Truth and Consequences

by Alison Lurie

Alan Mackenzie's bad back is ruining both his and his wife Jane's lives. After years of happy marriage, these two attractive and intelligent people have stopped making love and are starting to resent each other. However, the arrival of a new couple in town - the beautiful and egoistic writer Delia and her cynical husband Henry - heralds a period of dramatic change for the Mackenzies.

Truth and Consequences is a comedy about love and its disguises, and identity and change - about the small disasters and sudden attractions that can turn even the most stable relationship upside down.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Academia, Marriage, The United States Of America, Audiobook, Contemporary

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Alison Stewart Lurie was an American novelist and academic. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1984 novel Foreign Affairs. Although better known as a novelist, she wrote many non-fiction books and articles, particularly on children's literature and the semiotics of dress.

Reviews

[Sherril · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone whose marriage didn't make it through the changes and hardship that chronic illness (CI) adds to the already difficult proposition of figuring out how to spend a lifetime together, I thought this book was fascinating. It was a peek into the window of the lives of two couples dealing with that exact situation. One couple already knew they were dealing with chronic illness - migraine - when they married; and the other couple whose chronic illness - back pain - came on after they had been married for many years.

I am the person with the CI so I was very much absorbed by the story from the caregiver's perspective. Not that my X ever did much (any!) actual caregiving.

In spite of the fact that we split up almost 10 years ago, I feel like this book will help me move on and forgive the lie (he DID vow to continue to love me "in sickness and in health"). I guess some people just can't deal when their previously healthy spouse becomes sick and there's no end to it in sight.

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allison Lurie never disappoints. This book isn't my favorite of hers but it was a good diversion. I feel like it could have used one more round of edits and maybe another 30-40 pages worth of elaboration overall. Abrupt ending.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this contemporary novel but if you peruse the GoodReads reviews you'll quickly see that not all readers shared this point of view. So, I'll lay my prejudices on the table:

. . . I enjoy reading almost anything set in an academic environment;
. . . I am looking for a reading "diet" that includes more than books written before 1960 and/or light mysteries;
. . . I am intrigued by the concept of La Belle Dame Sans Merci (literally, the beautiful woman without mercy); and,
. . . I like the exploration and exposition of the creative process.

So, that said, this was a satisfying, two-day read for me. The principal characters were not necessarily original, but intrigued me anyway. The femme fatale was so similar to the title character in another novel (Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z)that she must be based upon a familiar "star" in the academic world. Whether that is the case or not is irrelevant, but it amused me to read about a glamorous empty vessel sweeping onto campus for a term as a major fellow. Many reviewers complained that this comedy was not amusing, but her character provided me with enough smirks and smiles to satisfy.

But the most interesting facet of the book for me was Lurie's exploration of art. If you are a reader who likes a book to leave you with a question or subject for further thought---this book achieved that objective for me. What inspires creativity?

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel has been described as a comedy of manners, a campus novel, a tale of double adultery....As far as I can see it, it's a novel about chronic pain and disability, and how they can kill love. In short, the story goes like this : Alan's back problem, first acute, now chronic, has turned him into an irritable, self-centered couch potato. His devoted wife, Jane, is slowly beginning to resent the pressure of being the smiling self-effacing caregiver. Into their lives come the beautiful but egotistical Delia Delaney and her husband Henry. Alan falls for Delia and finds a new vocation as an artist. Jane falls in love with Henry. In the end Jane leaves Alan for Henry. Delia leaves town, only to announce her wedding to a rich older man who can offer her "security". Alan is stunned, then bitter. In the very last chapter, Delia shows up at an exhibition of Alan's work and casually issues an invitation to visit her new home during her husband's absence - and Alan knows that, against his better judgment, he'll accept that invitation and become once more embroiled in the drama that surrounds Delia.

That's the synopsis. But the best drawn character for me is Alan's disability. It's all there : the initial confident belief that this strained back will heal itself in a few days...then a few weeks...then a few months, then the therapeutic odyssea, the multiplying visits to doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, acupuncturists, herabalists...the failed surgery... the drugs and their side effects. Alan compares his back pain to lizard, clawing and gnawing through his lumbar area. He is slowly becoming a drug-addicted wreck of a man, incapable of sitting down, driving, flying in an airplane. Not only can there be no love-making, there can be no feeling of love, either. Alan is changing, and Jane is changing too. They both feel guilty about being such a terrible spouse, but the disease is the third partner in their marriage, long before Delia and Henry show up.

