Customer Reviews

Skin Deep

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I really enjoyed this book. There were certain ideas that I would have left out if I were the author, such as the strange plot twist (if you read you know what I mean). Skin Deep made me question my own concept of beauty. I also surveyed many people about their own ideas and made it into a webpage. If you'd like to visit the site, please email me and I'll send you the url.

To be sure, a first novel. But Ms. Wagman weaves together a thoughtful and endearing tale about beauty and it's role within the human psychy. Even as a male reader (this is certainly a read more designed for the female market) I was moved by my own desire to contemplate how I view myself and, even more so, how I view those around me. This is no flashy yarn designed to bring the subject matter into the limelight, nor is it reserved for those who would wish to make it so. But, rather, a well written series of observations described in a fashion to immediately envoke the reader to question each and every preconceived notion they ever had about physical appearance. Problems? Depth, particularly in regards to the exchanges between the two main charactors. And the ending, which was obviously rushed and could have used major restructuring at the least. This being said, however, Skin Deep is a fantastic read which has earned Ms. Wagman a permanent spot on the top shelf of our book case!

Martha lives alone inside her mind, where she's trying to work out our culture's fixation on outward appearances, on beauty. a former topless waitress and part-time mother, she answers an ad for someone to talk to. it turns out to be a plastic surgeon who has lost his sense of what beauty is, and he requires Martha to cover every inch of skin and body with blue sweatshirt material to talk to him. combined with Martha's affair with the gorgeous male body builder and her relationship with her daughter, Skin Deep is a haunting look at what it means to be a woman in today's image-obsessed world. the characters resonate for a long term after the book has been read

From the moment I began reading this novel I was unable to put it down. The author painted a vivid and compelling journey for the search of inner beauty and self-acceptance. While the ending may have left others truning the page to read on, I believe that Diana Wagman has offered her readers a deeper message to part with then a simple happy ending; the novel makes you question the soundness of superficial qualities,shaking the false securities that beauty seems to reveal. And in a world where society magnifies false ideals, I finished her novel feeling more curious and maybe a touch more confident about covering my own appearence in a deeper search for my own shade of blue.

This novel's main character is realistic and fascinating; her conversations with Dr. Hamilton are intelligent and disturbing. But I found other aspects of the book disappointing. The flashbacks are too frequent, predictable and awkwardly shoved into the narrative. The relationship with the boyfriend, Reuben, is at first interesting, but when he starts telling her to get beautiful, he becomes a blunt plot device. The ending is silly and made me feel like I was reading a romance novel. Subtlety is not this writer's strong point.

I have seldom read the book of a first novelist which has gripped me so in the way Skin Deep did. The characters, action and plot are, of course, portrayed directly. At the outset they seem to flow much as in any other novel. But as I read on, I became drawn into the mind of Martha, the principal character, so that it was her feeling and reaction to what was happening to her, and had happened to her in the many flashbacks, that surfaced. I was in her mind, from there to the end! This novel is about a woman who has dreams that could lift her beyond her somewhat dead end existence. But in the midst of her resignation never to see them fulfilled, she encounters a stranger whose agony touches her in a way that both surprises and frightens her. The way that this new dream plays out - while at the same time life goes on for Martha, her child, ex-husband, mother and others - is the stuff of a good yarn. In short, Skin Deep is a beautifully crafted novel, economically written and sure to be remembered.

Usually I play catch-up when it comes to emerging writers, but this time, thanks to a friend's recommendation, I have just read Diana Wagman's "Skin Deep" and feel like I'm present at the discovery of a truly talented new novelist. Ms. Wagman's debut is a portrait of Martha, an ordinary woman whose considerable intelligence and humanity are being stifled in a world where one must measure up to social standards of attractiveness before she can be accepted as a player. She was raised, as we painfully learn, by a mentally-ill mother and her succession of selfish, abusive spouses to believe that she falls far short of the "beauty mark." When we meet Martha, life has been launching a series of attacks upon her insecurities. Her husband has left her, taken her daughter, and remarried. She has no friends. Her new boyfriend is a young, handsome, hunky would-be actor, who tries to make her over with diets and workouts. She quits her job as a topless waitress for one she sees advertised in the paper. For three hundred dollars a night, three nights a week, she dons an outfit that totally conceals her appearance from head to toe and goes to a motel room to discuss the concept of beauty with a man she knows only as "Dr. Hamilton." As their peculiar encounters unfold, Martha's already-tenuous life outside of these meetings is collapsing. Tragically, she comes to recognize that her relationship with Hamilton may be the closest she'll ever come to authentically knowing and being known by another human being. The circumstances of the plot may seem peculiar initially, but under Ms. Wagman's deft pen the allegory takes hold quickly and firmly. Our identification with Martha develops into a powerful, heartfelt partnership. The author's skills are many, but surely among the most notable are her gifts for imagery and for selecting the perfect details to illuminate in descriptive passages. Rarely have I felt so comfortable and trusting with a first-time novelist; never have I felt so rewarded overall and so confident about recommending the author to other readers

I love this book. A slice-of-life tale about a divorced mother of one that faces issues of beauty in LA, a city so focused on youth and superficiality. Plus it contains an exciting element of mystery that makes SKIN DEEP hard to put down!

A book which arouses the senses from page one to the end ~ shame that my imagination was not indulged further!

A smooth, easy read with disturbing undercurrents, "Skin Deep" touches on many facets of our obsessions with beauty (and the lack thereof). By exploring several characters' attitudes about the subject, a picture of society's attitude is developed. The characters and situations can be seen as constructed to fit the premise, but nonetheless work within "artistic license", a license one gives easily to such confident and descriptive writing. The characters are largely quirky, self-involved and/or isolated--if not physically, then mentally. The only way the main character (Martha) can truly, honestly interact is in disguise, with a stranger (Dr. Hamilton). A worthy first novel; if only it were longer and more in-depth, particularly the sessions Martha has with Dr. Hamilton, and if the ending was more worked out. Also, I noticed several apparent punctuation errors. The editor wasn't on his or her toes!