Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs
By Alison Lurie (280 pages)
Published by Random House
Bookish rating: 4.5

My aunt suggested this book for the little online book club I participate in, and while she was unimpressed, I was impressed.

We follow English professors Vinnie and Fred to London, where they self-indulgently research literary obscurities, fully funded yet complaining about such funding (like most academics---can you imagine sabbaticals for normal people?! AND OMG HOW THEY WHINE!). Vinnie is in her 50s and unlovely, and Fred is in his early 30s are oh so handsome, and they both are connected to the same university English department back home in New York. In London, Fred and Vinnie each embark on a love affair (not with each other), and it's all presented INCREDIBLY by Alison Lurie.

Now, you know I loved a book when I include  quotes in my review. For starters, although Lurie is an academic herself, she has their lot pegged: "A unique person is exactly what Carissa is not, Fred thinks. She is a conventional, frightened academic: intelligent, granted; but forever anxious to seem even more intelligent. Whereas Roo---" (p. 40). As someone who, back in the day, spent (too) much time with anxious PhD English students in one of the best English depts. in the country, and as someone who currently deals with academics on a daily basis, I loved Lurie poking fun at how seriously these people often take themselves.

I also loved the depiction of Vinnie, who has one failed marriage under her belt and is independent to a rather selfish, self-absorbed (albeit endearingly) degree. The idea of having another person simply share her space is utterly distasteful to her: "And then there is the noise and clutter that's involved in having someone else always around, walkign from room to room, opening and shutting doors, turning on the radio, the television, the record player, the stove, the shower. Having to negotiate with this someone before you did the simplest thing: having to agree with them about when and what to eat, when to sleep, when to bathe  . . . Having to ask permission, as it were, to see her friends or hang a picture or buy a plant; having to inform someone every single damn time she felt like taking any action whatsoever" (p. 241).

I found the above quote hilarious, because it's true. How I managed to ever marry, and do so happily, is a mystery. Thank goodness Vinnie had no kids.

Foreign Affairs won the 1985 Pulitzer, deservedly. Though Auntie Cheryl thinks otherwise.