
Speaker 1: it's a lot of like nebulous, like let's try it
Speaker 1: and see if this works right, and it does. Once again,
Speaker 1: I kind of hate this, but it's true. A lot
Speaker 1: of times we do have to pick shorter books because
Speaker 1: our schedules so packed. But it packs a lot in
Speaker 1: in those like three hundred pages, right, and it's told
Speaker 1: really well.
Speaker 2: And by the way, if you listen to the audio version,
Speaker 2: which I did, the author gave a lot of kudos
Speaker 2: to the voice actor because she felt like she hit
Speaker 2: it right on the head. At one point, I will say,
Speaker 2: my partner was like, is this CARDI B And I
Speaker 2: was like well she does have that bronx New York
Speaker 2: Latino accent. So I hear what you're saying, but no,
Speaker 2: this is not Cardi B.
Speaker 1: Calm down. Whoever the voice actor was, the narrator was,
Speaker 1: she did a great guy. They like Cardi B. It's
Speaker 1: pretty good. So there are a couple of key themes
Speaker 1: in this. But when I was going back over this outline,
Speaker 1: a lot of them intersect, which it was true for
Speaker 1: most of our book clubs. But I was just reading
Speaker 1: this and I was like, well, that could fit here,
Speaker 1: and that could fit here, So just keep that in mind.
Speaker 1: But one of the big ones is gentrification. It starts
Speaker 1: out with kind of the author the narrator's thoughts on gentrification.
Speaker 1: Here's a quote. It's a truth universally acknowledged that when
Speaker 1: rich people move into the hood where it's a little
Speaker 1: bit broken and a little bit forgotten, the first thing
Speaker 1: they want to do is clean it up. But it's
Speaker 1: not just the junkie stuff they'll get rid of. People
Speaker 1: can be thrown away too, like last night's trash, left
Speaker 1: out on sidewalks, or push the edge of wherever all
Speaker 1: broken things go. What those rich people don't always know
Speaker 1: is that broken and forgot neighborhood. It were first built
Speaker 1: out of love. I just can't stress enough, like how
Speaker 1: important this neighborhood is, Tossuri, and how big a part
Speaker 1: it is right of the book, right it has culture.
Speaker 2: But I just wanted to put a note that first
Speaker 2: line is the truth universally acknowledged. Is a Jane Austin
Speaker 2: line to keep that up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, see, I love this, I'm learning more. I love it.
Speaker 1: And here's another quote that I thought was really pretty.
Speaker 1: Anybody who's been in Bushwick long enough is like a musician,
Speaker 1: and when they leave, we lose the sound. So it's
Speaker 1: kind of a lot of the build up what makes
Speaker 1: the neighborhood the people, the like bodega's and what they
Speaker 1: sell and all of that stuff, and so a part
Speaker 1: of that is also the community. So they have like
Speaker 1: these big block parties that all the neighbors know each other,
Speaker 1: like it's a very communal connected area neighborhood. When the
Speaker 1: Darcy's come in, they kind of disrupt that way in
Speaker 1: Zuri's mind, especially when Darius seems to be like, I
Speaker 1: don't like this bt Dubs.
Speaker 2: In the book, they have a lot of balls and
Speaker 2: dances and this is in his comparison. So when they
Speaker 2: have the cocktail party scene, that is when Bingley is
Speaker 2: a rich family that comes in. So in the original version,
Speaker 2: Darcy is a friend of Bingley and Bingley is the
Speaker 2: one that's moving in with all the money, which is
Speaker 2: the one that loves the older sister. But here we
Speaker 2: have those siblings instead, so there's no Bingley. But Bingley
Speaker 2: finally hosts the party. It's so over the top, fancy that,
Speaker 2: but it's that same level of like embarrassment. Exact same
Speaker 2: scene the cocktail party.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was very awkward. Indeed. I'll also say
Speaker 1: like there was a lot of stuff around food in
Speaker 1: this that I really enjoyed a lot of descriptions of
Speaker 1: making food, of sharing food. Especially the mother of the
Speaker 1: Beneath family would just make a ton of food for
Speaker 1: these parties and it was very It's like, oh that
Speaker 1: sounds delicious. Yeah. The Haitian plus uh Dominican mm hmm. Culture.