[Sarah Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was awful. I'm rarely this critical, but the characters were flat, the story cliched. I felt nothing for the characters and there was no real climax. I'm just glad it was so short and that I only paid $2 for it.

[M · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eileen Goudge meets that guy who wrote Beginners Greek - basically, junior high level of maturity and what is called by critics a 'comedy' yet lacks any humor that I, personally, could detect.
Seemingly promising premise - a wife whose husband suffers from back pain is at long suffering last sick of his being a caretaker. Ooh thinks I, this is a good conflict. No. Instead, Lurie decides to concoct a ridiculous story with flat characters about how the caretaker has been a saint, constantly chiding herself for moments when she is not a saint, who then meets a couple who have the same problem but in the reverse - cue the spouse swap.
Seriously? Is this funny because it's ridiculous? I am a bigger fan of subtelty in humor rather than the driving force being gross exaggeration and implausibility, especially when ostensibly the topic is one of a sensitive nature.
So we have the saintly wife who was so boring I can't evcen reemember her name right now, whiny husband (alan maybe?) who is fat and ugly and hunched over, and then this dazzling couple, Hunky (name???) and wife Unrealistically Beautiful (wow I cannot remember anyone - let's assume its the book and not my memory ...) So HUnky totally hits on Saintly, they comiserate over the fact that Hunky's wife (touseled hair so beautiful in the wind, sick with a cold and never sexier, etc - gag me) has migraines and so they are kindred spirits. Somehow extremely alluring migraine woman is all over fat and hunched over whiny husband. They each have their affairs, the saint feels guilty, the whiny guy does not, the alluring chick is wholly exaggerated in her free spirited/mainpulative characterization and there was absolutely nothing interesting, or funny, or anyting. It was one big nothing. The conflict was just there as a frame, the people were not in any way significant and if all that was because the book was ... funny???? then I guess I just didn't get it.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

My (extremely vague) impression of Ms. Lurie prior to finding this (and not much else) in the audiobooks section of my library was that she was a Well-Respected and Therefore Not Crazy-Popular Literary Author, thus suggesting that her book would be (how shall I put this) good. Not so. Characters were universally both cliched and one-dimensional, the love plot(s)/wife-swap was implausible, and there was no particularly lovely writing or gripping insight to make up for either of these failings. The best I can say for it is that I wanted to punch each individual involved (author and characters alike) in the face for a unique and different reason.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan, made grumpy by his bad back is making it difficult for his wife Jane to be 'good', and their marriage is further threatened when the grotesquely self-centred Delia takes up a celebrity position at the University.

Lurie understands humans, their pettiness and secret feelings, and the annoyance of unreliable photo-copiers. Funny, entertaining, with great dialogue and well-drawn characters. Must read more of her.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its been a challenging year ... and I've seriously neglected documenting my reads.
Truth and Consequences was one of the books I completed in 2017.

The story of how a couple can become so disconnected is a nice read.
I think Ms. Lurie presented a great glimpse of human nature .. and how easily people .. especially
couples misread each other.

A very good read.

[Allyson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was given this book by a friend.
I am not sure what I will say about it, but I did not like it. The writing was simple but not in an interesting or beautiful way and the storyline was silly. There is nothing to recommend about it and I would have abandoned it except that she will want to talk about it with me, to have my opinion.
An unfortunate read.

[Linden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered Alison Lurie's novels several years after high school by an unbidden series of events as well as some sins of my own devising. Surprisingly, I became reacquainted with her work in Truth and Consequences, all these decades later.

****Pardon the length. There *is* a review. To skip the reminiscence, go to the seventh paragraph.

I met Alison Lurie under her married name, Alison Bishop, as an Amherst College faculty wife. I was then a teenager. My dear friend B.J. babysat for her boys and I for the family upstairs' little boy, Billy. We would often enough entertain the boys together, usually downstairs. At that time I had discovered through writing for the Amherst High School newspaper, The Graphic, that I enjoyed it. An article about Swifty, Larry Swift, our chemistry teacher prompted that insight. Beyond the immense quantity of notes my friends and I passed to each other, imagining ourselves unobserved by our teachers, I saw writing could be an end in itself. My mother wrote feature articles for The Amherst Record. A number of my friends and I kept journals. My dad read Samuel Pepys; I read Anne Frank. I saw it as what people did, along with writing letters: crafting language for oneself or others.

