Foreign Affairs: A Novel
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
-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
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Two tortured love stories set in London, told with dry humor. The main character is Virginia (Vinnie) Miner, an American "fifty-something unmarried tenured professor," who likes to think of herself as "essentially English," and also feels that her days of romance are over, but she somehow finds herself drawn to a recently unemployed sanitation engineer from Tulsa, OK, who is visiting London on a (gasp!) group package tour.
Then there's Fred Turner, her younger counterpart from the English Department, also in London doing research, recently separated from his wife. He gets entangled in an affair with a British actress and all hell breaks loose.
I liked Vinnie's character much better than Fred's and found her story more credible and relatable. I just really wanted to slap Fred around and tell him to get a backbone already!
Fun read, though. Not uproariously funny but chuckles throughout.
Then there's Fred Turner, her younger counterpart from the English Department, also in London doing research, recently separated from his wife. He gets entangled in an affair with a British actress and all hell breaks loose.
I liked Vinnie's character much better than Fred's and found her story more credible and relatable. I just really wanted to slap Fred around and tell him to get a backbone already!
Fun read, though. Not uproariously funny but chuckles throughout.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.