We all know Elizabeth Bennet's and Mr. Darcy's story, and we know about Jane and Mr. Bingley, Lydia and Mr. Wickham, and even a few sentences about what happens to Kitty. But what about that bookish, Goth-before-it-was-cool sister, Mary Bennet? What ever happens to her? While Jane Austen was content to leave her readers laughing at Mary's social foibles and pedantic sermonizing in everyday conversation, Jennifer Paynter decides to reveal the "Forgotten Sister's" story in her fan-fiction-esq book.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this first-person novel, and it really made me sympathetic towards Mary as a character while generating annoyance with her popular elder sisters. While Paytner does not shy away from detailing Mary's awkward piano playing at the ball at Netherfield or her ability to say precisely the wrong thing at the wrong time, she allows us a look into Mary's thought processes and her backstory: a long illness and a deep clinical depression that left her looking less pretty than her sisters, a stint away for her family where she learned to read and memorize to control her anxiety, and a genuine faith in God to help her in her most lonely moments. From Mary's point of view we see not just the silliness of Lydia and Kitty, but also the selfishness of Elizabeth and Jane in excluding Mary, albeit sometimes unintentionally, from their company. We see a character very self-aware and more embarrassed of herself than her family is of her when she makes public mistakes.
My only criticism of the book, which was well-written and engaging, is Paynter's obvious nods in Mary's voice to the story we all know of Pride and Prejudice. This ripped me out of the world of the story somewhat, as if the fictional Bennets were aware that Jane Austen was writing a book about them, and it would've been more effective to just let Mary tell her story as if we've never heard it before.
For all her trouble, Paynter writes Mary a happy ending and you'll have to read the book to find out for yourself what that is. But this book reminded me that no matter what we see on the outside of a person, much more might be happening in their hearts, and we would do well to welcome the outcasts in. They might have a lot more to tell us than we think.
