New Releases by Alison Lurie

In this “excellent” novel of “rare understanding” from a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, culture shock consumes a young Harvard couple in Los Angeles (The New York Times). When his mentor at Harvard University suddenly leaves for Washington, Paul Cattleman finds himself adrift in the wilds of academia. After losing his fellowship, he is out of work and one thesis short of a PhD. Rather than doom his career by taking what he considers to be an unsuitable job, he finds a temporary position at the Nutting Research and Development Corporation in Los Angeles, a city whose superficial charms signal an adventure. He is ready to make the best of his year out west among the beatniks and Hollywood hippies. The only thing holding him back is his wife. Katherine is a New Englander through and through, and as soon as she steps into the LA smog, she knows this transition will be a struggle. What Paul sees as fun, she considers vulgar. Bogged down by her allergies and crumbling marriage, she seeks out a shrink, who surprises and transforms her. While Los Angeles may be a cultural wasteland, this East Coast girl will find that West Coast pleasures can be quite a lot of fun. The National Book Award–shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs “writes coolly and wickedly” of freedom and self-discovery in this witty novel (The New Yorker). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author’s collection.

A novel of childlike wonder and adult discord during the Great Depression—by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Nowhere City. Dozing in the back seat of her father''s car, Mary Ann Hubbard is the happiest eight-year-old in the country. It''s 1935, and she and her parents are going to spend Fourth of July weekend at her headmistress''s farm in upstate New York. Joining them are the Zimmerns, whose daughter Lolly is Mary Ann''s best friend from school. While the two little girls frolic in the attic, endowing the rambling old house with wonder, creativity, and imagination, their parents are downstairs, mired in all the pleasure, pain, and occasional childishness of adulthood. As an affair threatens to tear the two families apart, Lolly and Mary Ann retreat farther into playtime. By the end of the weekend, the girls begin to realize that becoming an adult and growing up can be two very different things. The National Book Award–shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs gives a joyous glimpse into the innocence and irony of childhood during the Great Depression. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author''s collection.

A husband''s affair pushes a suburban wife to her breaking point in this "near perfect comedy of manners" by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Real People ( The New York Times). Erica Tate wouldn''t mind getting up in the morning if her children were less intolerable. Until puberty struck, Jeffrey and Matilda were absolute darlings, but in the last year, they have become sullen, insufferable little monsters. A forty-year-old housewife out of work and out of mind, she finds little happiness in the small college town of Corinth. Erica''s husband, Brian, a political science professor, is so deeply immersed in university life—or more accurately in the legs of his mistress, a half-literate flower child named Wendy—that he either doesn''t notice his wife''s misery or simply doesn''t care. Worst of all, their pleasant little neighborhood is transforming into a subdivision. As new ranch houses spring up around their once idyllic home, Erica''s marriage inches closer to disaster. When the Tate household tips into full-scale emotional combat, Erica must do her best to ensure that she comes out on top. In this darkly comic tale of a family at civil war, the National Book Award–shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs dives into the deterioration of a marriage. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author''s collection.

Two sociologists infiltrate a cult that pulls them into madness in this " barbed and richly entertaining" novel from a Pulitzer Prize–winning author ( The Wall Street Journal). Once the nation''s most popular sociologist, Tom McMann searches for a research subject that will invigorate his career. Unlike any study he''s seen before, he targets the Truth Seekers, an up-and-coming cult that seeks flying saucers, utopian planets, and new spiritual plains. An irresistible mixture of New Age cranks and sci-fi nerds, they are ruled over by Verena, a beautiful young telepath who believes she has a hotline to another world. The Seekers are isolated, committed, and eccentric, but most importantly, they''re hiring. Assisted by his wide-eyed young colleague, Roger Zimmern, McMann infiltrates the Truth Seekers, hoping to see how the zealots respond if questioned by someone within their midst. But when Verena''s babblings start to make a little too much sense, the researchers must choose between losing their minds and buying one-way tickets to outer space. From the National Book Award–shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs, The War Between the Tates, and The Last Resort, this is a richly funny novel that will dazzle and entertain. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author''s collection.

