Foreign Affairs-Op/20 - Softcover

Lurie-alison

Softcover

ISBN 10: 038089887X ISBN 13: 9780380898879

Publisher: Avon Books, 1985

Synopsis

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE

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.

"A splendid comedy, very bright, brilliantly written in a confident and original manner. The best book by one of our finest writers."
-Elizabeth Hardwick

"There is no American writer I have read with more constant pleasure and sympathy. . . . Foreign Affairs earns the same shelf as Henry James and Edith Wharton."
-John Fowles

"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."
-Philadelphia Inquirer

About this title

Review:

"The seventh and latest work of fiction by Alison Lurie, who teaches English at Cornell University and has quietly but surely established herself as one of this country's most able and witty novelists... Wonderfully stimulating for its sheer performance as a novel." (Christopher Lehmann-Haupt New York Times)

"I am convinced that Alison Lurie's fiction will long outlast that of many currently more fashionable names. There is no American writer I have read with more constant pleasure and sympathy over the years. Foreign Affairs earns the same shelf as Henry James and Edith Wharton" (John Fowles Sunday Times)

"A brilliant novel - her best I think. The book is a triumph, and not simply of style...Foreign Affairs is witty, acerbic, and sometimes fiendishly clever" (Paul Bailey Evening Standard)

"Warm, clever and funny" (Times Literary Supplement)

Book Description:

Alison Lurie’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel follows two academics travelling between America and London as they embark on entwined journeys of love and literature.

About this edition

• Publisher: Avon Books
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 038089887X
• ISBN 13: 9780380898879
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback