Foreign Affairs.

I'm working my way through the Pulitzer Prize winners for Fiction. We'll see how that turns out. But at the very least, it led me to find Alison Lurie's Foreign Affairs. It has already paid for itself.

Foreign Affairs follows two Americans doing research in England, both of whom fall into parallel--but distinct--affairs. When you have two independent protagonists, it's hard to make them equally compelling. I'm reminded of the musical Anything Goes, where I think the effort was ultimately a failure. Here, however, Lurie created two characters who stand on their own, inform each other, and whom are missed when not talked about. It's a simple, effective novel that examines loneliness and alienation.

I wonder if I could have picked it out of a pile sua sponte and recognized it as worthy of a Pulitzer.