Speaker 2: She's like, I blend both of Like, yes, I want
Speaker 2: that is.
Speaker 1: That every Saturday? Pretty much? Please someone give me this.
Speaker 1: So here's another quote kind of going off that first one.
Speaker 1: My neighborhood is made of love, but it's money and
Speaker 1: buildings and food and jobs that keep it alive. And
Speaker 1: even I have to admit that the new people moving
Speaker 1: in with their extra money and dreams can sometimes make
Speaker 1: things better. We'll have to figure out a way to
Speaker 1: make both sides of Bushwick work. So throughout, like I said,
Speaker 1: she's doing Zuri's writing these poems and she's trying to
Speaker 1: figure out her essay she's going to submit to get
Speaker 1: into Howard, and a lot of it has to do
Speaker 1: with her thoughts on the neighborhood, on gentriprecation, and then
Speaker 1: later like on the dudes in her life also family.
Speaker 1: But it's like you get to see her work through
Speaker 1: her thoughts through these like maybe I'll she Yeah. At
Speaker 1: one point she even suggests like I'll just send in
Speaker 1: a bunch of poems to Howard, and her sister is
Speaker 1: like no, Janay is like I don't know. But it
Speaker 1: is a cool like narrative device where we get to
Speaker 1: kind of see her raw thoughts. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Of course, another thing is family, coming of age and
Speaker 2: all the changes. Here's quote. I recognize that look. It's
Speaker 2: that same look people used to give us when Mama
Speaker 2: would get on a crowded train with a double stroller
Speaker 2: holding the twins, Me, Mansoul and Janet with our messy hair,
Speaker 2: running noses, and each with a bag of chips to
Speaker 2: keep us occupied while Mama quieted down the babies. It's
Speaker 2: the look that assumes that Mama is a single mother,
Speaker 2: that she's on government assistance, that she beats us when
Speaker 2: she's tired, that we all have different fathers, that we
Speaker 2: live in the projects, and that we are ghetto. Everybody
Speaker 2: used to look at us like that. Why black Other
Speaker 2: mothers with kids who thought they were being responsible by
Speaker 2: only having two or three. I'd look back at them
Speaker 2: with defiance and a little pride, a look that says
Speaker 2: that I love my family, and we may be messy
Speaker 2: and loud, but we're all together and we love each other.
Speaker 2: That's when I've perfected my Bushwick mean mug.
Speaker 1: Yeah, her kind of resistance to change I think a
Speaker 1: lot of us can relate to. Because she was scared
Speaker 1: of it. She was scared like what if I don't
Speaker 1: like Howard? What if I don't you know? She because
Speaker 1: of these moments where she had been so proud and
Speaker 1: so protective and rightfully so, she had formed this like, well,
Speaker 1: we can't mess that up. We can't break that up,
Speaker 1: like what will that mean? And you know, she does
Speaker 1: go to Howard and she loves it, but it's still
Speaker 1: kind of frightening. It's still like, well, then what will
Speaker 1: happen if so long, I've kind of divined myself through this,
Speaker 1: like protecting this. So I thought that was at a
Speaker 1: great through line throughout. Here's another quote. He lets go
Speaker 1: with me and shakes his head. I don't know yet,
Speaker 1: but we'll find somewhere. This is what happens in life.
Speaker 1: You take the good with the bad. This money is good,
Speaker 1: us leaving is bad, or taking it because it's a blessing.
