Skip to main content

Death of a Great American Writer


 





One of my favorite writers, Alison Lurie, died this week. She was 94.

Lurie won the Pulitzer Prize for the novel "Foreign Affairs," but she also wrote essays about children's literature (including "Babar"), and she wrote about houses, museums, religious buildings ("how we choose to order the space we live and work in").

"Intelligence, authority, wit, and charm." "Lucid, jargon-free." "Engaging and captivating." This is how people talk about Lurie's writing.

Lurie could be lightly "cutting," and you see this in her reflections on writing-as-a-task:

Over the years many people have told me that they want to be a writer. It gradually becomes clear what some of them have in mind; they are daydreaming of becoming a special sort of person who will be recognized as more sensitive and creative than others, with a more interesting personality. If they ask me about agents and publishers and reviewers, I know that they are also daydreaming of fame and fortune: of articles and photographs in newspapers and magazines, of awards and prizes and film sales.....

They believe that writing great fiction....will often be painful and wearisome. At first they may be lonely; but eventually....they will be recognized and praised. They will have fans who will understand how much they have suffered, and will want to sleep with them, even if they are not very attractive or agreeable....

A novel of Lurie's I really liked was "The Last Resort," about smart people behaving badly in Key West. One character realizes that you can delight everyone around you just by paraphrasing all remarks you hear. If someone says, "I really struggle with bad weather and overcrowded Monday schedules....." you can then say, "It sounds like stress and gray clouds are really discouraging for you...." And the person--so shocked to have been "heard"--will look at you as if you were the Messiah.

Lurie had fun when she was writing--she came out and said this--and that sense of fun makes her work more delightful than the "loftier" novels of some of her peers.

Also, Lurie mentored Lorrie Moore at Cornell (Cornell is a main setting of many Lurie novels) -- and I find it odd that the Times didn't mention the Moore connection today.

In any case, I loved Lurie's work, and I also recommend "Truth and Consequences." I was sorry to hear the news this morning.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Host a Baby

-You have assumed responsibility for a mewling, puking ball of life, a yellow-lab pup. He will spit his half-digested kibble all over your shoes, all over your hard-cover edition of Jennifer Haigh's novel  Faith . He will eat your tables, your chairs, your "I {Heart] Montessori" magnet, placed too low on the fridge. When you try to watch Bette Davis in  Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte , on your TV, your dog will bark through the murder-prologue, for no apparent reason. He will whimper through Lena Dunham's  Girls , such that you have to rewind several times to catch every nuance of Andrew Rannells's ad-libbing--and, still, you'll have a nagging suspicion you've missed something. Your dog will poop on the kitchen floor, in the hallway, between the tiny bars of his crate. He'll announce his wakefulness at 5 AM, 2 AM, or while you and another human are mid-coitus. All this, and you get outside, and it's: "Don't let him pee on my tulips!" When...
3 comments
Read more

The Death of Bergoglio

  It's frustrating for me to hear Bergoglio described as "the less awful pope"--because awful is still awful. I think I get fixated on ideas of purity, which can be juvenile, but putting that aside, here are some things that Bergoglio could have done and did not. (I'm quoting from a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of the Church.) He could levy the harshest penalty, excommunication, against a dozen or more of the most egregious abuse enabling church officials. (He's done this to no enablers, or predators for that matter.) He could insist that every diocese and religious order turn over every record they have about suspected and known abusers to law enforcement. Francis could order every prelate on the planet to post on his diocesan website the names of every proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting cleric. (Imagine how much safer children would be if police, prosecutors, parents and the public knew the identities of these potentially dangerous me...
1 comment
Read more

Raymond Carver: "What's in Alaska?"

Outside, Mary held Jack's arm and walked with her head down. They moved slowly on the sidewalk. He listened to the scuffing sounds her shoes made. He heard the sharp and separate sound of a dog barking and above that a murmuring of very distant traffic.  She raised her head. "When we get home, Jack, I want to be fucked, talked to, diverted. Divert me, Jack. I need to be diverted tonight." She tightened her hold on his arm. He could feel the dampness in that shoe. He unlocked the door and flipped the light. "Come to bed," she said. "I'm coming," he said. He went to the kitchen and drank two glasses of water. He turned off the living-room light and felt his way along the wall into the bedroom. "Jack!" she yelled. "Jack!" "Jesus Christ, it's me!" he said. "I'm trying to get the light on." He found the lamp, and she sat up in bed. Her eyes were bright. He pulled the stem on the alarm and b...
1 comment
Read more