Foreign Affairs
A Novel
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4.0 • 185 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Two unexpected romances in London unfold in this Pulitzer Prize–winning novel from "one of this country's most able and witty novelists" (The New York Times).
In her early fifties, Vinnie Miner is the sort of woman no one ever notices, despite her career as an Ivy League professor. Then, alone on a flight to London for a research trip, she sits next to a man she would never have viewed as a potential romantic partner. In a Western-cut suit and a rawhide tie, he is a sanitary engineer from Tulsa, Oklahoma, on a group tour. He's the very opposite of her type, but before Vinnie knows it, she's spending more and more time with him.
Also in London is Vinnie's colleague, a young, handsome English professor whose marriage and self-esteem are both on the rocks. But Fred Turner is also about to find consolation—in the arms of the most beautiful actress in England. Stylish and highborn, she introduces Fred to a glamorous, yet eccentric, London scene that he never expected to encounter.
The course of these two relationships makes up the story of Foreign Affairs—a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award as well as a Pulitzer Prize winner.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie, including rare images from the author's personal collection.
"If you manage to read only a few good novels a year, make this one of them." —USA Today
"An ingenious, touching book." —Newsweek
"A flawless jewel." —The Philadelphia Inquirer
"A brilliant novel . . . Witty, acerbic, and sometimes fiendishly clever." —London Evening Standard
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This sneaky, dazzling satire of American academics in London won a 1985 Pulitzer Prize. There’s good reason for that: Alison Lurie’s rich characters, who are weighed down by self-doubt, professional ambition, and bungled love affairs, become witty metaphors for the human condition. The tragicomic culture clashes Lurie sets up for her characters seem to say that it’s never too late to overcome prejudices and preconceptions. But then, she turns it back around and shows us that—uh-oh!—it actually might be later than you think.
Customer Reviews
Recommended
Terrific story❤️
Foreign Affairs
I only recently discovered this wonderful and captivating American Author. Having been to London once, I appreciated her warm and self-deprecating pokes of fun at the City and its culture. Clearly, she "nails" London, but also looks at love from two, diametrically opposite viewpoints. The first couple; one a celebrity and the other an Ivy Professor, could easily be objects of derision, and yet we understand them, and feel for them, because Lurie makes them so accessible. The other, middle age/senior citizen couple are likable, if not lovable, and we feel their pain, joy, and humiliation in powerful measure. Lurie's powerful analysis of the psychodynamic a and sexuality of older folks, is captivating and quite contrary to the thinking of folks under 45 years of age. On to her next! Certainly this book is deserving of its acclaim and coveted Pulitzer Prize.
Foreign Affairs by Allison Lurie
This novel was set in London, which I love. It was good, but I thought a little prissy and a slow read.