Speaker 1: So this is what her father says when they have
Speaker 1: to move out and she's so upset, which that whole
Speaker 1: I mean that moving is terrible. Moving is terrible in general,
Speaker 1: if you're moving from a neighborhood that is so important
Speaker 1: to you and that you have these strong neighborly connections
Speaker 1: and thoughts about gentrification. And now you've got the guy
Speaker 1: across the street, which, by the way, that happened to
Speaker 1: me once when I was young, not like this. We
Speaker 1: never worked out, but there was a hot guy that
Speaker 1: moved across the street. I was like, Wow, maybe this
Speaker 1: is my whole future. You had a fantasy about this, Huh?
Speaker 2: I did?
Speaker 1: He played? He would be outside playing basketball and I'd
Speaker 1: be like, oh my god, that was nothing. So did
Speaker 1: you have like it was really far?
Speaker 2: I lived in the woods. I still live in the
Speaker 2: woods technically, Like there's suburbs around me. But you can't
Speaker 2: see each other. We're not We're not walking on the
Speaker 2: street to go get sugar from each other because it's
Speaker 2: like a two lane road in the woods with no lights.
Speaker 1: Don't go there. Well, when I first moved to my place,
Speaker 1: my home that I mostly grew up in, there was nothing.
Speaker 1: It was like gravel road nothing, and I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: it gentrified, but it got like much more crowded. The
Speaker 1: roads got paved, and so this guy moving across the
Speaker 1: street was pretty like late in my time having been there,
Speaker 1: it was marked change. Pretty sure he was a jerk,
Speaker 1: So I'm glad it didn't work out anyway in the story.
Speaker 1: That's all you need. I'm pretty sure. But then again,
Speaker 1: who knows. Given a story, I could have been being
Speaker 1: judgmental where I shouldn't have been. You would have a prejudice,
Speaker 1: that's right. Here's another quote I have always thought of
Speaker 1: Bushwick as home, But in that moment, I realized that
Speaker 1: home is where the people I love are wherever that is?
Speaker 2: Yeah, which I just loved. Yeah, it's a good line.
Speaker 2: And another one. This college is a lifeboat and a lifeline.
Speaker 2: But my neighborhood is not flooding or splitting in half.
Speaker 2: It's being cleaned up and wiped out. It's being polished
Speaker 2: and a race. So where do I reach back and
Speaker 2: pull out memories as if they've been safely tucked away
Speaker 2: into a trunk or an attic like the people on
Speaker 2: TV who have enough time and too much space. Where
Speaker 2: do I call home? Where can I place a layer
Speaker 2: of brick to use as my platform and hold my
Speaker 2: head up high to raise my voice and my fist.
Speaker 2: Sometimes love is not enough to keep a community together.
Speaker 2: There needs to be something more tangible, like fair housing
Speaker 2: opportunities and access to resources. Life Boats and lifelines are
Speaker 2: not supposed to just be away for us to get out.
Speaker 2: They should be ways to let us state and survive
Speaker 2: and thrive.
Speaker 1: Well that was a great quot too, Yeah, of like
Speaker 1: not using it to get out, but using it to stay. Also,
Speaker 1: sisterhood is pretty important throughout this, she does have a
Speaker 1: lot of sisters. Here's a quote. If Madrina's basement is
Speaker 1: where the timboras, loso spiritos and old ancestral memories live,
Speaker 1: then the roof is where wind chimes, dreams and possibilities
Speaker 1: float with the stars, where Jenna and I share our
Speaker 1: secrets and plan to travel all over the world, Haiti
Speaker 1: and the Dominican Republic being our first stop. So yeah,
Speaker 1: her and Janee have a really close bond. And again
Speaker 1: I really did appreciate kind of the because I totally
Speaker 1: get it too. And we've talked about this. When you
Speaker 1: have a friend, a really close friend or sister who
Speaker 1: is crushing really hard on someone, you have that fear
Speaker 1: of like, oh okay, well relationship is going to change,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna see you as much. But her and
Speaker 1: have a lot of moments where they are on this
Speaker 1: roof and they just are talking about life and what
Speaker 1: they want to do, their fears. Then later you find
Speaker 1: out the Darcy's they have kind of an other rooftop
Speaker 1: situation where they could see what was going on over there,
Speaker 1: which I love because at one point there's a thrown
Speaker 1: meatball that was funny. Yeah, that was because he broke
Speaker 1: up with her. How rude. I mean, kay, that was
Speaker 1: pretty bad. That was pretty bad, and their relationship was
Speaker 1: so sweet. Yeah. How it goes again in the book
Speaker 1: as well. I feel like I'm loving the name comparisons
Speaker 1: to you because I don't know Bingsley and that's pretty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because he's just references Darcy Bingsley is references Bingsley
Speaker 2: the entire time. You don't know their first name. There's
Speaker 2: a Fitzgerald who is his cousin that has the sergeant
Speaker 2: that comes into play. Uh yeah, and then even mister Bennett,
Speaker 2: who is the father, is just known as mister Bennett.
