Colors Insulting to Nature: A Novel (P.S.) [Paperback]

Cintra Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Series: P.S. | Publication Date: June 14, 2005

Like any healthy, red-blooded American, young Liza Normal wants to be famous. Like "people will see me and cry" famous. She lacks only talent. . . . Colors Insulting to Nature is a scaldingly hilarious coming-of-age novel, savage on the exterior but with a heart as tender as a marshmallow chick. It is a remarkable comic debut.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Authors who write about the entertainment industry often extend promises of wit and edginess to attract an audience. Colors Insulting to Nature, by Salon columnist Cintra Wilson, delivers these qualities because it enters the fray not with a forgettably likeable protagonist predestined for a happy ending, but with an axe to grind. The object of Wilson's loathing is the "ego-porn" Hollywood that turns out formulaic story lines, making hapless, mediocre talents believe that their dreams of fame can somehow come true.

The central mediocre talent in this book is Liza Normal, who first appears in the story as an adolescent auditioning for a spot in a commercial. Imagine the child version of the Bette Midler character in Beaches and you're about halfway to understanding the tragic gaudiness of Liza's persona--though of course she is a sweet girl underneath it all. The novel follows Liza into adulthood, bringing other vividly drawn characters, including her shut-in brother, Ned, her narcissistic, alcoholic mother, Peppy, and a sadomasochistic dwarf named DelVonn along for the ride. Liza's cringingly funny attempts to win fame as an actress-singer never stop--and neither does Wilson's railing against the logic-corrupting, "ultimately demoralizing" messages from film and television that Liza has ingested from infancy. Will our heroine ever turn her life around and figure out that The Media made her do it? Will Wilson succeed in breaking free of formulas, or end up undercutting her own message with a fairy-tale ending? Readers who are drawn to darker comedies will enjoy finding the answers, and find this novel impossible to put down. --Leah Weathersby --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Playwright and Salon columnist Wilson made a name for herself four years ago with her essay collection, A Massive Swelling. In her raucous, hilarious debut novel, she covers similar ground: the ugly side of fame and America's unhealthy obsession with celebrity. The dark Gen-X fairy tale follows the adventures of Liza Normal, a would-be starlet with far more ambition than looks or talent. Saddled with a frightening stage mother, Peppy, Liza—"not a girl ruled by the logic of self-preservation"—endures humiliation after humiliation as she acts in an unintentionally campy family musical, turns punk, dates a drug dealer and a washed-up boy band member, goes to rehab and tries unsuccessfully to make it big in Hollywood. The indefatigable Liza finally triumphs in Las Vegas, creating a stage show based on a character from the softcore slash fiction she's written throughout her travails. Wilson goes out on a limb with her verbal extravagance, and readers may find her post-Eggers postmodern asides to the audience (whom she calls "Young Readerlings") and fancy fonts a bit too-too. But her spirited sendup of celebrity worship is laugh-out-loud funny.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 350 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (June 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007154577
• ISBN-13: 978-0007154579
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,502,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Painfully funny, August 26, 2004

By 

Lisa Brackmann (Venice, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Colors Insulting to Nature: A Novel (Hardcover)

A full frontal assault against celebrity worship and its deletorious effect on the American psyche, "Colors Insulting to Nature" is not a perfect novel. There are a few too many authorial asides restating the theme - yes, we get that basing your life decisions on the movie "Fame" is not a path to personal happiness. That said, this is one of the funniest books I have ever read. The protagonists' staging of "Sound Of Music" is the best kind of parody - one done with affection and understanding of the source material - and had me laughing so hard that I nearly aspirated my burrito. Highly recommended.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fame is Just a Three Ring Farmhouse in California, November 24, 2004

By 

Tracy Oshima (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Colors Insulting to Nature: A Novel (Hardcover)

Peppy Normal is a bit eccentric and she becomes obsessed with the movie "Fame." Somehow, she believes if she could just get her two children, Lisa and her shy brother Ned, into the New York City High School of the Performing Arts, then their lives will he set. So she does the most logical thing, from her point of view, and moves to California to start her off spring in training for their eventual audition for the school.

She buys an aging farmhouse and converts it into a theater with the helps of some gay friends, Mike and Ike. Then she starts up a summer drama camp for kids. Ned hates performing and eventually winds up as a reclusive artist, but Liza takes to the stage like a duck to water, however she isn't very good. Don't tell her that, though, because she's bought into her mother's dream hook, line and sinker.

Liza's life turns into a journey through the subcultures that surround Hollywood and its edges, but close as she might get, she isn't ever able to grab that brass ring called fame. However she manages to keep hope alive, her dream too, for over a decade, despite sex, drugs and rock and roll, she plugs on. Despite horrible performances and the laughter of her peers, she plugs on. Despite the parade of one wrong man after another, she plugs on. Despite it all, she does not give up.

Does she eventually get there? I can't say, that would be telling, but I will tell you this, Cintra Wilson has written a non-stop, laugh a paragraph book stuffed with so many chuckles that you'd think you were kidnapped and being held captive in The Laugh Zone, sort of a Bill Cosby, Jackie Gleasen, Robin Williams version of the Twilight Zone. You just have to read this book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, sad, and thoughtful look at fame and coming of age, December 2, 2004

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Colors Insulting to Nature: A Novel (Hardcover)

While in a drunken depression, Peppy Normal discovers her life-path from the movie Fame. She'll enroll her children in the New York High School of Performing Arts--on their way to become celebrities. Their modest talent didn't matter--she'd incorporated the lessons of the movie deeply into her life. Unfortunately, that also meant inflicting them on her daughter, Liza. The first step toward New York was, perversely, in the opposite direction--to California. There Peppy opens the Normal Dinner Theater (where dinner was never served) and dresses pre-Freshman Liza like a tramp to take her to auditions and cattle-calls.

With this background, Liza grows up (to the extent her aging process can be called growing up) confused and waiting for that one magical break. A colony of elves teaches her to use drugs to help the breakthrough and she tries this. While her brother retreats into himself, Liza takes the opposite course, finally ending up in L.A. in an ultimate moment of degradation and humiliation. The one thing she finds that she can make money at has no appeal to her. She wants to be a famous singer--no matter how modest her talent.

Author Cintra Wilson teases the reader with author notes, and sends us on a roller-coaster rides of laugh-out-loud humor (certainly the performance of Sound of Music qualifies) and dark depression. The curse of fame and the easy myths that Hollywood perpetuates conspire to keep Liza from enjoying the few good things that do happen to her--there's always hope of that big break just around the corner.

Wilson's writing style is conversational, engaging the reader. Her characters are definitely over-the-top, but Liza's horrible high school experience will ring true with many readers, and who hasn't toyed with the notion that they are only a discovery away from being a star. COLORS INSULTING TO NATURE is a fascinating and highly readable novel. I recommend it.