Volume 52, Number 18 · November 17, 2005
The Witches of Corinth
By Cathleen Schine
Truth and Consequences
by Alison Lurie
Viking, 232 pp., $24.95
In Truth and Consequences, Alison Lurie's delightful new novel, middle age is a deep, dark forest full of howling wolves, wicked spells, ogres and witches, castles and enchanted gardens. There are princes and princesses, too, rescuing and being rescued, and it all takes place right in the middle of Corinth, Lurie's fictional upstate New York university town that readers will remember fondly from earlier novels like The War Between the Tates and Foreign Affairs. Lurie is a scholar of fairy tales and children's literature. As a novelist, she is a master of the humor and pathos of the fictions her characters weave around their own selfish actions. In this, her tenth novel, Lurie's deep understanding of the literature of childhood fantasy joins hands with her sharp appreciation of the self-deception of adult reality. Casting the crisp irony and humor of her academic novels in the dappled metaphorical light of an enchanted wood, Lurie has had thewit to recognize that middle age is just as dark and bizarre as any of the Grimms' fantastic tales.
Review, 2584 words
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