Speaker 1: And missus Bennett. So that's how we talk to about them.
Speaker 2: We know about William Collins who is the cousin, and
Speaker 2: then George Wickham. We do know that it's George Wickham,
Speaker 2: but he goes by Wickham the entire time. So it's
Speaker 2: kind of like the women we know Miss Elizabeth, uh,
Speaker 2: miss Mary, who is Marisol, miss Lydia. So yeah, so
Speaker 2: we have all of those characters as well, but it's
Speaker 2: quite funny, but yeah, they're there. She keeps them pretty close.
Speaker 1: In point mm hmmm. I'll have to pick your brain
Speaker 1: about that. Later, I'm curious if the is it. Lydia
Speaker 1: has the kind of same like sloppy yes, night out, Yes,
Speaker 1: sort of.
Speaker 2: She makes an embarrassment of herself and is flirting, and
Speaker 2: then she runs away with him, so we don't see that.
Speaker 2: So the comparison is like they yet they actually just
Speaker 2: run away as where uh and then you find out
Speaker 2: later and they're in compromising situations.
Speaker 1: To me, they're just in a hotel together.
Speaker 2: They don't find them in any real Oh maybe they do,
Speaker 2: it's not the implication, but but yeah, but like essentially
Speaker 2: is that. And then she comes back bragging about landing
Speaker 2: a husband, essentially being the first girl to land a husband,
Speaker 2: which is the big feet, and then being upset a
Speaker 2: little bit that she didn't have a big wedding, and
Speaker 2: everybody's like, because we got to get your married in
Speaker 2: secret or we're all going to be like cast out
Speaker 2: of society, which means none of us could get married.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, it's.
Speaker 2: A little different. The consequences you're much worse for Jane
Speaker 2: Austin's book.
Speaker 1: Wow, this is I can't wait to check this out.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm still devastating though, Oh absolutely absolutely, I'm
Speaker 1: glad it worked out how it did in the book, right. Yes.
Speaker 1: Another theme I wanted to touch on is kind of
Speaker 1: the theme of education, Janee being the first in her
Speaker 1: family to go to college, Zuri being so into reading
Speaker 1: books and writing and poetry. And now I know that
Speaker 1: was a theme in the original Jane Austen work, but
Speaker 1: that was something that she shared with her father.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, so like the reading, the love of reading,
Speaker 2: so he and Jane Austen. Mister Bennett would say that
Speaker 2: he had the young girls and they had heads among them,
Speaker 2: but like that they were the silliest girls that they
Speaker 2: have he had ever known, because they all battled about
Speaker 2: Pratt toldy, I said it about men and boys and
Speaker 2: that was it. And the only ones that he could
Speaker 2: stand that had any good sense, as he would say,
Speaker 2: was the two oldest. But Jane was too kind and
Speaker 2: Elizabeth was at least, you know, sarcastic, and he enjoyed that.
