Synopses & Reviews
Poor Alice Thrift is book-smart but people-hopeless. She's a surgical intern at a Boston hospital, on probation despite honors from Harvard Medical School. When Ray Russo, social-climbing purveyor of carnival fudge, decides to pursue her romantically, Alice reluctantly follows. "Was it not flattering?" she explains. "Was I not insulted by evaluations that described my performance as workmanlike and my people skills as hypothermic? Was I not ready for someone, anyone, to utter words of admiration?"
Will Alice be humanized, ironically, by a slightly repulsive and shady character? Can a salutatorian find happiness on the bottom rung of her residency? Luckily, Leo Frawley, R.N., and Sylvie Schwartz, M.D., take on the task of guiding Alice through the narrow straits of her own no-rapport zone. The Pursuit of Alice Thrift brings the socially tone-deaf Alice out from under the burden of her clueless and beautiful mind.
Review
"Elinor Lipman's novels remind me of a very expensive haircut; the type of cut so subtle and understated one may be fooled into thinking that the possessor was simply born with astonishingly perfect hair. So, too, does the simple elegance of Lipman's prose deceive....While the caution at the opening propels the narrative toward its foreshadowed conclusion, the wisdom and self-esteem that Alice gradually accumulates, along with a new faith in friendships, makes for an ending with a moral more complex than initially expected. The Pursuit of Alice Thrift is more than just a pretty cover." Georgie Lewis, Powells.com (read the entire Powells.com review)
Review
"Snappy wit, a clever plot and the sheer fun of a book you can't put down...surely her best [novel] to date....Lipman's eye for social pretense has never been so keen or so cruel." Publishers Weekly
Review
Whimsical, heartwarming, and engaging....[A]llow[s] Lipman to do her magic, and the results are as expected funny, pitch perfect, and utterly charming." Neal Wyatt, Booklist
Review
"Lipman stretches her boundaries in her newest....A clever sweet tart, more tart that sweet." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Elinor Lipman's latest airy, lovelorn comic novel turns out to be her most buoyant, thanks to the utter haplessness of its heroine." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Review
"[R]eturns Lipman to the very peak of her form. [Lipman's characters] are simply, wonderfully, memorably human and therefore complicated and compelling." Deirdre Donahue, USA Today
Review
"Elinor Lipman reminds me of P.G. Wodehouse, and The Pursuit of Alice Thrift is no exception." Susan Salter Reynolds, The Los Angeles Times
Review
"The great accomplishment of The Pursuit of Alice Thrift is Lipman's ability to chart the course of this mismatch in an utterly persuasive way..." Karen Karbo, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"About the best trick any writer can possess is the ability to make everything look easy, even to other writers who know better. Elinor Lipman possesses this gift in spades, and The Pursuit of Alice Thrift treats head, heart, and funny bone with equal respect." Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls
Review
"This is Elinor Lipmans best novel yet, which I do realize is like saying that Krispy Kreme has finally manufactured an addictive donut." Stacy Schiff, author of Véra
Review
"Elinor Lipmans latest novel brings together the rare combination of intelligence, wit, and wisdom. The Pursuit of Alice Thrift is a jewel of a book." Carol Shields, author of The Stone Diaries
Review
"In this, the age of bogus Joe Millionaires and Barbie Doll bachelorettes, Elinor Lipmans The Pursuit of Alice Thrift dares to pose the question Can the frumpy physician find happiness with the unctuous fudgemonger? The answer is, in equal measures, heartfelt and hilarious. Let Joe and Barbie live happily ever after. Lipman writes for the rumpled rest of us. I love this book." Wally Lamb, author of Shes Come Undone
Review
"Elinor Lipman writes with perfect pitch. I started to underline all the bits of Alice Thrift that either amazed or tickled me, but I finally had to quit: there were simply too many." Anita Shreve, author of The Pilots Wife
Review
"The Pursuit of Alice Thrift isnt just beautifully written and bustling with memorable characters and rich in wisdom about the human heart its also hilarious and full of surprises. Elinor Lipman is a masterful novelist working at the top of her game." Tom Perrotta, author of Election
Review
"From the relationship wreckage, Alice emerges as an anti-Bridget Jones: a smart, centered woman who doesn't get the guy and ends up better for it. (Grade: A-)" Jennifer Armstrong, Entertainment Weekly
About the Author
Elinor Lipman is the author of seven books: the novels
The Pursuit of Alice Thrift,
The Dearly Departed,
The Ladies' Man,
The Inn at Lake Devine,
Isabel's Bed,
The Way Men Act,
Then She Found Me, and a collection of stories,
Into Love and Out Again. She has been called "the diva of dialogue" (
People) and "the last urbane romantic" (
Chicago Tribune).
