PPRL: Foreign Affairs, by Alison Lurie
Yet again, the universe has passed me the right book at the right time. Foreign Affairs is not typical Pulitzer material. It's lighthearted--borderline frivolous in fact, and centers mainly on romance. Characters that are utterly relatable and lovable, experiencing the universal aches and pains of relationships--messy, riddled with pitfalls, occasionally glorious but more often just awfully complicated. Vinnie Miner is the heroine whose shoes I didn't know I needed to step into, for a wonderfully clarifying perspective on late-in-life love. I am her and she is me in more ways than are comfortable to admit. At other moments, I was Rosemary Radley--rather a weaker, less confident and self-loving version of her. Rosemary is the example I have erstwhile needed, of a woman refusing to be the temporary gratification of a man who has no intention of making her "his life's work", as Edwin calls it. I got so, so much out of this one. Such a rich reading experience it made for, and with what incredibly serendipitous timing. I am, as ever, so grateful to fiction for the ways it saves me again and again. No study questions for this one, but one excerpt, because wow does Lurie have an incredible talent for scene setting:
May in Kensington Gardens. The broad lawns are as velvet-smooth as the artificial turf of a football field, and ranked tulips sway on their stems like squads of colored birds. Above them brisk sudden breezes pass kites about a sky suffused with light. As Fred Turner crosses the park, one landscaped vista after another fans out before him, each complete with appropriate figures: strolling couples, children suspended from red and blue balloons, well-bred dogs on leash, and joggers in shorts and jerseys.
meretricious: tawdry, falsely attractive
anomie: lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group.
foxed: (of the paper of old books or prints) discolored with brown spots