One day, while downstairs with B.J. and the three boys, I saw Lurie had an office with an impressive desk. It had all the accoutrements of adult transactions: writing implements, letters, and the appearance that real work happened in that place. There was also a tan pasteboard box, 8 1/2 x 11, that looked a bit mysterious. Opened, it revealed a typewritten manuscript, an entire ream of paper or more. I don't remember whether B.J. made the breach of privacy with me. I do remembering reading the first few pages and then guiltily closing up the box.

Contemporaneously, I had been feeling the pinch of privacy disrespected myself. I had sent a letter I greatly enjoyed writing, to a high school friend whose father was a respected scholar. Among other things, I had written about a little girl seen from the upstairs window while I was sitting for Billy. She was jumping rope, I wrote, and quietly screaming. It was a curiosity worthy of sharing: her tight- throated pitch of a scream but hushed, perhaps for propriety. The boy I'd sent the letter to responded saying that he had liked the letter and shown it to his father who commented negatively about the possibility of screaming quietly. I was twice shocked. First the sharing, and second that the word choice I'd so labored to identify was discounted, out of hand.

Time passed. I went to school, graduated, moved to New York City, and worked for a little publishing company. From my work at Newell's print shop in Amherst I knew how to mark up manuscripts, proofread and design publications so it was a suitable job for me: the book and writing business. I read book reviews too as part of publishing life, and there discovered a review of a book I wanted to read. Then, surprise. The photograph of the author was familiar. It was Lurie herself.

Another odd thing. Within the year, I found myself reading a library book that was somehow familiar. A phrase I'd read before suddenly struck me. The Seraglio by James Merrill, was the very book I'd read from the manuscript box on Alison Lurie's desk.

And now to the present. Some days ago I was thinking of her again and went into the fiction section of my local library. There was Truth and Consequences, a book of hers, likely the only one I hadn't yet read. And so I did.

It was only a few pages into the book that I remembered what I so enjoyed about her books, what set them apart. Her writing seems profoundly truthful. We get to know what her characters are really thinking or feeling, more often than what they look like while speaking. In this time of a wealth of images--movies, animated ads,YouTube, video clips from friends online--we apprehend, through Lurie's reticence of image, the steadiness of their continuing thoughts. We learn primarily through their inner language with visuals as a complement.

Truth and Consequences tells the story of Jane and Alan Mackenzie. Jane, a university administrator, is responsible for a coming conference of Visiting Fellows. Alan is a professor of architecture, working on a book of follies, those artificial Gothic ruins often built in large gardens. However some time earlier, Alan has hurt his back, to the degree that Jane sometimes doesn't recognize him, visually or emotionally, as the person she married. She is soldiering on as his caregiver, though resentful that there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. In addition to the difficulty in now working on his book, Alan is, as Jane points out to herself, a resentful caregetter.

As the Fellows begin to arrive, one becomes significant to the Mackenzies. Bestselling poet Delia Delaney, is famous for many things: her egotism, beauty, charm and migraine headaches. Delia's husband, Henry Hull, seems cut to the same pattern making requests of Jane for Delia's comfort. At first, neither Mackenzie seems to like them, but relatively quickly things change. Alan becomes well enough for what Jane's mother calls hanky panky and Jane falls in love with Delia's husband.

We know how things will end by page 181. Delia has convinced Alan that he should sacrifice everything to his art--new visions of architectural spaces, like sculptures, constructions symbolic of an earlier inhabitant. Now Jane is speaking to Alan about their duty to make their marriage work.

"It's our job, after all, the one we signed up for."

"I guess so." Alan was struck by the conventionality of her rhetoric, as if Jane were quoting the minister of her parents' church, as was possibly the case. It occurred to him that something was lacking from this conversation. Jane had not said that she loved him or had missed him, and he had not said it either.

"We have to try, that's all." She did not look at him, but at the oiled butcher-block surface of the kitchen table, and her tone wavered, almost as if she were about to start crying. Moved by a combination of affection, pity, and good manners, Alan crossed the kitchen floor and awkwardly put his arm around her.

"Mm, hm," he said. Over Jane's shoulder he saw her suitcase slumped against the fridge by the back door. That could be a construction too, he thought. The fridge, the broom and dustpan hanging on the wall, the open door, the wheeled carry-on suitcase with its rectangular handle echoing the shape of the door.

