Daily Blague

Truth and Consequences (Viking, 2005) is Alison Lurie's eleventh work of fiction. Of the preceding ten, I've read at least five, and on the strength of that acquaintance, for what it's worth, I'm going to pronounce Truth and Consequences the best of her novels. Its elegant construction and pitch-perfect writing make it a joy to read, and the romantic developments are as absorbing as diplomatic maneuvers on the eve of a war.

This quadrille for two couples is told, in odd-numbered chapters, for the point of view of Jane Mackenzie and, in the even-numbered ones, from that of her professor husband, Alan. The other couple, a much more rickety union, comprises writer Delia Delaney and free-lance editor Henry Hull. The four meet at the Matthew Unger Center for the Humanities at Corinth University. Jane is the Center's director, while Delia and Alan are, for the school year, Fellows. Henry appears at first to be Delia's personal assistant.

You may be muttering that all the elegance in the world couldn't save a comedy of manners stocked with such familiar tropes. Academic adultery has been cultivated for too long, and by too many novelists-in-residence, to promise fertile fiction. Truth and Consequences, however, takes place on the other side of cliché. Ms Lurie assumes that you know...

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