"Foreign affairs" by Alison Lurie (Abacus, 1986)

Virginia Miner, 54, is flying to London for a 6 month stay. She visits most years. She's with an imaginary dog, Fido (which re-appears when she feels self-pity). She's never been pretty, though she's aged well. She'd been briefly married. She's an academic, specialising in children's literature and playground rhymes. She notes that "many of the great classic writers [of children's fiction] had an idyllic boyhood or girlhood that ended far too soon". In the current issue of The Atlantic she sees her discipline and recent book belittled by a prof. She talks to Chuck (married, early-retired) on the plane.

Fred Turner, 28, handsome, American, broke, a colleague of Virginia, is in London for 6 months. He's about to separate from his wife Ruth. Prof Virginia will later be voting on whether Fred will be kept on. They've barely talked. He has a meal with friends Joe and Debby, disallusioned americans with a baby. They hadn't expected his marriage to Ruth (a photographer - she'd exhibited photos of his - and other men's - body parts) to last. They're all doing research in the British Museum.

Weeks pass. Fred is dating Lady Rosemary, a pretty actress, 37, who Virginia knows. Virginia bumps into Chuck in Fortnum and Mason's.

Fred, weekending on a Victorian country house, feels he's walked into a Henry James novel. Rosemary complains that she's typecast - she'd rather play Lady Macbeth than be on TV doing light comedy. He notices English/US social differences. He feels uncomfortable about her paying for everything. Ruth sends a letter of apology to Fred

Chuck turns up at Virginia's late one night having discovered that his English ancestors were paupers (an ornament hermit), not lords. For that and other reasons he doesn't want to return to his wife. Virginia's angry at him for not counting his blessings. Later she agrees to go out with him. She, Chuck, Fred and Rosemary find themselves at the same party. Rosemary and Fred are good for each other, fixing defects that had stopped others being envious of them. But when he says that he'll have to return to the States for work, she chucks him out. Chuck reveals that he was rebelious at school, that the army saved him, that he doesn't like his wife, that he killed someone while driving drunk (not all his fault) and that he's going to help at a dig in Wiltshire where his ancestors lived. He tries to sleep with her. She slightly resists, but not for long.

Fred's friends say that he should find a woman matching his intelligence. They say that the best English people have been migrating for 300 years. Fred tracks Rosemary to an outdoor film-set. He watches her act, using gestures she used with him. She wants him to move in with her - she'll pay his expenses. But he wants to continue his career, at least for a while.

Virginia is happy. Her research has been done, she's proud of London. She knows that in literature people over 50 aren't central characters - they're comic, pathetic, disagreeable, fatuous tutors, set in their ways. She enjoyed sex with Chuck, but she moves in London circles that would disapprove of him and hence disapprove of her. When he invites her down to Wiltshire she agrees. She tries to get Rosemary to return to Fred. Rosemary says that Virginia looks 60.

Fred's about to leave England. His research has failed, and he has trouble contacting Ruth or Rosemary. He thinks that "their love affair has reenacted Anglo-American history. Rosemary may have loved him, but she has the colonial mentality; she would do anything for him but grant him independence. When he demanded that, it was war.". He goes to collect belongings from Rosemary's house. Only Mrs Harris, the maid, is there. Rosemary's been imitating her, inflenced by her reactionary opinions. Mrs Harris is drunk and tries to get him into bed. As he flees, he wonders if Mrs Harris ever existed - maybe Rosemary had dressed up as her. She's had episodes before.

Fred returns to the States and makes up with Ruth (who's the daughter of the prof who wrote the article in The Atlantic). As Virginia's about to leave for Wiltshire she hears that Chuck's died of a heart attack - his doctor had warned him. She realises that she loved him. Fido returns.

The book won a Pulitzer. The oppositions are clearly delineated - poor/rich; real/fake; old/young; UK/US; pretty/plain. Virginia, in a devalued academic discipline, looks down on Americans in general (especially tourists) and individually. She feels English. The Americans she knows who are in London aren't impressed by the food, the weather, the tourist sites, the English. Chuck is cowboy American, an irrigation engineer. Fred, who hasn't had to struggle for women or qualifications, suddenly finds himself in a world of English aristocracy, period dramas and minor celebs. I didn't like the Fido idea. The idea of Rosemary being Mrs Harris was interesting.

On p.106 - "the new octagonal fifty-pence piece" (actually it's seven-sided - deliberate error?)

Other reviews

• Rachel Cooke
• Karen Guardiana (In the end, the experience changes Vinnie for the better, but because she is who she is, she reneges back to her default and wallows in self-pity. Meanwhile, Fred realizes what a piece of shit he is, but because he is who he is, he comes back to his dear America renewed and as self-assured as ever. This parade of contrast runs thematically within the book, especially among the characters who are, by and large, caricatures of contradiction ... It just felt so contrived, too planned-all-along-just-to-make-a-point.)
• Amanda Craig (Alison Lurie’s Foreign Affairs is one of the great works of comic fiction; it is also a profound meditation on being plain. ... The meticulous way that the plot of Foreign Affairs is worked out is a rare delight, replete with ironies and revelations. ... Lurie is, I believe, the novelist of her generation who will endure – far more so than her fellow Pulitzer Prize-winners, Updike, Roth and Bellow. Yes, the tone is (as Jane Austen said of her own Pride and Prejudice), light and bright and sparkling; but its subjects include age, loneliness, delusion and death.)
• swiftlytiltingplanet (One of the novel’s themes is appearances vs reality, so of course, the fictional imagined postcard Britain is unfavourably compared to the reality of unattractive accommodations, the impossibly tiresome British Museum and the tinselness of the tourist circuit ... Both characters are judged on their appearances and neither of them really have a good grasp on how they appear to others.)
• bookaroundthecorner (Her childhood ended when she became aware of [her lack of beauty]. She deducted that she’s too plain to be loved and has built walls around her to protect her from actually truly loving anyone. She expects to be dumped so she doesn’t let anyone the opportunity to do it and leaves first. Her life is full of soothing rituals supposed to bring her safety but her orderly life is artificial. She fills her life with activities but doesn’t really live it.)