In this comedy by a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, a biographer out to vindicate a neglected female artist learns that the truth is never tidy. Polly Alter is through with men. Recovering from her divorce, she has taken a year off from her museum job to write a biography of Lorin Jones, a sensitive painter who died young and nearly forgotten. Polly is determined to bring the artist the public acclaim she deserves, making up for the neglect and exploitation Lorin suffered from the men in her life. The only problem with the story of Lorin’s victimhood is that it may not be true. And as Polly wades deeper into her research, growing more attached to her subject, and more lost in the world of two decades past, she begins to realize that no life story is as simple as a biographer might wish. The National Book Award–shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs writes a daring and “relentless comedy” that novelist Edmund White calls “one of the most entertaining novels I''ve read in a long time” (The New York Times). This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author’s collection.

The author of The War Between the Tates and the Pulitzer prize-winning Foreign Affairs now brings her irresistible wit to the ghost story. In nine spooky tales, Alison Lurie writes of women haunted by ghosts both literal and metaphorical: A woman about to marry Mr. Right is visited by the spirit of his first wife; a dead fiancé haunts a foreign service officer every time she has an intimate moment with another man; the ghost of a girl in a Halloween costume disconcerts the perfect housewife. A secretary on a diet begins to see obese people everywhere she looks; a self-conscious poet is shadowed by her intrusive doppelganger; and a capricious, malevolent spirit seems to have inhabited an acquisitive matron’s prized piece of furniture. Delightfully strange and beautifully told, these nine tales show Alison Lurie at her luminous best.

Over the years, Alison Lurie has earned a devoted readership for her satiric wit and storytelling acumen. With Truth and Consequences, described by the New Yorker as "a comedy of adultery with a comedy of academia thrown in," Lurie returns with a modern social satire that recalls the best of David Lodge and Mary McCarthy as well as her own popular university novels The War Between the Tates and Foreign Affairs. BACKCOVER: "A wily, shapely tale of love''s labors lost." -Elle "A wry, insightful, thoroughly enjoyable tale about how men and women choose their demons and their lovers, and the sacrifices they''re willing to make for both." -The Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Delightful . . . Her characters are, as always, wonderfully imperfect." -The New York Review of Books

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

Sleeping beauties? Not Clever Gretchen or Kate Crackernuts or Manka or any of the other young heroines in this wonderful collection of folktales. Active, witty, brave, and resourceful, these girls and young women can fight and hunt, defeat giants, answer riddles and outwit the devil. These stories are usually left out of the popular collections of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when women were supposed to be beautiful, innocent, and passive.

Alison Lurie analiza en este ensayo clásicos infantiles de diversas épocas tratando de explorar los puntos de contacto psicológico entre esas obras y sus autores. Las historias de Mujercitas, Pinocho, El mago de Oz, Mumin, Babar o Harry Potter sirven a Lurie para estudiar la relación existente entre la vida y la obra de sus creadores y bajo esa perspectiva también analiza los cuentos de Hans Christian Andersen o de Salman Rushdie. Muestra que estos creadores, como muchos otros escritores y escritoras, se han valido de la literatura para transfigurar sus pesares, la nostalgia por los paraísos perdidos de la infancia o la lucha por su identidad. También investiga el lenguaje secreto de los cuentos de hadas o de las ilustraciones de obras infantiles como las de Gustave Doré, Arthur Rackman o Edmund Dulac, así como el significado profundo de los juegos, el papel de la poesía o el de la naturaleza en la literatura escrita para niñas y niños. La autora sostiene que los niños se sienten atraídos por libros que los adultos a menudo consideran terroríficos o rebeldes, aunque muchos de ellos sean versiones exageradas de los miedos y las desdichas propias de la infancia o la juventud.

Jenny a consacré sa vie à son mari, le naturaliste Wilkie Walker. Elle est une créature aussi rare que les espèces en voie de disparition qu''il essaie de préserver. Mais cette année-là, au début de l''hiver, Wilkie lui paraît distant et déprimé. Au désespoir, Jenny le persuade de faire un séjour à Key West, mais le soleil et le paysage des tropiques ne font rien pour le dérider. Plus son mari se replie sur lui-même, plus Jenny s''implique dans la vie locale et s''intéresse aux séduisants personnages de l''île, comme Gerry, l''ex-poète beatnik, ou Lee, la propriétaire attirante et théâtrale d''une pension exclusivement pour femmes. Ce premier roman d''Alison Lurie depuis dix ans est l''un de ses romans les plus subtils, ironiques et agréables - un somptueux festin dans le cadre exotique de Key West en Floride.

Loyal Victorian wife Jenny has devoted her life to her husband, the much older, famous writer and naturalist, Wilkie Walker. But this year, as winter approaches, Wilkie is increasingly depressed. At her wit''s end, Jenny persuades him to visit Key West, the Last Resort.