Speaker 2: But we don't see that farrotism in the book, which
Speaker 2: I do appreciate. But yeah, so here's the piece. Read
Speaker 2: to travel. Papa always said, every book is a different hood,
Speaker 2: a different country, a different world. Reading is how I
Speaker 2: visit places in people and ideas, and when something rings
Speaker 2: true or if I still have a question, I outline
Speaker 2: it with a bright yellow highlighter so that it's lit
Speaker 2: up in my mind like a light bulb or a
Speaker 2: torch leading the way to somewhere new. It's usually enough
Speaker 2: to make me forget I've barely left Bushwick.
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, I thought that was really interesting because
Speaker 1: there was this piece where Jane and Zuri's father were
Speaker 1: kind of like, you know, it is great here, but
Speaker 1: there are other things, and Zuri kind of being resistant
Speaker 1: to it because again, she's really protective of this neighborhood.
Speaker 1: She loves this neighborhood. She's afraid of how it will
Speaker 1: change when she leaves. She's afraid of gentrification, rightfully so.
Speaker 1: But her family is kind of like, well, go see,
Speaker 1: just go see, there's other things, which again is like
Speaker 1: that coming of age story of that. I feel like
Speaker 1: that's really relatable. Another thing that is a big theme
Speaker 1: in the book is class. This is definitely throughout her
Speaker 1: interactions series interactions with the Darcy family. I particularly was
Speaker 1: shocked with what happened with the grandmother when she met her,
Speaker 1: because it kept implying like maybe it would go fine,
Speaker 1: and then it really didn't.
Speaker 2: Fine, Okay, I was literally to you with thought the
Speaker 2: same thing with that, with no perspective of pride and prejudice,
Speaker 2: because I was waiting for it to get better thinking
Speaker 2: that she was, especially when there was mentioned of Howard
Speaker 2: maybe she wasn't an alumni and was gonna like really
Speaker 2: get you know, get in with her for the Nope, Nope,
Speaker 2: but it was no. So she she truly was the
Speaker 2: aunto character who was judgmental and doesn't and kept bringing
Speaker 2: up the other girl, Carrie Yes, which again that's not
Speaker 2: like I guess. Carrie represented three characters and one from
Speaker 2: the original, between the sickly daughter who she wanted Darcy
Speaker 2: to end up with or the sisters who are mean.
Speaker 2: Bingley's sisters who are mean to all of them just
Speaker 2: kind of stood like Jane a little bit because Grandmother
Speaker 2: really preferred Carrie, so like I was like, okay, Grandmother,
Speaker 2: that's not a good guy.
Speaker 1: I really thought she was going to be better than this.
Speaker 1: But I was wrong. Okay, cool cool cool Because even in.
Speaker 2: The book, the aunt who is rooting for Darcy to
Speaker 2: marry someone else for a while Elizabeth to the point
Speaker 2: that she wants her to stick around. Uh, but then
Speaker 2: she hates Elizabeth when she finds out that Darcy was
Speaker 2: thinking about marrying her. So but yeah, so I was
Speaker 2: not expecting. I was expecting to turn around too, just
Speaker 2: because of the book, not necessarily because of the writing.
Speaker 1: I was kind of expecting because Georgia seemed to be
Speaker 1: such a genuine character, which yeah, which I get. Like
Speaker 1: now that I've read it, I'm like, Okay, I don't
Speaker 1: I wouldn't call her naive, but I think she was
Speaker 1: just like hopeful and it didn't go that way, right,
Speaker 1: But she they because of her and Darius like less
Speaker 1: or so, but they were both like, no, it'll be cool,
Speaker 1: it'll be cool, right, And I kind of was trusting,
Speaker 1: like they wouldn't eat her astray, which maybe is just
Speaker 1: another example of class where they just in their heads
Speaker 1: it's not as big of a deal. Yes, exactly, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I will say Carrie's character, even though she was a snob,
Speaker 2: didn't end as bad as I thought it would. So
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, so bad. Yeah, she's not so bad.
