The Truth About Lorin Jones

This is the tale of Polly Alter, who finds, when she sets out to write a biography of the late artist Lorin Jones (who also appears in other Lurie books, e.g. Only Children), that her own life becomes increasingly entangled with her subject's. Polly is initially determined to write the story of Lorin as a lost feminist heroine, but as her research continues, becomes increasingly unsure about who or what she really was. Told through third-person narrative interspersed with verbatim 'interviews', this is an unusual and fascinating book. The frame of researching Lorin's life gives Lurie the chance to depict several very different social milieus, ranging in time from the 1920s to the 1980s, and as ever she shows immense skill in making show more these worlds come to life while telling an engrossing and amusing story. show less

I used to covet these Abacus editions of Alison Lurie's books while hanging out in the Old Brompton Road branch of Waterstone's in the early 1990s. The surprising thing is that I never read any of them at the time. I found this one on Darren's shelves, complete with bus ticket bookmark (the 373, October 1992). It's still taken me a long time to get to read it, and Darren says he never did finish it.

It's six years since I read Foreign Affairs and I need to get round to the rest of Lurie's books faster than that! I loved this. Mostly it plods along nicely (which I mean as a compliment!) and then the ending is great. I think I'm better off reading them at 40 than 20 so I'm glad I left them on the shelves for so many years.

When people ask me to recommend a novel set in Key West, this is usually my first answer. Alison Lurie, who has been a winter resident of the island for many years, is her usual sharp, funny self.

Affectionate satire of feminism and leftist orthodoxy.

My favorite book by Alison Lurie.

My favorite book by Alison Lurie.