The Evolution of Jane Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

The Evolution of Jane Book

It is a truth universally acknowledged that when a Cathleen Schine heroine goes off in search of her origins, she's likely to travel farther than most--and bound to come up against more than the average obstacle. Jane Barlow Schwartz, for instance, heads not for her New England childhood home but for the consolations of the Galapagos Islands. "You're searching for your roots," her father quips. "On a dormant volcano?" And this is only one of the thousands of witticisms on offer in Cathleen Schine's novel of lost friendship, the perplexing power of the family feud, and more than one shipboard mystery. When Jane, 25 and a brand-new divorcée, arrives in Ecuador for her ecological tour, she instantly recognizes the guide as her relative and childhood best friend. Martha, the cousin in question, however, takes several beats longer--a clear signal that both still have some evolving to do. As Jane quickly reveals, Martha was the real grand passion in her life, and now she's determined to get to the bottom of her idol's disenchantment, not to mention explore the evolutionary value of friendship. Charles Darwin is definitely much in evidence in The Evolution of Jane, and Schine has some serious fun with Jane's confusion when it comes to species survival. But her fifth novel is also filled with some provocative, perfectly timed aperçus on natural, romantic, and most definitely familial selection. --Kerry FriedRead More

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  • Product Description

    From the bestselling author of The Love Letter, comes a playful and evocative exploration of the nature of friendship

    "Classy, intelligent fun." --People

    Six hundred miles off the Ecuadoran mainland, just south of the equator, the Galpagos Islands are home to diverse species of exotic wildlife--and tourists of every stripe and feather. It is here that Jane Barlow Schwartz embarks on a quest as urgent as Charles Darwin's one hundred and fifty years before: to find out why her childhood friendship with her cousin and soul-mate Martha ended; and what unknown event, family feud, or unintended slight caused the happiest part of her life to become extinct. Along the way, amid blue-footed boobies, red-lipped batfish, and various species mating, squabbling, separating, and coming together again, Jane ponders the origin of her own colorful and peculiar heritage, a secret history of natural selection, and the flawed and fascinating evolutionary process that makes us all who we are.

    Praise for The Evolution of Jane

    "A tour de force . . . witty. Consistently amusing and provocative . . . a great pleasure to read."--The New York Times

    "We should rejoice in a rare novel like The Evolution of Jane. A beautifully descriptive travelogue of the Galpagos . . . wrapped around a rollicking family saga tinged with hints of sexual intrigue. Three cheers."--Barbara Kingsolver, The New York Times Book Review

    "Hilariously rendered. In her smart, funny, and moving book, Schine weaves a tight bond between natural processes and human love, and reveals to us the spiritual metamorphosis that is life itself."--San Diego Union-Tribune

  • 0452281202
  • 9780452281202
  • Cathleen Schine
  • 1 September 1999
  • G P Putnam's Sons
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 224
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