3.5
The Nowhere City
ByPublisher Description
In this “excellent” novel of “rare understanding” from a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, culture shock consumes a young Harvard couple in Los Angeles (The New York Times).
When his mentor at Harvard University suddenly leaves for Washington, Paul Cattleman finds himself adrift in the wilds of academia. After losing his fellowship, he is out of work and one thesis short of a PhD. Rather than doom his career by taking what he considers to be an unsuitable job, he finds a temporary position at the Nutting Research and Development Corporation in Los Angeles, a city whose superficial charms signal an adventure. He is ready to make the best of his year out west among the beatniks and Hollywood hippies. The only thing holding him back is his wife.
Katherine is a New Englander through and through, and as soon as she steps into the LA smog, she knows this transition will be a struggle. What Paul sees as fun, she considers vulgar. Bogged down by her allergies and crumbling marriage, she seeks out a shrink, who surprises and transforms her. While Los Angeles may be a cultural wasteland, this East Coast girl will find that West Coast pleasures can be quite a lot of fun.
The National Book Award–shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs “writes coolly and wickedly” of freedom and self-discovery in this witty novel (The New Yorker).
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author’s collection.
When his mentor at Harvard University suddenly leaves for Washington, Paul Cattleman finds himself adrift in the wilds of academia. After losing his fellowship, he is out of work and one thesis short of a PhD. Rather than doom his career by taking what he considers to be an unsuitable job, he finds a temporary position at the Nutting Research and Development Corporation in Los Angeles, a city whose superficial charms signal an adventure. He is ready to make the best of his year out west among the beatniks and Hollywood hippies. The only thing holding him back is his wife.
Katherine is a New Englander through and through, and as soon as she steps into the LA smog, she knows this transition will be a struggle. What Paul sees as fun, she considers vulgar. Bogged down by her allergies and crumbling marriage, she seeks out a shrink, who surprises and transforms her. While Los Angeles may be a cultural wasteland, this East Coast girl will find that West Coast pleasures can be quite a lot of fun.
The National Book Award–shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs “writes coolly and wickedly” of freedom and self-discovery in this witty novel (The New Yorker).
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author’s collection.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities5 Reviews
3.5
Jade
Created 6 months agoShare
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A. Was
Created 12 months agoShare
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Lisa Frederick
Created over 3 years agoShare
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“A likable book about very unlikable people. It's one of Alison Lurie's earliest, and you can tell she hadn't quite conquered her craft yet, though her signature wry, detached style is well developed. What surprised me most is that it was written in the mid-1960s — it felt much more modern than that and totally relevant in many ways. This description of L.A., from the perspective of a main character, struck a chord: "There were no seasons there, no days of the week, no night and day; beyond that, there was (or was supposed to be) no youth and age. But worst, and most frightening, there was no past or future — only an eternal dizzying present." It's startling how little that has changed over five decades.”
Overbooked
Created over 8 years agoShare
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Daisy
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About Alison Lurie
Alison Lurie (1926–2020) was a Pulitzer Prize–winning author of fiction and nonfiction. Born in Chicago and raised in White Plains, New York, she joined the English department at Cornell University in 1970, where she taught courses on children’s literature, among others. Her first novel, Love and Friendship (1962), is a story of romance and deception among the faculty of a snowbound New England college. It won favorable reviews and established her as a keen observer of love in academia. It was followed by the well-received The Nowhere City (1966) and The War Between the Tates (1974). In 1984, she published Foreign Affairs, her best-known novel, which traces the erotic entanglements of two American professors in England. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985. Her most recent novel is The Last Resort (1998). In addition to her novels, Lurie’s interest in children’s literature led to three collections of folk tales and two critical studies of the genre. Lurie officially retired from Cornell in 1998, but continued to teach and write in the years following. In 2012, she was awarded a two-year term as the official author of the state of New York.
Other books by Alison Lurie
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