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3.0 

The Pursuit of Alice Thrift

By Elinor Lipman
The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

In this well-tuned, witty, and altogether wonderful novel, the beloved author of Ms. Demeanor and Every Tom, Dick & Harry dares to ask: Can an upper-middle-class doctor find love with a shady, fast-talking salesman?

Meet Alice Thrift, surgical intern in a Boston hospital, high of I.Q. but low in social graces. She doesn’t mean to be acerbic, clinical, or blunt, but where was she the day they taught Bedside Manner 101? Into Alice’s workaholic and wallflower life comes Ray Russo, a slick traveling fudge salesman in search of a nose job and well-heeled companionship, but not necessarily in that order. Is he a conman or a sincere suitor? Good guy or bad? Alice’s parents, roommate, and best friend Sylvie are appalled at her choice of mate. Despite her doubts, Alice finds herself walking down the aisle, not so much won over as worn down. Will their marriage last the honeymoon? Only if Alice’s best instincts can triumph over Ray’s unsavory ways.

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The Pursuit of Alice Thrift Reviews

3.0
“I adored the characters (more than I have in most books) outside of the main love interest, but I couldn’t stand the plot once I got to the second half of the book. I wanted to love it because of the characters and how much I enjoyed Lipman’s writing, but I couldn’t get past how deeply I dreaded every page involving the main love interest and how rushed the ending seemed with very very little resolution.”

About Elinor Lipman

ELINOR LIPMAN is the author of many books, including the novels The Pursuit of Alice Thrift, The Dearly Departed, The Ladies' Man, The Inn at Lake Devine, Isabel's Bed, The Way Men Act, Then She Found Me, Ms. Demeanor, and Every Tom, Dick & Harry, as well as a collection of stories, Into Love and Out Again. She has been called "the diva of dialogue" (People) and "the last urbane romantic" (Chicago Tribune). Book Magazine said of The Pursuit of Alice Thrift, "Like Jane Austen, the past master of the genre, Lipman isn't only out for laughs. She serves up social satire, too, that's all the more trenchant for being deftly drawn."

Her essays have appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine, Gourmet, Chicago Tribune, and The New York Times’ Writers on Writing series. She received the New England Booksellers' 2001 fiction award for a body of work.

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