Speaker 2: She's jealous and I can see why she's jealous, but huh,
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: I was kind of confused while she was around, but
Speaker 1: I did like because she goes from like a very
Speaker 1: jealous not nice at all too. I wouldn't say like nice.
Speaker 1: But she did watch out for Zuri's sister. She did
Speaker 1: kind of except for why was she then? Why she
Speaker 1: letting warn alone with him but her? But like okay,
Speaker 1: but like she wasn't trying to mess anything up or
Speaker 1: purposely trying to do anything bad. No, she was just
Speaker 1: not happy with didn't She made it clear. So here's
Speaker 1: a quote I wanted to read. So this is kind
Speaker 1: of a a back and forth that happens between Zuri
Speaker 1: and Darius. You know, Zuri, sometimes I'm baffled by how
Speaker 1: judgmental you are. Darius is taking one hand off the
Speaker 1: steering wheel. I side eyed him, baffled. I should be
Speaker 1: the one who's baffled, and you, Darius Darcy are the
Speaker 1: walking definition of judgmental. I'm not judgmental. I'm just an
Speaker 1: excellent judge of character. You fall short in that department character.
Speaker 1: So you judge my sister's character, Yes, I did, and
Speaker 1: she's cool, he says. If you need some tips on
Speaker 1: how to accurately judge a person's character, just let me
Speaker 1: know who back and forth. Oh my, this is a
Speaker 1: similar conversation in Yeah. That's a good because, like halfway through,
Speaker 1: it's interesting when you're reading something from one person's point
Speaker 1: of view and you're like yeah, yeah, And then halfway
Speaker 1: through I was like, wait a minute, she's kind of
Speaker 1: being judge you too, all right, And then I get it.
Speaker 1: It totally makes sense why she is. But it's just
Speaker 1: funny because I think it was like halfway in and
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, which, yes, kind of related. Another
Speaker 1: big theme is reputation in this book. Here's a quote
Speaker 1: I want to say the same thing that I don't
Speaker 1: care about my reputation, but I do because they already
Speaker 1: have one, all my sisters do. We have to be
Speaker 1: careful about who we fall for, especially me and Jenay,
Speaker 1: just because guys from around the way like us. Even
Speaker 1: if we don't give them no play, it's still easy
Speaker 1: for them to talk about us. Poppy is watching us,
Speaker 1: but so is the rest of the neighborhood. And then later,
Speaker 1: don't let your pride get in the way. I thought
Speaker 1: this was interesting because I think it did a really
Speaker 1: good job of examining reputation on a lot of levels,
Speaker 1: like reputation in your neighborhood, like representing your neighborhood and
Speaker 1: what you think that is, and then reputation and like
Speaker 1: your family. There's just a lot of layers of reputation
Speaker 1: that was looked at. I thought that was really good.
Speaker 1: And then finally, this is kind of we've been talking
Speaker 1: about all this stuff all along, but love and money,
Speaker 1: Love and money again. I did think the like hot
Speaker 1: neighbor moving in that was really funny. The beginning where
Speaker 1: all of the girls are like, let's go meet them.
Speaker 1: Here is a quote. And there are two ways to
Speaker 1: examine the institution of marriage. Marisol begins in the whole
Speaker 1: room size because she's about to spill out a series
Speaker 1: of facts, numbers, and statistics that all have to do
Speaker 1: with the things she loves most in the world. Money.
Speaker 1: It can either mean that marriage is the false notion
Speaker 1: that love is forever and a woman is left to
Speaker 1: depend on her husband for financial support, or that two
Speaker 1: incomes are better than one. Love is abstract, money is not.
Speaker 1: And I thought like, even when I was reading this,
Speaker 1: I was like, this is such an interesting take on
Speaker 1: what I bet happened in Jane Alston's version.
Speaker 2: So in Jane Austen it is about religion. Oh and
Speaker 2: she is very scholarly and does not care for frivolous
Speaker 2: things Mary because she is also all about quotes and
Speaker 2: books and but she does a lot of biblical and
Speaker 2: when I say biblical, I'm gonna go like very attestant,
Speaker 2: very uh learned book, you know, biblical level of that.
