Photo courtesy Barnes & Noble.
The Scoop: Written by Jennifer Egan (USA) in 2002. Published by Anchor. Finalist for the National Book Award.
The Ingredients: The main character is Charlotte, a former model, who now has a new reconstructed face after suffering an extreme car crash. The secondary character is also named Charlotte and she is the teenage daughter of older Charlotte's former best friend. Both Charlottes are outcasts in their circles and the stories intertwine as older Charlotte struggles with her identity and younger Charlotte tries to fill a void by forming relationships with two older men. Throughout the story, older Charlotte (the real focus of the novel, as her story is written in first person) gets involved in a search for a mysterious man named Z and a voyeuristic Internet start-up.
Serves: Adult. Some sexual and mature content.
[Part One: Double Life] Chapter One: After the accident, I became less visible. [4/5 Though short and simple, it does make you ask questions and hints at a theme of visibility, literally and figuratively.]
Result: I started the book in December but never got to finish it. It says something that rechecking out the book stemmed more from my need to finish things I start rather than yearning to see what happens in the remainder of the book. It was hard for me to like the main characters, as in, I didn't like them. I would like to give credit for an intriguing idea (a woman whose very life revolved around her looks has her looks completely changed in an instant...think of the possibilities where that could go!) and some compelling themes, like the relationship between identity and appearance, the definition of American (yes, the story works in terrorism), and the commodification of one's self. But all in all, some of the narrative is drawn out and confusing, or simply not interesting. It tries really hard to be multi-layered by delving into a multitude of characters' lives, but that part is overdone, as two Charlottes, a detective, younger Charlotte's parents, brother, uncle, a writer, Z, friends, business partners, and so on, becomes difficult to keep up with. The novel also struggles to be 'deep', because though there's so much to explore, it becomes stuck in cliches and it just never quite gets there. [2/5 Could definitely be better, perhaps if we could feel more sympathy for the characters or if it narrowed its focus a bit more. Conceptually good but doesn't completely deliver or satisfy.]
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