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Truth and Consequences: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Alison Lurie
Publisher: Viking Adult
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 745786
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 0670034398
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780670034390
ASIN: 0670034398
Publication Date: October 6, 2005
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
One can read Lurie as one might read Jane Austen, with continual delight, Joyce Carol Oates has said about novelist Alison Lurie. And author John Fowles has remarked, There is no American writer I have read with more consistent pleasure and sympathy over the years. Now, with her fine new novel, Lurie returns to the setting that have delighted her fans throughout her long career the university campus. An energetic and attractive forty, Jane Mackenzie is the administrative director at Corinth Universitys Center for the Humanities. Unfortunately, her formerly healthy and athletic husband Alan, a history fellow at the center, has suffered a debilitating back injury and is becoming more and more dependent on Jane. But with the arrival of Delia Delaney, a pre-Raphaelite beauty, bestselling writer, and the newest celebrity at the center, Alan gradually begins to recover, becoming well enough for a not-so-harmless liaison. Meanwhile, Jane, who all her life has tried to be a good woman, finds herself falling in love with Delias husband. A modern social satire that recalls the best of David Lodge and Mary McCarthy, Truth and Consequences is one of Luries finest works, echoing her popular university novels Foreign Affairs and The War Between the Tates.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Delia makes the novel fun (3.5* really) August 4, 2008
"Truth and Consequences" is an honest portrayal of the unraveling of a marriage after one spouse becomes a caregiver for the other. Some marriages would have survived, so the question becomes why did this particular marriage unravel. I believe too much of the previous success of the marriage was because both partners had been a "good catch" for each other. The husband is self centered, but the wife is also calculating and superficial in her way.
What makes the novel fun to read, and more than merely competent, is the character of Delia Delaney. She is an egoist, emotionally crippled by her upbringing, yet she has vitality, warmth and charisma and can be very insightful, so she ends up doing more good than harm, promoting one man's artistic talent, and fostering a successful relationship between two other superficially very different people (the economist and the administrative assistant).
 Academic Celebrity in America at the Turn of the Century November 23, 2007
This is a wonderful little book. Its context is the malaise of boomer generation academics, as characterized by Alan, who is "...pale, fat, weak, greedy, and demanding", whose incessant back pain is a metaphor for his creative emptiness and self-centeredness. He gives up solid, if unglamorous, academic work and turns to the pursuit of celebrity, which Lurie captures well in his relationship with the shamelessly exploitive and selfish Delia. A notable aspect of the novel is the generally positive treatment of Jane, the type of middle American who sense of duty actually makes the world work, who recognizes Delia for what she is.
In need of further editing... April 15, 2007
As other readers have commented, there is little need to rehash what the book is about, thanks to other reviews. Unlike other Lurie novels, which I feel were quite original, Truth and Consequences seems repetitive and boring in parts. What starts with a strong beginning line, and compelling first twenty pages, ends predictably. The relationships are too obvious. The inner narratives-- especially Jane's-- become mildly annoying. In addition to all of this, the editing seems to be a bit lacking. There are missing punctuation marks, a misspelling of Alan's name, entire sentences that are repeated, and an overuse of the word "clearly". It's a quick read, but not an especially good one.
Loved it! March 11, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES by Alison Lurie
March 10, 2007
Rating: 4 Stars
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES was my introduction to Alison Lurie, and I was very impressed. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Lurie has a knack for words. And for such a short novel, I felt she did a great job in writing about a complex set of people whose lies and lives are entwined in such a way that one can only imagine disaster awaiting all four of them by the end of the book.
Jane Mackenzie is the wife of an older man, a distinguished professor and scholar who had recently injured his back. His pain is so great it is debilitating, and now she deals with his new life, that of a handicapped man, who can barely move and expects his wife to be at his beck and call. Jane fell in love with his body and his mind, but what she sees now is not the man she married. But she carries on, knowing that she must be loyal to him, a man that gave her such love and pleasure for the past sixteen years.
Alan Mackenzie feels that things will not get any better. He's lost interest in his work, although he has just been accepted as a University Fellow where he teaches and Jane works. Coincidentally, Jane is an administrator for the Matthew Unger Humanities Center where Alan is to be working, and to compound his problems with his back, one of the new fellows will be Delia Delaney, known throughout as being difficult and somewhat of a diva. Upon arrival, she covets the office that Alan will be occupying, and hence the drama begins.
Delia's presence causes trouble for Alan and Jane's marriage, but Jane is unaware of the relationship that begins between the two of them. She thinks that Alan looks upon her with disdain, not realizing that he's actually lusting after Delia. On the other hand, Jane is befriended by Delia's husband Henry, a poet who no longer writes. Alan and Jane now live double lives, never letting on to the other what is going on. Jane's unhappiness in her own marriage, however, does not cause her to stray at first, but she does realize how horrible her relationship with Alan is once she develops a true friendship with Henry, a man that truly seems to care about Jane.
Readers will root for Jane and hope that Alan gets what's coming to him, and for me, the book ended on a note that I thought resolved all the relationships. Not everyone gets a happy ending. TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES was a wonderfully written book, short but to the point. I will definitely look for more by Alison Lurie.
underwhelmed December 28, 2006
This is less a review than a reaction--others have "reviewed" the tale well. I found the book ultimately disappointing. The characters were either fairly "stock" or minimally explored, and the story seemed to progress almost on automatic pilot. So predictable in places, and so "surface" in others. Some symbolism was almost ridiculous in its transparency. It seems to me that not a lot of effort was spent on this fairly formulaic novel. Some reviewers loved the character of Delia, but I found her kind of revolting, actually. Because I had some time to read over the holidays, I finished the book, but not with enormous pleasure. This is not one of Lurie's finest efforts.
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