Speaker 2: So she's very into religion in that term. She actually
Speaker 2: has a crush on Colin, the cousin, and she was
Speaker 2: the only one of all of them who wanted to
Speaker 2: get married, but she was seen as dowdy.
Speaker 1: I guess it's somewhat boring. I feel like there was
Speaker 1: a character like that in Persuasions, wasn't there?
Speaker 2: Yes, But she also like plays the piano in uh
Speaker 2: Brian prejud and she doesn't play it well, but she
Speaker 2: thinks she's amazing at it, and so she'll try to
Speaker 2: perform and everybody's.
Speaker 1: Like, you're really wishing she would stop.
Speaker 2: Essentially, so she's a scholarly one, I guess like but
Speaker 2: just really boring, but always speaks up to tell facts
Speaker 2: or like to correct a situation or something.
Speaker 1: She's kind of the sad sack of the bunch. Ah.
Speaker 1: I see, I see, I just thought it was interesting
Speaker 1: kind of this, like the breaking down of the love
Speaker 1: and the money like.
Speaker 2: She's but she kind of does that in every way,
Speaker 2: like when she's talking about the fact that Lydia is
Speaker 2: ruined and then she brings into back how we're all
Speaker 2: ruined and she's done this, and of course we're gonna
Speaker 2: be like they're like, can you stop.
Speaker 1: Hold on out. We get right, we get it, We're screwed.
Speaker 1: Stop this. Oh how interesting. Yes, there's also a lot
Speaker 1: of themes of jealousy throughout, which I thought I really
Speaker 1: appreciated it in terms of, you know, in our modern
Speaker 1: times with like the texting and he hasn't texted back,
Speaker 1: or we're like, wait, what what does this mean? And
Speaker 1: kind of like making Darius jealous with Warren like that
Speaker 1: kind of being in the back of Surrey's mind anyway,
Speaker 1: So that was definitely present in their messy courtship, I
Speaker 1: guess I'll call it, but definitely throughout. Also, yeah, the
Speaker 1: pressure to find a man her family. I would say
Speaker 1: like they wentn't and they would they kind of would
Speaker 1: be like get a move on, But it was more
Speaker 1: that they were like she wouldn't bring Warren to her
Speaker 1: like stoop, Yeah, because she didn't want her whole family
Speaker 1: to know it'll be real nosy. Yes. And then when
Speaker 1: she was coming back with Darius in the car from Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. She had to tell them and they were
Speaker 1: very nosy and all the question right. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So in the book, obviously the mother is all about
Speaker 2: getting all the children off married and getting she's she's
Speaker 2: also ridiculous of a character, very very made to be
Speaker 2: that way.
Speaker 1: But the way that the mother in.
Speaker 2: This one, obviously she's much loved, more loving, and like
Speaker 2: a little more fierce and independent and not so much
Speaker 2: about that, but the whole like little smiling and trying
Speaker 2: to get them together and trying to get them alone
Speaker 2: and allow them to be alone was definitely like a
Speaker 2: ploy also in the book, so like she does a
Speaker 2: great job and represent I think she did a great
Speaker 2: job in representing these characters but not making them look caricaturish,
Speaker 2: unlike like even though Prian Prejudice was an old like
Speaker 2: ridiculously big classic, it still made the characters look caricaturish
Speaker 2: in a way that you were like, yeah, the mom's
Speaker 2: if there was a villain, mom would not be a villain.
Speaker 1: But she's the foil. Right, that makes sense.
Speaker 2: But I'm glad that that wasn't the case for this one,
Speaker 2: because it's so over the top of you just.
Speaker 1: Like, how much do you dislike your mother? Yeah? Well yeah,
Speaker 1: and I feel like most of the characters were very likable,
Speaker 1: like yeah, and the ones you weren't supposed to like.