I really enjoyed the difference between Truth and Consequences and other contemporary works. Thank the gods that provided the book on the library shelf for me to find, and the remembrance that sent me there.

At least ten years ago, I acted on something I'd intended to do for years before, long years before. I wrote to Lurie confessing my transgression on her privacy all those forty plus years ago, and apologized. I also told her of the coincidences about her work and that of James Merrill. She kindly replied, accepting the apology, commenting on my note, reminiscing a little about that period, and wanting to be remembered to B.J. a favorite person of hers as well. Many gifts of language.

[Elinor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alison Lurie spent most of her career in an academic environment, so she is right at home in this tight-knit world. As in her other novels, her characters are highly intelligent and well-educated but that does not prevent them from behaving in wildly emotional, unpredictable and self-destructive ways . . . just like the rest of humanity. Two couples and two affairs are at the heart of this novel. When Alan Knight develops chronic, debilitating back pain, it changes him into a selfish, unlikeable person -- and his wife Jane simply stops loving him in spite of herself. Meanwhile, Delia enters the picture, who is utterly egotistical yet so charming and manipulative that almost everyone she meets except Jane falls under her spell, including Alan. Lurie's writing is so witty and insightful that I enjoyed every page.

[Kat Walter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Empty novel, empty characters. No wonder I found it on a remaindered table. Chronic pain, users and abusers...I felt nothing for any of the characters and will remember little of the book after I toss it in the bin.

[Mary Beth Keane · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a weird book. It has marriage, divorce, infidelity, lying, and narcissistic behavior. The consequences are well deserved. The book interesting but depressing. I would not recommend

[Eugenea Pollock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delia Delaney is the famous author of poetry, essays, and several collections of modern fairy tales; and she is this year's visiting Faculty Fellow at Corinth University. Beautiful, flirtatious, deviously manipulative, she stirs up trouble--professional, sexual, marital--as soon as she arrives. Knight Hall, as well as its academic and administrative personnel, will never be the same. Is she purely a disruptive force, or has she also served as an inspiration, a muse of sorts?

Alison Lurie is one of my favorite authors because she is a keen observer of human nature and a gifted comic novelist. I have never been disappointed by her works: some are better than others, but none are a waste of time. This one Is no exception.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read a book by Alison Lurie in 15 years and I think it was a good idea to pick Truth and Consequences because I was immediately in familiar territory. I've checked and, yes, Foreign Affairs also mentions Corinth and of course, both books deal with academics and their love lives.

In truth, nothing much happens during the entire book but it was really fascinating to read alternatively about Jane and Alan's most intimate thoughts, it felt like being inside their heads somehow. Of the 4 main characters, I really only rooted for Jane and thought her story was the most interesting, especially how she was conflicted between being a caregiver and pursuing her own happiness.

Maybe not Alison Lurie's best work but still a very solid book.

[Chimene Bateman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read something by Lurie as she has just died and there is so much praise of her work going round at the moment. I didn't think I had ever read anything by her, but this novel was on my shelves and once I started it, I realised I had indeed read it already. A very satisfying academic novel, perfect for the tired end-of-term state my head is in at the moment. Two very self-absorbed academics/artists (one with a chronic pain condition, described in harrowing terms) are paired with practical, long-suffering partners. Lots of amusingly realistic cameos of academic life.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

On a cold blowy February day ... so begins Foreign Affairs.

On a hot midsummer morning... so begins Truth and Consequences.

Of the two books, I prefer Foreign Affairs. Vinnie Miner does make an appearance (by name only) on p 51.

Here we have two marriages, four personalities, two of whom have chronic health problems. Does state of health change a personality, or draw out character traits that are already there?

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to this one. An interesting take on what can happen to a marriage when health issues are involved as well as self esteem. A husband with severe back pain falls for a manipulative visiting professor in the office next to his. A wife who has always been supportive but at her wit's end with his demands falls in love with the husband of her husband's lover!

