Novel: The War Between the Tates

Overview
Alison Lurie's The War Between the Tates is a sharply observant satirical novel set against the upheavals of late 1960s American campus life. It follows the unravelling of a seemingly comfortable academic marriage as the larger social convulsions of the era, student protests, sexual liberation, and the rise of the women's movement, press in on private life. The book combines keen social comedy with a humane attention to the vulnerabilities of ordinary people caught in historical change.

Main characters
Brian Tate is a well-meaning, somewhat complacent history professor whose professional standing and personal assumptions make him emblematic of the older academic generation. Erica Tate, his wife, has long played the part of the dutiful spouse and mother; as the novel progresses she finds herself rethinking the limits of that role and seeking new forms of independence. Surrounding them are colleagues, students, lovers, and friends whose ambitions and prejudices amplify the tensions facing the Tates and expose the hypocrisies of both conservative and liberal positions.

Plot summary
The narrative traces how small irritations and unresolved disagreements, compounded by external political turmoil, escalate into full-scale marital crisis. As campus protests and radical ideas spill over into the couple's home, Erica begins to experiment with freedoms previously denied her, while Brian reacts with a mixture of bewilderment, indignation, and wounded pride. Infidelities and alliances on and off campus complicate loyalties, and scenes of comic misunderstanding alternate with moments of genuine emotional pain, revealing how social convulsions can erode private certainties.

Themes and tone
Lurie writes with a tone that is both witty and compassionate, allowing satire to cut deep without descending into cruelty. The novel interrogates gender roles and sexual politics, exposing how entrenched expectations can be kept alive by mutual self-deception. It also skewers academic pretensions and fashionable radicalism, showing how slogans and postures often substitute for real moral courage. Throughout, the book asks how individuals adapt to rapid cultural change, and whether personal reinvention is possible without betrayal of earlier commitments.

Style and structure
The prose is elegant, ironic, and economical, balancing sharp social observation with intimate attention to character. Lurie moves between comic episodes and quieter psychological scenes, letting the reader see both the absurdities of the moment and the deeper human costs. Dialogue and scene work often reveal more than explicit judgment, allowing the reader to register the contradictions in characters' public rhetoric and private behavior.

Significance
The War Between the Tates remains a vivid portrait of a pivotal moment in American intellectual life, notable for its fairness to characters on different sides of the culture wars and its refusal to settle for easy moralizing. Its enduring appeal lies in the way it captures the comic and poignant consequences of social transformation, making a domestic story feel like a small-scale history of its time. The novel is both a period piece and a timeless exploration of how political change reshapes love, identity, and everyday life.