"Foreign Affairs," by Alison Lurie

I have read several of Alison Lurie's novels over the years, and have enjoyed them. She is a very good writer, very erudite, and she writes with a sort of satirical but mostly good-natured humor and a light touch. She often writes about women's lives, and she often writes about academics, both of which characteristics add to her novels' appeal to my taste in fiction. Her books are frequently set on a fictional campus called Corinth, which is clearly modeled on Cornell, where she taught for many years. I have just re-read, after some years, "Foreign Affairs" (Random House, 1984), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a National Book Award. I thoroughly enjoyed it, not only because of the aforementioned focus on women and academics, but also because it takes place in London, one of my favorite cities. But mostly I enjoyed it because of its compelling plot and characters. Professor Vinnie Miner loves London and feels she is actually an Englishwoman at heart; thus she is thrilled to be beginning a six month research leave there. Vinnie is small and plain, but she feels happy with her group of friends in London, has an active social and cultural life there, and enjoys and is very efficient at doing her research on children's rhymes and folklore. Coincidentally, her young colleague in the Corinth English Department, Professor Fred Turner, is also on a research leave in London. She is not at all close to him, but she makes an effort to be nice to him, and introduces him to some of her friends, including the glamorous film and TV star, Rosemary Radley; soon Fred and Rosemary begin an affair. Meanwhile, to her own surprise, Vinnie becomes involved with a somewhat loud and unrefined but enthusiastic and kind fellow American from Oklahoma whom she met on the plane, Chuck Mumpson. Much intrigue and many twists and turns take place in these two relationships, all set in various interesting London locales. By the time Fred and Vinnie need to return to the United States, both have learned much about themselves and about others.