Description
Book SynopsisReconstructive facial surgery after a car crash so alters Manhattan model Charlotte that, within the fashion world, where one's look is oneself, she is unrecognizable. Seeking a new image, Charlotte engages in an Internet experiment that may both save and damn her. As her story eerily converges with that of a plain, unhappy teenager - another Charlotte - it raises tantalizing questions about identity and reality in contemporary Western culture.
Jennifer Egan's bold, innovative novel, demonstrating her virtuosity at weaving a spellbinding, ambitious tale with language that dazzles, captures the spirit of our times and offers an unsettling glimpse of the future.
Trade Review...a comic, richly imagined, and stunningly written exploration of the American obsession with self-invention. * New Yorker *
Brilliantly unnerving. . . . A haunting, sharp, splendidly articulate novel. * The New York Times *
Egan limns the mysteries of human identity and the stranglehold our image-obsessed culture has on us all in this complicated and wildly ambitious novel. * Newsweek *
Ambitious, swiftly paced. . . . Egan writes with such shimmering élan that it?s easy to follow her cast on its journey. * The Wall Street Journal *
Dark, hugely ambitious. . . . As riveting as a roadside wreck and noxiously, scathingly funny. * Elle *
Egan's ability to move with ease between sincerity and satire sets
Look at Me apart. . . . Her authentic-feeling details give a sense of unusual immediacy. * Vogue *
Prescient and provocative. . . . The characters . . . jump from the pages and dare you to care about them. . . . The prose is crisp and precise. . . . The pieces fit together at the end with a satisfying click. * Philadelphia Inquirer *
Enjoyable and promising. * Financial Times *
After the success of Egan's 2011 Pulitzer-winning
A Visit From The Goon Squad, this satire of identity and fame in modern culture is another wildly inventive and meticulously crafted piece of brilliance. * Stylist *
Sharp, clever, complex... I can't do this 514-page novel justice in 242 words. It's funny and serious, dry, sly and wry. The writing is as pin-sharp as the perceptions. Read it. * Independent on Sunday *
A prescient, pre-9/11 study of a society drowning in contrivances. * The Pulse *