[Libby Sommer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Allison Lurie never lets me down. This book isn't my favorite of hers but it was very entertaining and engrossing. I think it could have benefited with some more editing (repetitions) and more depth in the secondary characters. The ending was not satisfying. Too abrupt. I've given it five stars because its a Good Read.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interestting tale of academia along with the problems of being a care-giver and a care-receiver.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sought out "Truth and Consequences" because I have chronic migraines and somewhere I had seen that one of the characters in this book also got migraines. The book is about two couples. Alan and Jane: Alan has developed severe back pain and Jane has been his caregiver for a little over a year. Alan is becoming increasingly grumpy and the caregiving role is getting thin. The second couple is Delia and Henry: Delia has stress induced migraines, aside from being her caregiver, Henry follows behind and cleans-up everything Delia cancels due to her migraines. Alan is a professor of architecture, Jane is an administrator at the same university. Alan and Delia have just been named fellows to the program Jane administers, resulting is ongoing interaction between the four characters.
Lurie's observations about life with chronic pain, from the experience of the sufferer as well as the caregiver are extremely astute. Jane suspects that Delia "uses" her migraines and she does, but not at all in the way that Jane thought. In fact, what Lurie describes via Delia is a form of Dolorism. It is something that medical practitioners and many clergy fail to understand, but the deeper and longer one has experienced pain, the more it makes sense.
I would especially recommend this book to anyone you know struggling to be empathetic to someone in their lives with pain (that is not to say that it's okay to be a jerk like Alan is) but Lurie provides insight into what it's like to be fine one day and have your life overcome with relenting pain the next and for months after.

[Colin Kitchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great study of a suffering marriage in which Alan has chronic back pain and his wife suffers as a carer falling to his every beck and call. The illness not only ruins their relationship but also Alan’s artistic work.
Interestingly both find healing by having affairs with people that also suffer but have empathy to their cause. This also results in Alan being more productive in his art.
Delia who is Alan’s mistress, has her own insecurities largely about financial well being , so she causes more infidelity in her pursuit of this by marrying someone rich yet still wanting her artistic beau.
I think the author is writing about the perils of being an artist or author. Delia says” it’s not important for an artist to be good, or to be happy, if you’re serious you have to give all that up” . . I wonder if she also truly believes Delias thoughts on happiness “ the world is a bad place for us mostly. That’s why we mustn’t miss anything good that comes along”.
Joy at any cost no matter who else gets hurt along the way !

[Craig Amason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lurie seems to be drawn to a storyline where two couples who are previously unfamiliar with each other end up having adulterous affairs by swapping partners, a scenario that is probably more common with couples who have a history with each other. Fans of Lurie have not been as fond of this title as they have her other works, which is understandable. She is characteristically satirical about academics, but she keeps this one fairly light. What's missing here is the broader commentary on American culture that we find in books like The Nowhere City. Truth and Consequences is engaging enough, and we are introduced to some pretty disgusting people, but this is not Lurie's best work.

[Stven · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel won me over eventually with its cast of characters so maddeningly real-to-life. It was difficult getting started with it because, as in the previous Alison Lurie book I read, The Last Resort, we have to deal with an aging husband bedeviled by pain. I didn't feel quite ready for another dance with death.

Fortunately this did not turn out to be the same story.

[Lianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look into the trajectory of long-term relationships and marriage. Engaging writing that gives an intimate look into love lives of academics, marriage, and affairs. Lurie's stories always seem to paint an intimate picture of characters with their dilemmas, flaws, and sometimes suspect decisions.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because it was thin and I had to take Kirk to the hospital and I wanted something that would fit in my purse. It was interesting. I liked the description of the lizard as back pain and Alan's whole description of living with chronic pain. Delia was annoying...spoiled and selfish and tromping on people to get her needs met with no concern about their life or feelings.

[Anne Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting marital saga and the writing is great, though I didn't sympathise with any of the characters at all. On the plus side, Dora Delaney, the femme fatale around which all the disasters circulate, is one of the best nasty characters I've ever read - she's just amazingly horrible, and acutely fascinating. The ending is very satisfying.

[Jill]

I made it only 3 minutes through. Two f-bombs straight away. Really?! Why is it so necessary to have profanity everywhere? I just don't get it. I quit. Not willing to sit through that. Another reminder of why I avoid contemporary "lit" (if you can even call it that). I'm just SO tired of the chronic profanity everywhere.

[Carolin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die Geschichte von Alan und Jane hat mir gut gefallen, auch wenn ich manchmal sehr genervt von Alan war. Der Schreibstil ist schön flüssig und das war bestimmt nicht das letzte Buch, was ich von der Autorin lesen werde 😊