What happens when a tenth grade girl and her best friend of many years both fall in love with the same boy? If you're Julia Lefkowitz, the tenth grader in question, you try your hardest to bow out gracefully even if it feels as though your heart might break.

Julia, the wonderfully ordinary and likable protagonist of the young adult novel Enthusiasm, knows just how lucky she is to have a friend like Ashleigh Rossi. She thinks of Ashleigh as her "heart-sister." The two girls have been close since grade school. They live next door to one another and pay each other visits via an old oak tree that connects their bedroom windows. Their personalities are very different, but those differences seem to enhance their friendship rather than stifle it: Jewish Julia is tall, skinny (too skinny, she thinks), sensible and quiet, a lover of books and a writer of poetry. Catholic Ashleigh is short, curvy, boisterous and talkative, prone to wild enthusiasms that can turn into mild obsessions.

Julia has lived through lots of Ashleigh's enthusiasms, going along for the ride as one might hop into the side-car of an excited motorcyclist. She's lived through Ashleigh's Little House on the Prairie phase, her King Arthur phase, her military strategy phase, her ballet phase, and her candy-making phase. When our story opens, she is startled to find that Julia's newest enthusiasm is for Jane Austen. Bookworm Julia has loved Austen's books for a long time; in fact, she was the one who loaned Ashleigh her beloved copy of Pride and Prejudice. This is the first time that her energetic and excitable friend has taken over one of Julia's own quieter passions and made it her own, and Julia isn't quite sure how she feels about that. She's also not sure how on earth she'll manage to navigate through tenth grade without major embarrassment if Julia continues to wear long skirts (no jeans, because Austen heroines would never wear them) and to speak in the language of a 19th century English novel.

Things get even more complicated when Ashleigh convinces Julia to go along with her to crash a dance at the elite boys' school on the hill. The best way to emulate the life of Austen's heroines, she maintains, is to find romance with some Austen-like heroes. She can't wait to find her Mr. Darcy, and generously wants Julia to find her own Mr. Bingley. Julia's more than a bit nettled to find herself relegated to the secondary plot-line of her favorite novel, but true to her more introverted nature, she squelches those hurt feelings. She knows her best friend can't quite help but cast herself into the role of the leading lady.

Dressed in vintage clothing from Julia's mother's boutique, the two young ladies crash the Forefield Academy Columbus Cotillion one October evening. They're fortunate to meet another pair of best friends: two kind, smart, funny, well-mannered and creative prep school boys, Grandison Parr (simply called "Parr") and Ned Downing. Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley? Asheligh thinks so. The problem is, they both fall for Mr. Darcy.

Strangely enough, Julia has seen Parr around town before. Although they've never met, she's noticed him on more than one occasion. He once held the door open for her as she was entering the public library. Most recently she saw him in a fencing uniform at the local sporting goods store, where he didn't speak but gave her a sweeping bow. She's always thought of him as a mysterious stranger...well, really her mysterious stranger. She never thought she'd get to meet him, or that he'd turn out to be such a genuine, thoughtful person. Not that any of that matters now that Ashleigh has met him too, and fallen for him hard. She knows how Ashleigh gets when she falls for someone, so she vows not to stand in the way. Besides, it's far more likely that Parr fell for boisterous, adorable Ashleigh than for quiet, bookish Julia, right? Right?

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Enthusiasm is one of the most delightful novels I've read in ages. It was hard to believe that this was a debut effort from author Polly Shulman. The writing is confident, crisp (a favorite adjective of the young characters), and witty. The characters are ordinary enough to be believable teenagers, but richly drawn and just quirky enough to be memorable. The romance, inspired by the great Jane Austen, is powered by mis-understandings, wrong impressions and glitches in communication.

Although Ashleigh's Austen obsession does drive the beginning of the plot, I was pleased to see that the Austen inspiration was not just skin-deep. This book stands on its own creative merits, but the love of Austen underlines the work at a deep level, peeking out once in a while as a ruffled petticoat might show beneath a long skirt. Shulman doesn't try to imitate an Austen plot (as so many Austen imitators for adult readers do) rather she explores Austen's themes and techniques in her own contemporary context.

What she's given us is a delightful, wholesome, romantic story, a contemporary young-adult novel that abounds in Austen-like sensibility. Like an Austen novel, it is steeped in clever conversations and closely observed manners and culture. The set-up of the two very different character types, in Ashleigh and Julia, and the exploration of a certain theme ("enthusiasm") through the lenses of the two character types also shows a debt to Austen (who explored sense, sensibility, pride, prejudice, and persuasion, often through the juxtaposition of different kinds of characters).

I also enjoyed this novel for its fresh approach to youthful romance. So many books being written for young adults these days assume a sort of jaded cynicism as the attitudinal norm. By contrast, Shulman gives us young heroines who -- though not perfect by any means -- are smart and interesting as well as interested in all kinds of things -- beyond boys and shopping, thankfully!. Julie loves reading and writing poetry, both girls love music and both become involved in the Forefield academy play (where, granted, they get to see Parr and Ned on a regular basis -- but they also become dedicated and enthusiastic thespians). They care about their friends, they care about their parents even when said parents or step-parents can drive them a little batty, and they care about their own friendship even more than they care about hooking up with the right guy.

In a culture filled with "romantic" stories that lack charm, reverence and wit, reading Enthusiasm was like throwing open a window and breathing in lungfuls of fresh air. The girls long for romance, even as they struggle to recognize what it looks like, and the boys want to be prince charmings, even when their nerves inhibit them from acting as cool as they'd like to. This book has charm in a good old-fashioned sense, yet manages to invest a love of old-fashioned charm and romance with a hip and contemporary feel. It doesn't seem too wildly square (or "igsome" as they might say) for Ashleigh and Julia to practice waltzing with Julia's mom before they crash the dance at the academy, or for the boys they meet to be strong, artistic types who excel at song-writing, play-writing and martial arts.

In addition to the Austen-inspired feel of much of the novel, portions are colored by a Shakespearean feel as well. There's an unconscious and spontaneous break into verse-speaking when Julia and Parr first dance (brilliantly rendered from their awkward, nervous conversation -- be on the lookout for other creative plays on words and poetic devices provided as "clues" later on!). Late in the book Julia and Ashleigh actually find an original hand-written sonnet tacked to their oak tree. Who is it for? Clues abound that enable the reader to guess that long before the girls can figure it out, but the fact that we stay one emotional step ahead of both of them throughout much of the story is pleasurable rather than exasperating. Ashleigh and Julia may not always be completely swift when it comes to figuring out the state of their own hearts or the hearts of their would-be suitors (who is, at fifteen?) but they're full of hope, and that hope colors this whole wonderful novel.

This is a book I won't mind reading again and again -- in fact, I've already read it twice and I only discovered it a couple of weeks ago. It tapped the romantic young girl still inside me, but also satisfied my grown-up desire for a well-written read. It's a book that I'll be delighted to share with girls from the age of 13 on up. Smart, savvy, sweet, romantic, and satisfying, I'm completely enthusiastic about Enthusiasm. I only hope that Polly Shulman plans to write many more novels.

~befus, 2007

Recommended: Yes