Jane Austen Goes to Hollywood in "Meet the Benedettos"

Erika Dirk

Dec 22

There is no shortage of literary mashups in contemporary publishing, at least in how books are marketed. Books are described as X meets Y to give readers an idea of what to expect. Katie Cotugno's latest novel, Meet the Benedettos, is billed as Pride and Prejudice meets the Kardashians, and the characterization is dead on: while the basic plot and character names draw inspiration from Jane Austen's most famous novel, the content and feel of the book are pure Kardashian-Jenner.

If it seems like an unlikely pairing, consider the following parallels. Both the Bennet family and the Kardashian-Jenner family contain five daughters. The second eldest daughter is the protagonist (or, in the case of Kim Kardashian, the one who started out as the most famous of her sisters). The youngest two—Kit and Lydia, or Kendall and Kylie—form their own close-knit pairing, a bit separate from their elder sisters. The mother—Mrs. Bennet or Kris Jenner—is brazenly dedicated to the social elevation (social climbing, detractors might call it) of her daughters. And just like that, the combination of a canonical literary work with the most culturally recognizable reality-star family of the 2000s feels oddly apt.

After all, in what other modern situation would it be realistic for a family of adult women to spend their days going to parties, worry about losing their family home, and never once consider trying to get a job?

Meet the Benedettos opens with the truth universally acknowledged that Lilly Benedetto drives the crappiest, most broken-down car in Southern California, which provides readers with a sense of the book's tone from the start. Her older sister June picks her up from where she's stranded in West Hollywood and they return home, where they and each of their twenty-something sisters—June, Lilly, Mari, Kit, and Olivia—live with their parents in a McMansion teetering on the edge of foreclosure. Their fame blossomed from Mr. Benedetto's chain of Meatball King restaurants and a reality show starring the family—yes, called Meet the Benedettos—but the family's financial situation and celebrity have deteriorated in recent years.

Cue the eligible bachelors. Charlie Bingley, the hottest new action movie star, has just moved into the neighborhood, Pemberly Grove, accompanied by his brooding friend Will Darcy. Darcy is an actor too, but the theater kind: serious, Shakespearean. Within a few pages, Will and Lilly are making out in a hedge maze before he realizes she's a washed-up reality star—the Benedetto with the "tacky boyfriend" who "died from, like, doing whippets or eating Tide Pods," Caroline Bingley helpfully informs Will. Lilly overhears their conversation, clarifies that her boyfriend died of a heroin overdose, and flips him off as she leaves.

Meet the Benedettos takes off from there, alternating among various characters' points of view and following the same general plot points as Pride and Prejudice, fueled by simmering tension and Cronut-flavored vodka. Lilly's interactions with Will show off Cotugno's background as a romance novelist. The saucy encounters—starting with the hedge maze and heating up from there—are peppered with banter and innuendo. The pair keep running into each other in a series of events tailored to suit the book's Los Angeles setting. For instance, June Benedetto falls ill at the Bingley residence (where Will Darcy is living) not because she caught a cold from riding over on horseback in the rain, but because her anorexia makes working out a dangerous endeavor, and her sister Lilly must rush over to help her regain her strength after June passes out mid-workout with Caroline Bingley.

Readers expecting understated nuances may balk at some of the updates to Austen's original, while others will appreciate the rapid-fire barrage of pop culture references. Nick—the stand-in for the charming but ill-intentioned Mr. Wickham—spends one scene "chatting animatedly about blockchain with the second lead from a Starz show about a pod of extremely attractive mermaids who do organized crime." Lilly's best friend explains that she invited Charlie and Will to dinner while walking her parents' dog because her parents "are at a silent retreat in San Luis Obispo and their dog walker has bursitis." The world of modern Hollywood is just about as relatable as Regency-era Britain, and that's part of the fun.

Meet the Benedettos is strongest where it pushes on the original plot to create something new in these well-known characters. One of the most interesting variations from the source material is Cotugno's treatment of the relationship between Mr. Collins and Lizzy's best friend, Charlotte Lucas—here, Charlotte's name remains the same, and Lilly's cousin Colin is the silly annoyance of a man who visits and stays with the family, much to their chagrin. Colin is a successful screenwriter under the patronage of famed director Caitriona deBourgh. He is also a tedious hipster. He is a self-described foodie and lectures on the benefits of intermittent fasting. He monologues about Woody Allen and walks the red carpet in a purple velvet tuxedo. He elicits plenty of cringes, particularly from Lilly. But while Lilly finds him obnoxious, she also acknowledges a bit of creative jealousy; she's working on a screenplay and a novel of her own, without any of her cousin's success. Colin offers to mentor her, and she declines.

In Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte accepts Mr. Collins' proposal of marriage after Lizzy rejects him; Charlotte is content with security, even if it is not accompanied by romantic love. To a modern reader, the decision might seem a little sad. In Meet the Benedettos, Charlotte is a successful chef who genuinely likes Colin and reciprocates his feelings for her. Lilly's own insecurity regarding Colin's successes coupled with her inability to understand how her best friend could possibly want a relationship with someone she finds insufferable creates a rift between the friends. Lilly's response to Charlotte and Colin's relationship deepens readers' understanding of her prejudices outside of the context of her interactions with Will Darcy.

Readers know how things end up in Austen's classic: Lizzy marries Mr. Darcy, Jane ends up with affable Bingley, and Lydia's shocking social scandal is remedied as best as can be. Meet the Benedettos doesn't stray too far from its source material but offers its own version of a happy ending. The Benedetto heroines may start out as washed-up reality stars, but their resilience prevents them from staying down for too long. After all, they're just as much Kardashian-Jenner as they are Bennet.