SOURCE: Simon, Linda. “Something That Is Gone.” World and I 14, no. 2 (February 1999): 285.

In the following review, Simon comments that Lurie displays her talents as an astute observer of quirky, trendy, contemporary life in The Last Resort.

Since 1962, when she published her first novel, Love and Friendship, Alison Lurie has carved out a special literary territory: troubled marriages in academia, bewilderment among the intelligentsia. As Lurie sees it, being well read and articulate does not guard against bad, bumbling, or silly choices. Erudition does not grant immunity from the longings that beset a wider range of humanity: the desire to transgress the boundaries of one's identity, to break some rules, to seek excitement—even, perhaps, a bit of wildness.

Among her eight previous novels, perhaps the best known is The War between the Tates, published in 1974, which charts the messy marital problems of a political science professor, Brian Tate...