Speaker 1: I didn't really hate. I just was right. So I
Speaker 1: liked that, and I did. We didn't really go into
Speaker 1: it much, but I did like at the kind of
Speaker 1: the clash of cultures at the cocktail party when the
Speaker 1: mother shows up with all of those foods. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: darcies are clear. You like catering essentially. Okay, if it
Speaker 1: was a really it was a really enjoyable read. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, even for me who hasn't read it, I
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. I've loved hearing the comparisons. I can't wait
Speaker 1: to read the original. Yeah, I'm gonna make you read
Speaker 1: the regionnal soon. But yeah, it's a great stand alone
Speaker 1: You don't need it is though. It is kind of
Speaker 1: a homage to the Pride and Prejudice, and it is
Speaker 1: a retailing.
Speaker 2: It's It is a great stand alone book. It has
Speaker 2: a lot of great quotes. The poetry is quite lovely
Speaker 2: as well. I really did enjoy all of that. I
Speaker 2: was like, this is good. Sometimes I wonder when people
Speaker 2: write things like this, I'm like, did you do the
Speaker 2: poetry first? And you're I'm gonna do a book with
Speaker 2: this because I've thought about that. I'm like, you know,
Speaker 2: sometimes because they are great stand alone poems as is
Speaker 2: as well. So yes, book ten out of ten everybody
Speaker 2: should read.
Speaker 1: I love that. I thought it was great. Highly recommends,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking forward to maybe a pride Bridget is.
Speaker 2: Now I'm gonna do a whole thing. You're gonna have
Speaker 2: to watch the new book. I don't want to, but
Speaker 2: the new one, and I'm gonna make you watch the
Speaker 2: BBC series.
Speaker 1: For doing it. I am into it. You don't have.
Speaker 2: To again, like come back to Bridget Jones Diary as well,
Speaker 2: because that is also a rendition of that.
Speaker 1: Oh no, did you not know that that? You didn't
Speaker 1: know that girl? Okay? Yes, that's why Darcy is in there.
Speaker 2: And his name is Wickham Publishing, which is Wickham.
Speaker 1: Oh dear, I have a lot to learn.
Speaker 2: The guy who plays Bingsley is a very like has
Speaker 2: a minor character, like he has one line and he's
Speaker 2: in there.
Speaker 3: I was like, Bisley, what are you doing here? I
Speaker 3: probably was just like, yeah, I had.
Speaker 2: To give you all the like tidbits to that because
Speaker 2: there's no way I want to let you go.
Speaker 1: I feel like you definitely told me about calling first,
Speaker 1: and yeah, there's no way I would to let you go.
Speaker 2: On would like throw out be like this is this,
Speaker 2: this is this, this is this, And it also starts
Speaker 2: with the line is the truth universally acknowledged?
Speaker 1: It starts with that line as well. Hmmm, well now
Speaker 1: I know you know you're opening my world. We can
Speaker 1: try this. I'm coming back, We're coming back the classics.
Speaker 1: Excited too, I think it'd be great. Well, this was
Speaker 1: super fun. This was a great pick. Definitely checking out
Speaker 1: listeners and I would love I really do want to
Speaker 1: check out some of this author's other works. I think
Speaker 1: that they sound fascinating. We have to, yeah, But in
Speaker 1: the meantime, if you have any thoughts about this or
Speaker 1: any suggestions, you can email Ustephania mom Stuff at iHeartMedia
Speaker 1: dot com. You can find us on Twitter at Mom's
Speaker 1: Teff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff I've
Speaker 1: never told you. We have tea public store and we
Speaker 1: have a book wherever you get your books. Thanks always
Speaker 1: to our super juicy Christina, arxative producer Maya and our
Speaker 1: contruder Joey. Thank you and thanks to you for listening
Speaker 1: Steffan Never Told You his production of by Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcast from My Heart Radio, you can check
Speaker 1: out the heart Radio app, Apple Podcast wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows,