Have I mentioned I'm a big Elinor Lipman fan (just three hundred times or so)?
The Pursuit of Alice Thrift was released before My Latest Grievance, Lipman's most recent novel, and I must admit, I liked it a touch more. The main character, Alice Thrift, is fairly unsympathetic: as a surgeon, she's used to science and cold hard facts, and finds interacting with people when they're not under anesthetic to be quite a challenge. But when Ray Russo waltzes into her consulting room looking for a nose job (and maybe more...) Alice and he fall in love. Or Alice thinks they do...
A reviewer on Amazon described this book as being about the poor decisions people sometimes make to alleviate loneliness, and that's true to some extent: we learn early on in the book that Ray turns out not to be the man of Alice's dreams - if she'd ever do anything so romantic as indulge in daydreams about love, that is. Alice's formerly very boring, flat lifestyle becomes a lot more interesting - but not always in the ways she would have wanted. She does, however, begin to loosen up a little and make some friends.
At first, I wasn't sure I could read a whole book about a lonely, socially inept middle-aged woman. (Doesn't exactly scream 'fun!' does it?) But I loved this book. Where Elinor Lipman is so talented is that she can turn Alice into a sympathetic character that we care about by the end of the book - without actually changing Alice's personality too much! I found this a page-turner of a read, and only wish the author could churn her books out a little bit faster...
Rating: 5/5
Like this? Try Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson.
