Truth and Consequences Audiobook By Alison Lurie cover art

Truth and Consequences

A Novel

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Truth and Consequences

By: Alison Lurie
Narrated by: Jamie Heinlein
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For more than a year, Alan Mackenzie has had a bad back. It is ruining his life and also the life of his loyal and affectionate wife, Jane. After years of happy marriage, this attractive and intelligent couple has more or less stopped making love and are turning into people they hardly recognize. Jane, to her own horror, is becoming a resentful caregiver, and Alan is becoming a resentful caregetter.

Meanwhile, another, very different, couple has recently arrived in town. Delia Delaney is a famous writer who has just been appointed a visiting fellow at the university where both Alan and Jane work. Delia's husband, Henry, appears to be cynical and demanding, though most of his demands are for things Delia wants. At first, Alan and Jane do not like Henry and Delia very much, but these two outsiders soon totally alter them and their lives.

Truth and Consequences is a comedy about love and its disguises, and about identity and change, about the small disasters and sudden attractions that can turn even the most stable relationship upside down. Alison Lurie's latest novel suggests that a minor illness can cause major trouble. But it can also, with luck, determination, and the right sort of help, free both caregivers and caregetters to become more interesting, braver, and more passionate than they were before.

©2005 Alison Lurie (P)2005 Penguin Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Psychological Satire Marriage Comedy

Critic reviews

“A wry, insightful, thoroughly enjoyable tale about how men and women choose their demons and their lovers, and the sacrifices they’re willing to make for both.” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

“Delightful.... Her characters are, as always, wonderfully imperfect.” (The New York Review of Books)

All stars
Most relevant  
I want to enjoy the novel more, but the narration is ruining it for me. I may actually stop listening and go check this book out of the library so I can read the rest without having it delivered to me in Jamie Heinlein's relentless monotone.

Monotonous reading

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This is called comedy? I found it to endlessly whiny and not very funny. Jane's ceaseless apologizing got on my nerves. Delia's self-centered personality was annoying. Alan's continuous complaining was so great that my back began to ache with sympathy.
Not what I expected, I expected some laughs and was left with sighs of boredom.
I was disappointed.

Be careful what you wish for

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I really enjoyed this story which focused on the spouses of "famous" people, in this case the wife of a professor at "Corinth" college (must be really Cornell) and the husband of a famous novelist. It was a very intimate portrait of the characters enmeshed a story line with just enough momentum to keep you moving.

A well crafted story

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