About this title: Lurie's novel is the story of two English professors from Corinth University who spend a semester in London. Vinnie Miner is 54 years old, shy, and a scholar of children's literature; Fred Turner is a young, untenured professor. Each of them gets involved in a complicated love affair, as a result of which their views on England, America, love, and ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Abacus, London
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780349122151ISBN:0349122156
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. VG/NW Paper @philabooks: booksellers. 279p.; 20 cm. Originally published: New York: Random House, 1984; London: Joseph, 1985. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Quill
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780380709908ISBN:0380709902
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Softcover, as shown. Pp tanned. APPEARS NOT READ. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Avon Books
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780380898879ISBN:038089887X
Description: Good. Used-Good. Some wear, creases, reader's crease. Text clean and tight. May have a small name, tanning or small tears. Satisfaction Guaranteed! read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Avon Books
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780380898879ISBN:038089887X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. VG++ Lightly read, minimal wear, some discoloration at spine and top of cover. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. 28/9 read more
"I sort of enjoyed this book, but I have to say I find it rather fluffy, in the most literary way. It's charming and twee, filled with witty (if by now perhaps cliched) observations about academics (the people) as well as the-British-and-Americans-are-so-different. It's a nice book to pick up and put down, but I don't find it particularly challenging or deeply emotionally rewarding. The writing and characters and even plot are all fairly similar to Anne Tyler's work, so if you have enjoyed Tyler, you would probably enjoy this book."
"I'm discovering all sorts of writers I'd never otherwise discover by scouring the used bookstores in NYC, usually to so-so results. But Alison Lurie is a great find, a tremendously entertaining and captivating writer whose novel about two American academics in London had me in thrall all day today. Lurie won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for this book, with good reason, drawing comparisons to Henry James and Edith Wharton and Jane Austen - all very good company. I'm going trolling for more of her stuff soon."
"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."
"This book was a enjoyable but I am not sure that I would have rated as a Pulitzer Prize winner. It is the story of two American academics in London who are confronted with all their prejudices and cultural assumptions. While I did find it amusing, I also thought that it was a bit dated and the characters were superficial, which is probably inevitable when you build a plot around prejudices and cultural assumptions."
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