Alison Lurie

Advantages: thought-provoking, original ideas
Disadvantages: slightly macabre

...Nine stories of women haunted by ghosts - both physical and metaphorical. Lurie's writing ranges from the humorous, like 'The Highboy', the tale of an evil piece of furniture that punishes those that don't treat it with respect, to the tragic 'Pool People', in which a rich suburbanite is killed by the ghosts of those she thwarted. The ghosts in the stories are sometimes real, as in the examples above, and sometimes the result of a characters overactive imagination, such as in 'Fat People,' where a secretary on a diet imagines she sees overweight people everywhere. Sometimes Lurie isn't explicit about the reality of the ghost, and the reader is left to decide - is Celia in 'In the Shadows' really haunted by her dead ex-lover, or is it guilt that makes her imagine him whenever she is with another man? Lurie's storytelling is consistent... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: An intriguing, mysterious, humourous read
Disadvantages: Canny think of any

...(Apologies to all sci-fi/ horror fans – this writer has been put in this category by mistake! She’s no more horrifying than an episode of Heartbeat – sorry!) Alison Lurie is an American novelist who’s been around forever – at least it seems that way. Her most loved earlier works about extra-marital affairs and academic politics on college campuses in the Sixties have gone down as classics (The War Between the Tates, Love and Friendship, and others), and her last novel was published only a few years ago. Her books are acclaimed for their detail, their insight, their humour and their rollicking plots. The Truth About Lorin Jones may be her best ever work – but then they all say that, don’t they? Our heroine is Polly Alter – a woman who is picking up the pieces both of her failed marriage and of her doomed career as a painter. Her... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Strong characterization and some textual trickery.
Disadvantages: Does not perhaps supply a strong enough background detail with regards to the new South Africa.

...The central theme of Disgrace is the tragic frustration of personal passions and desires by unsympathetic forces, symbolised by its setting: the violent and anarchic new South Africa. Its protagonist David Lurie is a lecturer on Romantic poetry, whose lechery towards attractive female students results in his forced resignation and humiliation. Lurie refuses to change his ways for the disciplinary committee and instead flees to stay with his daughter Lucy who runs a farm in the countryside. Thus far the style is poetic but slightly languorous, reflecting Lurie’s head-in-the-clouds attitude to life and love, but when the farmhouse is invaded by a gang of bandits who rape Lucy and set fire to Lurie, the novel’s momentum quickens. Lucy’s peasant neighbour Petrus is suspected of foul play when one of the rapists is spotted... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful