NEW YORK TIMES Notable Book of the Year, 2002 |
"Set against the backdrop of a beauty pageant in an unnamed place and time, Just Like Beauty is a fresh twist on a classic coming-of-age story. A smart, funny, original debut, richly imagined and deftly written in prose that sparkles like a pageant headdress." -- A. Manette Ansay, author of Vinegar Hill and Limbo "In a future controlled by corporo-agri-conglomerates, and -- even worse -- teenaged boys, Lisa Lerner gives us a young woman struggling to define herself against the terrifying, indomitable face of Beauty. A chilling, funny, incredibly smart book, this is a scathing indictment of our headlong plunge into consumer culture. A must-read for anyone planning on living past tomorrow." -- Sheri Holman, author of The Dress Lodger "Lisa Lerner's Just Like Beauty makes a reader shiver with laughter and terror -- at the same time -- as it traces the first moments of an adolescent's maturing during the last moments of a civilization's decline. Read Lerner; follow her; don't let her out of your sight. She's the real thing." -- Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and Lost "Lisa Lerner has written a wonderful first novel, brave, funny, eccentric, and generous of heart." --Roxana Robinson, author of This Is My Daughter: A Novel |
JUST LIKE BEAUTY by Lisa Lerner Farrar, Straus & Giroux |