Just Like Beauty: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Lisa Lerner (Author) " Pageant. P-A-G-E-A-N-T. Pageant." You are on Screen..." (more)
Key Phrases: hair construction, family nook, submarine school, Alice Jones, Electric Polyrubber Man, Lily Gates (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Edie Stein may be a 14-year-old with common adolescent concerns, but the rites of passage in the world she lives in are even more warped than the ones we know. Set in a dystopic American suburbia of the near future, this inventive comic novel opens just six months before Edie is scheduled to compete in the annual Feminine Woman of Conscience Pageant a public ritual in which girls must not only display "Better Person Skills" and their knowledge of chemical substances but also simulate sex with the Electric Polyrubber Man and sacrifice trained rabbits and sew them into muffs. Trained assiduously by her unstable pill-popping mother, Edie wants to triumph. Yet she is conflicted about where she stands she hasn't yet started her period, technically rendering her ineligible for the pageant and where she wants to go. Simulated sex doesn't compare to her feelings for Lana Grimaldi, the sexy and rebellious girl next door. And dealing with her estranged parents sometimes makes her just want to run away and join submarine school. Meanwhile, as she and the other contestants get closer to pageant day, they must contend with the constant harassment from gangs of local boys known as the Blow Torchers and an alarming invasion of chemically amped-up grasshoppers. Initially, the futuristic brand-naming (Just Like Meat Planet restaurants, Just Like Beans, Sin Concealer makeup) is trying, but eventually Lerner relaxes her send-up showcasing and lets her characterizations of Edie and her family and friends shine through. Edie's struggles to forge a unique identity lead her to concoct a winning triumph all her own, and readers will be engaged by her utterly believable pluck in this most unusual coming-of-age debut. Agent, Jane Gelfman.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Lerner's futurist first novel is set in Deansville, a suburban hell of the highest order. Grasshoppers the size of cats have invaded, breast cancer afflicts one in two, and a suicide cult called Happy Endings is luring folks to "move on to something better." Still, people marry, have children, and adapt to environmental changes. Enter Edie Stein, a 14 year old whose desire to please her mother, a former Mulch Queen, has made her a top contender in the Feminine Woman of Conscience pageant. Against her better judgment, she is learning the erotic arts by practicing on Electric Polyrubber Man, a blow-up doll. What's more, she's studying other "gender appropriate" skills, from how to walk seductively to how to make a muff from a skinned rabbit. But despite high scores in the preliminaries, Edie is worried. Her growing attraction to Lana Grimaldi, coupled with an increasing awareness of her mother's shortcomings, is confusing and scary. What follows is a remarkably conventional, if often touching, coming-of-age story. Surreal yet heartfelt, the novel probes what it means to be a good daughter and conscientious citizen. Recommended for all libraries. Eleanor J. Bader, Eugene Lang Coll., Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (January 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374180628
• ISBN-13: 978-0374180621
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,960,944 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm not an intellectual but . . ., January 24, 2002

By	wanda brown - See all my reviews

Okay, I have to admit, I bought this book because the cover looked so fabulous, and it sounded weird and cool. But once I started reading I was gripped. Apocalypse, eco-disasters, futuristic cults--all of that paled in comparison with how much I cared about Edie and her confusion about whether she wanted to be a beauty queen or an eco-terrorist. Lerner makes us see the appeal of both. So in the end I don't know -- maybe you CAN tell a book by its cover.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars , August 19, 2005

By	Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Just Like Beauty: A Novel (Paperback)

I read a great review on this book and absolutely had to buy it. It's Lisa Lerner's first novel. It is set in the future in a society that is just kooky enough to seem simultaneously unrealistic and plausible. Edie Stein is participating in an annual "Feminine Woman of Conscience Pageant", a pageant that is so reputable that successful enrollment is seen as a high honor. It is no ordinary pageant though, to win you have to pass all sorts of strange tests. The pageant, in short, delivers as a winner any girl that can embody all the feminine qualities that would make her desirable to a man. Edie enters the pageant to make her mother happy and, although she doesn't admit it, she secretly wants to win - but doesn't know how she is going to kill her pet rabbit, in the "Sacrificial Rabbit" event (I won't spoil it, but you won't be disappointed in her decision). There's another problem that Edie wonders about, she's falling for her next door neighbor, Lana. Lana is against the pageant and all that it stands for. Edie is aware of the superficiality of it too but plays along to please her mother. Because of her contestant status, being outside (getting to school, etc.) becomes an obstacle course for Edie and any other enrolled contestant. A group of school bullies (that, I did not realize until later in the book, were employed by the Pageant committee - making the whole idea of the Pageant even more sinister) hunt with an aim to hurt or even kill (I think, although none do) the contestants so that they are rendered ineligible to compete. There's some dark stuff in this book but all in all, its hilarious and, above all, mocking of a society that has become so artificial that even food, for example, bread (called, "Just Like Bread" in the book), is only related to the real thing by being "Just Like" it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brave New World... revisited from the millenium, August 31, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Just Like Beauty: A Novel (Paperback)

This is one of the best books I have ever read, but I can understand how many would find it preverse or just too bizarre. You must have an open mind and an understanding of societal influence in order to grasp the concept. When you find yourself appalled by the events in the book, it's more than likely reflective of what's going on in your own world, or the precursor to its happening in the future. It's not so unbelievable that soon there will be widespread violence in all suburbs, a strange fascination and competition with young girl's sexuality, and the physical world itself changing and becoming less accomidating to humanity due to pollution. This is not a book I'd reccomend to someone who would has read and thoroughly enjoyed "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya sisterhood". It is not meant to cheer you up, it is not meant to tug at your heart, it's mean to make you think.