Review: Gorgeous

Gorgeous by Paul Rudnick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've been a Rudnick fan since, let's say 1989 when his last novel, I'll Take It, was published (in the meantime I've been forced to keep up with his script writing). I love this guy. I have no idea how he manages to come out of nowhere with a Cinderella story featuring a dull teenaged trailer girl from Missouri and make it so perfect. Seriously: how did he get poverty so well? And middle America? Sure, I'm not at all surprised that he nails movie-making, and the empire of a Calvin Klein/Ralph Lauren-type mogul. But I never expected him to move me with a visit by royalty to a military base Afghanistan. Or with Becky's grief for her mother. Or with her abiding love for her best-friend Rocher.

So, the Disney fantasy is all over the place: there are amazing dresses, and vast hotel suites, and jetting around the world, and jewelry, and glamor galore. But that half of the book is just an introduction for Becky into the world of the 1%. She knows she doesn't belong there, even though she's inhabiting the body of the most beautiful woman in the world. And even though Becky doesn't have the courage to really embrace the life she's be given, she is paying attention: she learns, she grows, and she becomes stronger.

Recommended to fans of Beauty Queens. Like Bray, Rudnick is able to acknowledge the privileges of beauty and wealth, without losing sight of how those privileges can blind people to the suffering of others. And also, there is righteous ass-kicking. Oh, and bonus stars for writing a princess story without pink or a tiara.

Special bonus shout-out for the best depiction of the Queen since An Uncommon Reader. Yeah, my real rating is nine out of five stars. If I give it more I'll have to steal them from some other book, and that seems way harsh.

Library copy.

View all my reviews