Rating: 
Summary: Well-written fable
Review: "The Evolution of Jane" is a novel that is at times brilliant, at times maddeningly pedestrian. The premise, of twentysomething Jane Schwartz's trip to the Galapogos after a divorce, is at once fascinating and flawed. While on the trip, Jane muses on her lost friendship with her cousin and soul mate,Martha, who just happens to be the tour guide on the trip through the Galapogos. The novel weaves back and forward between Jane and Martha's childhood in Connecticut, and their present trip together. One of the problems with the novel is the narrator's voice. We are supposed to believe she and her cousin are currently in their mid-twenties, but I think their thoughts, behavior and values seem better aligned with characters twice that age. Another problem is the character of Martha, who is vaguely drawn at best. Is she self-absorbed, elusive, narcissistic? We see so little of her, and yet the novel hinges on questions of her character. We are left to believe Jane's conclusion that Martha was not the friend Jane thought she was. But is this true? The ending was too vague for my taste. The novel shines, though, when the author draw parallels between the evolution of the species and the evolution of families and individuals. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was inspired to hit the Natural History museum and to call my travel agent after reading about Jane's travels in the islands of Darwin's discoveries.
Rating: 
Summary: A Mirthless Disappointment
Review: "Evolution of Jane" was a tremendous letdown, a short story inflated to book length. Besides lacking any of the wit of Schine's earlier books, the plodding narrative reads more like an essay with occasional illustrations than a novel. Jane (far and away the story's least interesting character) revels in a narcissism so unbearable that Schine's superficial asides on Darwin are easier to swallow than Jane's agonizing over lost friendship. And the heroine's "evolution" doesn't begin until a page or two before the end, making for a quite unbelievable revolution. To paraphrase a character from one of Woody Allen's middle-period films, "We liked your earlier, funny books better."
Rating: 
Summary: The Necessity of Friendship
Review: "The Evolution of Jane" is a novel that is at times brilliant, at times maddeningly pedestrian. The premise, of twentysomething Jane Schwartz's trip to the Galapogos after a divorce, is at once fascinating and flawed. While on the trip, Jane muses on her lost friendship with her cousin and soul mate,Martha, who just happens to be the tour guide on the trip through the Galapogos. The novel weaves back and forward between Jane and Martha's childhood in Connecticut, and their present trip together. One of the problems with the novel is the narrator's voice. We are supposed to believe she and her cousin are currently in their mid-twenties, but I think their thoughts, behavior and values seem better aligned with characters twice that age. Another problem is the character of Martha, who is vaguely drawn at best. Is she self-absorbed, elusive, narcissistic? We see so little of her, and yet the novel hinges on questions of her character. We are left to believe Jane's conclusion that Martha was not the friend Jane thought she was. But is this true? The ending was too vague for my taste. The novel shines, though, when the author draw parallels between the evolution of the species and the evolution of families and individuals. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was inspired to hit the Natural History museum and to call my travel agent after reading about Jane's travels in the islands of Darwin's discoveries.
Rating:
Summary: Well-written fable
Review: "The Evolution of Jane" is a novel that is at times brilliant, at times maddeningly pedestrian. The premise, of twentysomething Jane Schwartz's trip to the Galapogos after a divorce, is at once fascinating and flawed. While on the trip, Jane muses on her lost friendship with her cousin and soul mate,Martha, who just happens to be the tour guide on the trip through the Galapogos. The novel weaves back and forward between Jane and Martha's childhood in Connecticut, and their present trip together. One of the problems with the novel is the narrator's voice. We are supposed to believe she and her cousin are currently in their mid-twenties, but I think their thoughts, behavior and values seem better aligned with characters twice that age. Another problem is the character of Martha, who is vaguely drawn at best. Is she self-absorbed, elusive, narcissistic? We see so little of her, and yet the novel hinges on questions of her character. We are left to believe Jane's conclusion that Martha was not the friend Jane thought she was. But is this true? The ending was too vague for my taste. The novel shines, though, when the author draw parallels between the evolution of the species and the evolution of families and individuals. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was inspired to hit the Natural History museum and to call my travel agent after reading about Jane's travels in the islands of Darwin's discoveries.
Rating:
Summary: The Evolution of Jane is slow & sure.
Review: As something to do to get over her divorce Jane sets sails for the Galapagos Islands on a tour, where she finds her erstwhile best friend, rekindles her passion for botany, new friends & has an epiphany about her life. Jane is a reader, observant of life around her. Unfortunately she has little humor still, this was a strange & different read, filled with absorbing details about the person who penned the works that did & still does cause major tectonic shifts in the ways we think about ourselves, our lives & all living things. I relished gleaning so much about Darwin & the momentous ideas for which he is now an icon. END
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and witty -- one of my favorites this year.
Review: I absolutely adored this book. The central character, Jane, is an endearing heroine, and her exploration of the Galapagos -- and her intellectual and emotional dissection and analysis of a childhood friendship -- make for a fascinating journey. All the characters are beautifully drawn, and the central question of how a friendship can inexplicably dissolve is explored with great insight. A very entertaining and affecting book -- I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny at times but mostly irritating
Review: I am a huge fan of Cathleen Schine's (even before The Love Letter) and while I usually wait until the paperback, I bought this one in hardback with great anticipation. Unlike Schine's previous works, I found this one to be mostly a chore, although there were moments of great humor. Jane is one of the most self-absorbed and self-deluded characters I've encountered lately. Maybe this was the point, I don't know, but if so, it was not funny or instructive in the least. Martha and the other characters were also uninteresting -- there was not a single likable character in the entire book. There was too much information about the Galapagos Islands, too. I was expecting a comedy, not a guidebook to the Galapagos...
Rating:
Summary: what a disappointment
Review: I am an avid reader, and always read Amazon.com's book reviews before I read a book. This was the first time I didn't. The title and idea of the book really grabbed me, because I can relate to loosing good friends and not knowing why. This book didn't know why either. What a great idea and what a poor book. I really had to force myself to read this book, thinking it would answer the question it said it would. What a boring book, stupid idea, and poor character development. Martha had no personality at all, and I wanted to yell at Jane, who cares that she's not your friend!! I felt the author was desperate in having Martha as the tour guide, and was even more desperate in having the seamstress appear on an island in the miidle of nowhere. When in the last pages the author feels she answers the question of "why", she comes up with another trite story line that doesn't answer the question. The only thing that made me feel better was reading the other reviews that agreed with my feelings exactly.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting depiction of different ways of looking at past
Review: I enjoyed reading Ms Schine's novel and I'm interested in all the negative reader reviews. I found much of the story improbable but I was still fascinated with the evolution of Jane which was her realization that Martha had not seen events in their early life in the same way. The combination of Darwin's theories and life was interesting to me also but probably many readers just want a story line. I may suggest this book to my book club; I think it will be a good one to discuss.
Rating:
Summary: Wanted to read more about the dissolution of friendship.
Review: I liked this book about Darwin's ideas and how they relate to human relationships. I loved the way Shine played with the meaning of "species" which emphasizes the notion that our categorizations are somewhat arbitrary, and often, overlapping. I liked the descriptions of the Galapagos Islands and their flora and fauna. However, the theme of lost friendships, especially during teenage years, is really worth a much deeper treatment than we can get here. I do not feel that Jane is being narcissistic but she that she has suffered from the abandonment of her childhood friend and still does not understand the reasons for it. I think that the bonds between friends at that age are important to our interpretation of other relationships later in life and contribute to our self-image as a social being. I really liked the book but I wish this theme were explored more fully. I found Martha to be a "flat" character and hard to understand.
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