The Truth About Lorin Jones Author:Alison Lurie In this comic novel Polly Alter is a painter who is fascinated with another artist--Lorin Jones, who is dead. In her attempts to research a biography on Jones, Polly encounters other painters, husbands, lovers, and ultimately herself. — Library Journal — As chronicler of the life and work of brilliant artist Lorin Jones, Polly Alter, museum curato... more »r and would-be painter at first has it all figured out. Lorin, left to die alone in Key West, was done in by the white, male art establishment. But as Polly's interviewing progresses, Lorin comes down from her pedestal, and her "villains" emerge as likeable persons; at the same time, some of the truths about Polly's life are shattered or realigned.
In her eighth novel, Lurie explores a trick of the human mind how people and events are not always as they seem at first take by smoothly interspersing straight narrative with cleverly constructed one-sided interviews. For all her skill, however, the novel bogs down in the middle with too much of a good thing, and the ending, although surprising, is a disappointment. Lurie fans will want to read this anyway.