SOURCE: Maitland, Sara. “Polly's Choice.” New Statesman and Society 84, no. 1331 (8 July 1988): 39-40.

In the following review, Maitland compares Lurie's fiction to the work of Jane Austen but faults The Truth about Lorin Jones, asserting that the book has a weak ending.

Alison Lurie is a truly clever writer: sharp eyed and eared for the details of life about her, astringent, witty, and with a stylish control which allows her to use wit rather than be used by it. One very seldom feels that she sacrifices either truth or plot for the cheap joke and this is rare. I would not like to meet her, though; I would feel, as I would with Jane Austen (though Austen is ultimately more tolerant, affectionate, towards her own creations than Lurie) that my every mannerism and movement might well end up as grist for her mill.

The comparison with Austen is not...