Winnie l''Ourson n''est pas un ouvrage habituellement considéré comme subversif, pas plus que Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer, Alice au pays des merveilles ou Peter Pan. Néanmoins, si de tels classiques apparemment anodins connaissent un succès durable, c''est en partie parce qu''ils font la satire de la société adulte et de ses conventions. Si les enfants forment une tribu à part, possédant une culture propre, ces ouvrages en sont les textes sacrés. Avec les contes de fées, les comptines et les histoires drôles, ils constituent la littérature clandestine de l''enfance.

Dans son troisième roman, publié aux Etats-Unis en 1967, Alison Lurie met en scène une véritable comédie intellectuelle entre deux professeurs, Roger Zimmern, un jeune sociologue, et son aîné, le professeur McMann, qui fait preuve, à son égard, de plus de réticence que d''enthousiasme. McMann, homme de terrain, entraîne Roger dans son sillage, dans le but d''étudier les comportements " humains " d''un petit groupe d''individus. A Sophis, une ville située non loin de leur université dans l''Etat de New York, McMann et Zimmern rencontrent une bande de fanatiques versés dans le spiritualisme : " Les Chercheurs de Vérité ". Brillante satire de la sociologie et du monde totalitaire des sectes, l''auteur multiplie les leurres et les surprises avec cet humour de détective apte à débusquer les impostures des systèmes de vérité.

Femmes et Fantômes est le premier livre de nouvelles d''Alison Lurie. Quelles soient menacées par leurs meubles, persécutées par un esprit jaloux ou par un double maléfique, victimes d''hallucinations ou de phénomènes paranormaux, les héroïnes de ces neufs nouvelles se trouvent dans des situations amoureuses, familiales ou amicales dangereuses pour elles. Terrées dans leur silence, de peur de paraître ridicules, ou bien bafouées par leurs proches, elles restent souvent seules face à des doutes et des angoisses qui les conduiront à la folie, à la mort, ou tout simplement à se remettre en question. Alison Lurie évoque avec sa vivacité habituelle l''univers de l''étrange et de l''inexpliqué. Alison Lurie a le chic pour décrire le quotidien, pour s''attarder sur les détails qui n''ont l''air de rien. Chez ses personnages, on sent une fêlure, un remords, un secret. Ils ont peur de quelque chose et ne savent pas de quoi. Eric Neuhoff, Figaro Littéraire.

Avec sa vivacité habituelle, Alison Lurie met en scène neuf femmes confrontées à l''univers de l''étrange et de l''inexpliqué, victimes d''hallucinations, de phénomènes paranormaux. Le premier recueil de nouvelles d''Alison Lurie.

Dans son quatrième roman, publié en 1969 aux Etats-Unis, Alison Lurie ouvre le journal intime d''une femme qui a trouvé refuge dans une colonie d''artistes. Janet " Belle " Smith, auteur de nouvelles médiocres, s''imagine volontiers que le vert paradis d''Illyria va lui ouvrir de nouveaux horizons et lui permettre d''écrire mieux, loin des soucis matériels et familiaux. " Décidément, Alison Lurie connaît mieux que quiconque ses contemporains. Et aime plus que tout casser les légendes. Ici, les artistes sont effectivement " des gens comme les autres ". "

This collection of essays probes the ways in which classic children''s literature tends to undermine, rather than support, respectable adult values

Véritable chronique de mœurs, roman policier, comédie baroque, La Vérité sur Lorin Jones est un miroir tendu à toute une génération de femmes qui jonglent avec le féminisme, le militantisme, les grands principes et les grands sentiments. Michèle Gazier, Télérama Jamais Alison Lurie n''a mieux mis son talent au service de sa conviction intime : toute situation, examinée avec recul, contient un élément comique ravageur. Diane de Margerie, Le Figaro littéraire

" Sur fond de Californie des années 60, ce chassé-croisé des couples passé au regard laser d''Alison Lurie donne un étourdissant cocktail d''intelligence et de drôlerie ".

Before we even speak to someone in a meeting, at a party, or on the street, our clothes express important information (or misinformation) about our occupation, origin, personality, opinions, and tastes. We pay close attention to how others dress, as well; though we may not be able to put our observations into words, we unconsciously register the information, so that when we meet and converse we have already spoken in a universal language.

Roman i dagbogsform om en kunstnerkoloni