book: The Pursuit of Alice Thrift (2003) by Elinor Lipman

Alice Thrift, intern at a major Boston hospital, is almost totally lacking in social skills — which means her bedside manner is appalling and she earns enemies easily. Her inability to read other people has the further consequence that she’s completely vulnerable to the smart-talking attentions of much older candy-salesman Ray Russo, whom everyone but Alice realizes is a creep on the make — after all, when Alice finishes her internship she’ll be earning the big bucks, won’t she?

But yet another consequence of Alice’s inability to read people is that she fails to realize there are some around her who’re very fond of her — who value her intelligence and integrity and find those qualities far outweigh her gaucheries. As she learns to trust others, so she learns to trust herself — giving a double meaning to the novel’s title.

I fell in love with this beautifully written novel, and indeed head-over-heels in love with Alice herself, who managed to make me grin on virtually every page. Some of the other characterizations I found very striking too, such as those of Alice’s new BF Sylvie, her roomie Leo and the elderly prof who takes her under his wing, Henry. As for Ray, he’s interestingly complex: for much of the book I couldn’t decide if he was really the slimeball everyone assumed or just, in his way, as socially inept as Alice.

The narrative sort of wilts in the very final pages, as if Lipman couldn’t decide whether to go for a predictable ending or something wilder, and ended up taking the safer option, but I could easily forgive that for all the joy The Pursuit of Alice Thrift had given me beforehand. Poignant and hilarious by turns, The Pursuit of Alice Thrift was one of those novels I gladly permitted to take over my life for a few days.