The Evolution of Jane
by Cathleen Schine
List Price: $12.95
Pages: 210
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0452281202
Publisher: Plume
Blending the romance of travel with memories of childhood, the national-bestseller
The Evolution of Jane draws on unusual material from the literary realm—evolutionary
history—while retaining the trademark slapstick and biting wit of
a Cathleen Schine novel. In its setting, the novel marks a departure from
Schine's traditionally urban environments, taking the characters to
the remote Galapagos Islands six hundred miles off the coast of Ecuador.
On that island made famous by Darwin's observations of curious species,
Schine chooses to observe her favorite curious species, the human one,
and one of its most puzzling habits—friendship.
Jane Barlow Schwartz is a twenty-five-year-old
recent divorcée who is treated by her parents to a dream vacation in the
Galapagos Islands. Meant to be a diversion from her failed marriage, Jane
arrives in the islands only to find that the tour guide assigned to her
eco-adventure group is the best friend she lost ten years ago, Martha.
A distant cousin and next-door neighbor in the summer community where
they grew up, Martha was Jane's best friend. A bit more savvy and
brazen (she wintered in New York City), Martha introduced Jane to bikinis,
matching tops-and-bottoms, and the joy of having a best friend. However,
with no warning at all, Martha dropped the friendship. One day, it was
over. Like a discarded lover, Jane was left to wonder what went wrong.
Jane sifts through the most
telling memories from her summers spent with Martha, searching for clues
to explain what happened. Was it something she said? Did she write something
offensive? Was there a family secret Jane never learned of? The journey
through the Galapagos Islands progresses and Jane's curiosity about
the science of friendship becomes an obsession. As Martha blithely leads
the random cast of characters through the nesting areas of the red-footed
boobies and the murky waters of the sea lions, Jane can only wonder how
Martha can so easily let go of such a strong bond as "best friend." Fueled
by Darwin's The Origins of Species, Jane begins to treat friendship
as an organism—one that requires a habitat tailored to its specific
needs, one that is as easily destroyed as it is created.
With great ease, Schine takes
us from the myopic world of girlfriends—where matching sailor suits
inspire lengthy conversation—to the supposedly mature world of adults
on vacation—flirting, dining, sometimes politely tolerating each
other. She asks the big questions and lets Jane, as well as the reader,
muddle through the answers. Why does friendship exist if it doesn't
perpetuate the species? Are friendships designed to fail, leaving its
partners free to move on to other, more fruitful friendships? Most telling
of all, Schine opens the novel with a question Jane demands of the reader,
"Have you ever lost a friend?" From the very beginning, Schine promises
provocative dialogues between Jane and the reader, Darwin and modern-day
relationships. Hailed by The New York Times for its "vivid intensity"
and noted for its lively synthesis of science and emotion, The Evolution
of Jane appeals to both sides of a reader's brain—the deductive
reasoner and the heart-felt empathizer of the human species.
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1.Discuss the ways in which Jane and Martha are competitive. Do you think competition is necessary in any relationship? How is competition in friendship useful or harmful?
2.What significance does Jane's Cuban heritage have in the story? What are the economic and cultural resonances of it in her relationship with Martha?
3. Consider the Galapagos Islands. In many ways, they are populated by anomalies—species isolated for so long they have adapted to the very specific environment of Galapagos. How does that relate to people, surrounded by homogeneous friends and family?
4. The tourists have to hose off every time they get in the waters around the Galapagos to assure they do not pollute the local environment with foreign organisms. Do you think they've altered the environment just by being there? How have they changed the environment? How have the Galapagos changed them?
5. What other naturalist writers do you know of besides Charles Darwin? How has Naturalism changed since his time (1809-82)?
6.Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory states that animals and plants develop through natural selection. What does that mean? Besides physical changes through the millennium, how have humans developed through natural selection?
7. Consider friendship as a living organism. What environment does it thrive in? What slight variation in its habitat could destroy it?
8. What do you think social Darwinism is? Do you think it applies to friendship?
9. Why do you think Martha wasn't as concerned as Jane about their lost friendship—or was she?
10.Darwin kept his theories secret for twenty years. The Barlow family secret was also buried for decades. The Cornwalls had a secret, which they took to the Galapagos. Why all the secrets? What happens to all of these secrets?
11. Do you think friendship is inevitable, like procreation? Or is it an unnecessary human invention? Discuss.
12. Where do you think (or hope) Jane and Martha's relationship goes from here?
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