Truth and Consequences

(Paperback)

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A highly enjoyable, witty and subtle novel from the Pultizer Prize-winning author about natural-born-carers and their relationships with natural-born-egotists 'Delightful... Her characters are, as always, wonderfully imperfect' New York Review of Books Alan has changed because he's injured his back. Pain has altered his appearance and made him glum, demanding and resentful. His wife Jane has to do everything for him - fetching, carrying, shopping, cooking, even dressing and undressing him. Sometimes she longs for escape. Delia is a writer and researcher specialising in fairy tales - she is, in her own estimation, a 'Great Artist'. Her husband, Henry, manages her every need making certain Delia gets everything she desires including spectacular doses of adulation. Can Delia coax Alan out of his grumpiness Can Henry stop Jane feeling guilty Can the two couples break out of their fixed roles 'I am re-reading with enormous delight and greed. If you're new to Lurie , lucky you- marvellously astute comedies of social, moral and sexual manners, her witty exuberance is nothing short of inspirational' Helen Simpson

Reviews

I am re-reading with enormous delight and greed. If you're new to [Lurie], lucky you: marvellously astute comedies of social, moral and sexual manners, her witty exuberance is nothing short of inspirational. -- Helen Simpson
Mordant and entertaining, and wonderfully expansive about a time, a place, and the corrosive effect of selfishness * Spectator *
Hours of bitter-sweet, highly intelligent fun * Scotsman *
An enjoyably spiky minuet of human selfishness * The Times *
Sly and funny. A deeply pleasurable page-turner * Observer *

Author Bio

Alison Lurie published ten novels, among them Foreign Affairs (which won the Pulitzer Prize), The Truth About Lorin Jones (winner of the Prix Femina etranger), and The Last Resort. She was also the author of many works of non-fiction, including The Language of Clothes, Don't Tell the Grownups, Familiar Spirits (a memoir of the poet James Merrill) and two collections of essays and reviews, Reading for Fun and Words and Worlds. She taught literature, folklore and creative writing at Cornell University for many years and was the Whiton Professor of American Literature emerita. She lived in upstate New York but also spent much time in Key West, Florida and in London, all of which provided settings for her fiction. She married the writer Edward Hower, and had three sons and three grandchildren. Alison Lurie died in 2020.