The Pursuit of Alice Thrift

Rating:
Summary: Delightful and witty
Review: I love the way Elinor Lipman uses the academic setting of Boston in her novels. In this particular novel, we meet Dr. Alice Thrift, a serious and smart intern who needs some help in the social department. She is wooed by a fudge salesman named Ray Russo, who doesn't quite sweet her off of her feet. But...she marries him anyway. Her tale is witty and engaging, and the other characters in the novel all do their best to help Alice become a "normal" woman. Her roommate Leo and neighbor Sylvie make for some clever subplots, as well. This is the best Elinor Lipman book I've read since Isabel's Bed. It's entertaining, interesting, and a delightfully compelling read.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed Bag
Review: Started reading this book and thought it was adorable - really light and fun...just when it was getting really good the story seemed to stop. What happened? I loved Inn at Lake Devine and Lipman's writing is delightful, but I was really disappointed that the last 1/3 of the book seemed to miss something.

Rating:
Summary: deliciously classic lipman
Review: Thank God, more Elinor Lipman! Her latest gem is the story of the initiation into simple humanity of Alice Thrift, a brilliant but socially-challenged surgical resident who has all the instinctive people skills of a chilly stethoscope. The paradoxical inversion of Lipman's usual lucidly insightful heroines works to perfection here; Alice's cluelessness is itself a kind of x-ray vision and Lipman is as hilariously wise about men and women as ever. Alice's insanely persistent suitor, the sublimely slimy Ray Russo, is a perverse delight; watching the twists and turns of the courtship is like watching a car wreck in slow motion, but it dawns on us slowly that this is precisely the car wreck Alice needed. The novel's minor characters are realized wonderfully, and the delicious unfolding process of naive Alice's education in the intricacies of actual human beings is pure joy. I can't agree that this falls short of Lipman's usual wonders; it's simply a delightful read, laced with laugh-out-loud dialogue pitched to perfection and all the treasures of Lipman's effortlessly graceful style. She is our Jane Austen and hurray there's more of her now to read.

Rating:
Summary: Cute and lighthearted
Review: This was my first Elinor Lipman book. It was cute and lighthearted. The central character, Alice Thrift, has a dry humor that I enjoyed. Yet it doesn't pull you in. I felt like an observer. The characters aren't 3-dimensional enough to bond with. However, that shouldn't stop you from reading it. It's entertaining and was an enjoyable read.