Book Magazine said of
The Pursuit of Alice Thrift, "Like Jane Austen, the past master of the genre, Lipman isn't only out for laughs. She serves up social satire, too, that's all the more trenchant for being deftly drawn."
Her essays have appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine, Gourmet, Chicago Tribune, and The New York Times’ Writers on Writing series. She received the New England Booksellers' 2001 fiction award for a body of work.
Reading Group Guide
Meet poor Alice Thrift, surgical intern in a Boston hospital, high of I.Q. but low in social graces. She doesn’t mean to be acerbic, clinical, or painfully precise, but where was she the day they taught Bedside Manner 101? Into Alice’s workaholic and romantically challenged life comes Ray Russo, a purveyor of fairground fudge, in need of rhinoplasty and well-heeled companionship, not necessarily in that order. Is he a con man or a sincere suitor? Good guy or bad? His well-engineered cruise into carnal waters introduces Alice to a new and baffling concept, chemistry—and not of the organic kind. Is it possible for a woman of science to cure her own loneliness in the unsuitable arms of a parental nightmare? Luckily, Leo Frawley, R.N., who has a high threshold for Alice’s left-footed people skills, and Sylvie Schwartz, M.D., fellow resident and woman of the world, take on the task of guiding Alice through the narrow straits of her own no-rapport zone.
“Almost nobody writes serious entertainment with more panache,” said the Chicago Tribune of Elinor Lipman. Now comes the novel Publishers Weekly is calling “surely her best to date...a triumph...a book you can’t put down.”
The Pursuit of Alice Thrift showcases a rare and generous talent at the top of her witty, irresistible form.
1. The Pursuit of Alice Thrift opens with the announcement of a marriage and its ultimate failure. Does knowing the outcome spoil the narrative journey in any way?
2. Alice always expresses herself in literal and clinical terms. How does the author maintain a comedic tone while her narrator is, essentially, tactless and devoid of humor?
3. No one around Alice can understand what she sees in Ray Russo. How much of that universal disapproval is based on class differences? What facts did the author slip onto Ray’s figurative résumé to prejudice his case?
4. Reviewers have noted Elinor Lipman’s "fondness for inviting peripheral characters along with their numerous subplots and intrigues to have their say." Which characters in The Pursuit of Alice Thrift best exemplify this hallmark?
5. Could The Pursuit of Alice Thrift have been set anywhere, or is there something intrinsically Bostonian about the story and its characters?
6. The author has said that this novel is, first and foremost, "about friendship, and being rescued by it." Leo Frawley might be described as the novel’s nurturer, while Sylvie Schwartz functions as its tough guy. Do you think that the author set out to challenge the readers’ gender expectations, or was she simply trying to create original characters?
7. Except for her long hair and unfashionable clothes, Alice is never described physically. How do you picture her? Did she change in your mind’s eye as she grew more comfortable inside her own skin?
8. Dialogue is all-important in Elinor Lipman’s novels. Is its most important role that of advancing the plot, developing the characters, or entertaining the reader?
9. Should Ray Russo be described as the novel’s villain, or might he be, after all, Alice’s catalyst and crucible?
10. If you could see into their futures, what will Alice, Sylvie, and Leo be doing ten years from now?
11. Novelist Carol Shields, in her biography of Jane Austen, observed, "...(M)others are essential in her fiction. They are the engines that push the action forward, even when they fail to establish much in the way of maternal warmth." How does Mrs. Thrift fit the Austen model? And how much influence does Mrs. Frawley still exert over her full-grown, independent son?
12. Alice confides to Dr. Shaw’s companion, Jackie, "I’m confused by the fact that we had, to the best of my knowledge, in the vernacular, great sex." Why is she baffled? Is it purely her lack of experience, or is it back to the sociology of Ray and Alice--that by all other standards they would be judged incompatible?
13. In Shakespeare’s plays one can rely on comedies ending in marriage. The two weddings in The Pursuit of Alice Thrift, however, are not endings in any conventional sense. What purpose do they serve in the education and evolution of Alice?