6 Novels by Alison Lurie
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Overview: Alison Lurie (b. 1926) is a Pulitzer Prize–winning author of fiction and nonfiction. Born in Chicago and raised in White Plains, New York, she grew up in a family of storytellers. Her father was a sociology professor and later the head of a social work agency; her mother was a former journalist. Lurie graduated from Radcliffe College, and in 1969 joined the English department at Cornell University, where she taught courses on children’s literature, among others.
Genre: Fiction Classics
The Nowhere City:
A young couple from New England’s Ivy League plunges into a culture clash during a year in Los Angeles.
When his mentor at Harvard University suddenly leaves for Washington, Paul Cattleman finds himself adrift in the wilds of academia. He’s lost his fellowship position for the fall semester, can find work only in what he considers to be intellectual cesspits—schools that would brand the young history professor as forever unsuitable for the Ivy League—and he’s one thesis short of a PhD. Rather than doom his career, he takes a temporary job in Los Angeles, a city whose superficial charms signal an adventure. He is ready to make the best of his year out west. The only thing holding him back is his wife.
Katherine is a New Englander through and through, and as soon as she steps into the LA smog, she knows this transition will be a struggle. What Paul sees as fun, she considers vulgar. But while Los Angeles may be a cultural wasteland, this East Coast girl will find…
The Truth About Lorin:
Polly Alter is 39, a failed artist whose marriage has collapsed but who has just been commissioned to write the biography of a brilliant but obscure artist, Lorin Jones. Alter becomes obsessed with finding the truth about Lorin Jones, and when she does, she is exposed to truths about herself, as well.
Truth and Consequences:
On a hot midsummer morning, after sixteen years of marriage, Jane saw her husband fifty feet away and did not recognise him. Alan has changed because he’s injured his back. Pain has altered his appearance, but he has also changed in other ways: he has become glum and demanding. Jane has to do everything for him – fetching, carrying, shopping, cooking, even dressing and undressing him. When she longs for escape, her mother accuses her of selfishness – of course she can’t abandon a man so handicapped and needy – Meanwhile Henry cares in a different way for his self-centred wife, Delia, a writer and researcher specialising in fairytales, who in her own estimation is a ‘Great Artist’. He tends the flame, making certain Delia gets everything she desires including spectacular doses of adulation. Can sexy Delia, with her trailing scarves and lacy shirts, coax Alan out of his grumpiness? Can Henry stop Jane feeling guilty? Can the couples swap roles?
Last Resort:
At the end of his tether, a writer travels to Key West with his wife. She’s hoping to cheer him up, but he’s hoping for something more fatal . . .
Every schoolboy in America knows the work of Wilkie Walker. A pioneering naturalist, he won fame and fortune with his accessible nature books. But by the time he turns seventy, his renown is nearly gone. Late at night, he sits up torturing himself with fears that his career was a waste, his talent is gone, and his body is shot through with cancer. His wife, Jenny, twenty-five years younger than Wilkie, can tell only that he is out of sorts. She has no idea her husband is on the verge of giving up on life.
When Jenny suggests spending the winter in Key West, Wilkie goes along with it. After all, if you need to plan a fatal "accident," Florida is a perfectly good place to do so. And when they touch down in the sunshine state, the Walkers find it’s not too late to live life—or end it—however they damn well please.
The War Between the Tates:
Erica Tate wouldn’t mind getting up in the morning if she enjoyed her children more. Until puberty struck, Jeffrey and Matilda were absolute darlings, but in the last year, they have become sullen, insufferable little monsters. Erica’s husband, Brian, is so deeply immersed in university life—and the legs of a half-literate flower child named Wendy—that he either doesn’t notice his wife’s misery or simply doesn’t care. Worst of all, their pleasant little neighborhood is transforming into a subdivision. And with each new ranch house that springs up around their lot, Erica’s marriage inches closer to disaster. Admitting she is sick of her family is only the first step. When the Tate household tips into full-scale emotional combat, Erica must do her best to ensure that she comes out on top. In this darkly comic tale, there is nothing more important than having a good exit strategy. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author’s collection.
Foreign Affairs:
Virginia Miner, a fifty-something, unmarried tenured professor, is in London to work on her new book about children’s folk rhymes. Despite carrying a U.S. passport, Vinnie feels essentially English and rather looks down on her fellow Americans. But in spite of that, she is drawn into a mortifying and oddly satisfying affair with an Oklahoman tourist who dresses more Bronco Billy than Beau Brummel.
Also in London is Vinnie’s colleague Fred Turner, a handsome, flat broke, newly separated, and thoroughly miserable young man trying to focus on his own research. Instead, he is distracted by a beautiful and unpredictable English actress and the world she belongs to.
Both American, both abroad, and both achingly lonely, Vinnie and Fred play out their confused alienation and dizzying romantic liaisons in Alison Lurie’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Smartly written, poignant, and witty, Foreign Affairs remains an enduring comic masterpiece.
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