A brief review of FOREIGN AFFAIRS by Alison Lurie

FOREIGN AFFAIRS follows two very different academics from the English Department of a fictional upstate New York college that seems very much like Cornell on research sojourns in London.

The two, Virginia Miner and Fred Turner, are a study in contrasts, although both are very interested in finding sexual partners.

Virginia is a middle-aged, tenured professor, set in her ways and in love with London and everything English. Her dream man would be an English gentleman. She does find someone—radically different.

Fred, fresh from splitting up with his wife, hooks up (literally) with a British television actress who introduces him to the city and country’s upper class and artistic wild set.

          Alison Lurie tells a tale of two individuals which is poignant, witty, and spiced with surprises.

Lurie won the Pulitzer Prize, deservedly for FOREIGN AFFAIRS, IN 1985. Despite her accomplished career as a writer of many novels, I just discovered her in a search for a readable, serious book.

I will be reading more of Lurie in the future. 

A suggestion: My novel, THE PENCIL ARTIST, is now available as a free download on, Smashwords and Barnes and Noble.

Try it, enjoy it, and if you are in the mood, review it.