The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty: A Novel,Used

A magical and comedic take on modern love, the power of friendship, and the allure of disguise.In the heart of New York City, a group of artistic friends struggles with society's standards of beauty. At the center are Barb and Lily, two women at opposite ends of the beauty spectrum, but with the same problem: each fears she will never find a love that can overcome her looks. Barb, a stunningly beautiful costume designer, makes herself ugly in hopes of finding true love. Meanwhile, her friend Lily, a brilliantly talented but plainlooking musician, goes to fantastic lengths to attract the man who has rejected herwith results that are as touching as they are transformative.To complicate matters, Barb and Lily discover they may have a murderer in their midst, that Barb's calm disposition is more dangerously provocative than her beauty ever was, and that Lily's musical talents are more powerful than anyone could have imagined. Part literary whodunit, part surrealist farce, The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty serves as a smart, modernday fairy tale. With biting wit and offbeat charm, Filipacchi illuminates the labyrinthine relationship between beauty, desire, and identity, asking at every turn: what does it truly mean to allow oneself to be seen?Filipacchis book [has] a philosophical heft and prods us to examine our own prejudices. Funny, surreal, absurd, and charmingly preposterous. Filipacchis characters never question the weirdness around them but meet it with a delightful, practical ingenuity. The New York Times Book Review [A] sure comic touch... smart and sweet... a tribute to the pleasures of friendship.' The New YorkerReaders, who'd like to spend a little time at the corner where a brisker Haruki Murakami meets a drier 30 Rock would do well to seek out Filipacchis radiantly intelligent and very funny novel. San Francisco ChronicleA magical and comedic take on modern love, the power of friendship, and the allure of disguise.In the heart of New York City, a group of artistic friends struggles with society's standards of beauty. At the center are Barb and Lily, two women at opposite ends of the beauty spectrum, but with the same problem: each fears she will never find a love that can overcome her looks. Barb, a stunningly beautiful costume designer, makes herself ugly in hopes of finding true love. Meanwhile, her friend Lily, a brilliantly talented but plainlooking musician, goes to fantastic lengths to attract the man who has rejected herwith results that are as touching as they are transformative. To complicate matters, Barb and Lily discover that they may have a murderer in their midst, that Barbs calm disposition is more dangerously provocative than her beauty ever was, and that Lily's musical talents are more powerful than anyone could have imagined. Part literary whodunit, part surrealist farce, The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty serves as a smart, modernday fairy tale. With biting wit and offbeat charm, Amanda Filipacchi illuminates the labyrinthine relationship between beauty, desire, and identity, asking at every turn: what does it truly mean to allow oneself to be seen?