Foreign Affairs

By: Alison Lurie

Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck

Virginia Miner, a 50-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.

©2006 Alison Lurie (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Pulitzer Prize, Fiction, 1984

"A splendid comedy, very bright, brilliantly written in a confident and original manner. The best book by one of our finest writers." (Elizabeth Hardwick)

"If you manage to read only a few good novels a year, make this one of them." ( USA Today)

A thoroughly enjoyable experience

The wit and humor of this book was a great surprise to me. The characters are beautifully drawn and the story is very satisfying. I found myself laughing out loud at a phrase or description.
Ms. Van Dyck does a masterful job of rendering the people and the style of this prize winning novel.

Clever Title

If you could sum up Foreign Affairs in three words, what would they be?

Characters diverse and interesting

What was one of the most memorable moments of Foreign Affairs?

When one character had been posing as two.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes

Who was the most memorable character of Foreign Affairs and why?

The actress

Any additional comments?

Yes- I am submitting this review only because it,s important that your narrators pronounce locations, people,s names etc. properly. In the age of the Internet , it is inexcusable, it would take two minutes to find out how the composer Purcell is said and Muskogee as in the turnpike. Very unprofessional and downright lazy!

Fascinating

Any additional comments?

I don't remember what attracted me to this title, probably the Pulitzer Prize in 1985. But, now I'm reading all of Alison Lurie's novels and it turns out there is one family that connects the books so it's worth the effort to read them in sequence. I wish I'd realized that because Foreign Affairs is somewhere in the middle, though it works as a stand alone novel as well. Beautifully written.

Beautifully written in every way, beautifully acted. Touching, funny, warm, deep and real.

See above. TITLE:DELICIOUS BOOK. The writing is exceptional, beautiful apt, and original.. every character, including the city was thoroughly and delicately drawn and real enough to touch

Great discovery

So happy to have discovered this novel. Currently working my way through all of the a Pulitzer novels. Reminds me of Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler with a little mix of Less by Andrew Sean Greer.

The vocal performance by Jennifer Van Dyck was thoughtful to the dialects and felt true to character.

Entertaining and engaging

Van Dyck brought Foreign Affairs to life, deftly telling Lurie's story of a middle aged educator on a research sabbatical in London. The characters are engaging and the novel has some intriguing surprises, as well as some excellent nuggets of wisdom.

Just Right

Not what I'd imagined, it had a few curve balls. I enjoyed it, want to read more by this author.

British vs American

What a good tale. And I don’t think anyone even pays attention to this book now

Laura Ashley dress reference brought me back!

Being nearly 50 myself, I've been looking for books that have older female protagonists. I'm curious about how others of that age navigate life. This one did feel a bit outdated, being written in the 80's, but it was a fun listen. I had to laugh when she talked about wearing her flowery Laura Ashley dress! Vinnie, the main character, is a bit of a fuss-budget, but she experiences some growth, in that she starts out far more of a snob than she ends up. I thought it was a good expat book. Being an expat myself, I heard a lot of my own thoughts echoed in the characters here. While there are some who question the book's winning a Pulitzer, saying it was just a romance novel, I think they missed a lot of the insights that were explored, the struggles we experience when our identities are challenged and the ways in which we miss having relationships with people because we are so worried about how hanging out with someone who is different from us will affect the ways in which others see us. It reveals that those assumptions we make about others can be so misguided. There's a lot of affectionate poking fun at pretentiousness, and one can't deny that many of us engage in that behavior. And I know I have my own invisible dog :-) I'm glad I'm not the only one. Come along Fido.

Lots of fun lots of insights

Loved this! Terrific protagonist who is witty & wicked. Set in modern day London. Love and ambition