The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty: A Novel

Amanda Filipacchi

Feb 2015 · W. W. Norton & Company

About this ebook

"A sure comic touch . . . smart and sweet . . . a tribute to the pleasures of friendship." —The New Yorker

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 plain-looking musician, goes to fantastic lengths to attract the man who has rejected her—with 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 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 is a smart, modern-day 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?

Ratings and reviews

I read a blurb about this novel in the New Yorker's Briefly Noted section, and the premise sounded amusing. Ahhhh....New Yorker, I trusted you! If the free sample doesn't appeal to you, believe me...it never gets better. The writing is cardboard all the way through, it's full of cliches, and the characters are two dimensional. The Google description says it's a 'surrealist farce,' but that's just a cover up for really, really bad writing. Sorry, Amanda Filipacchi, but this book is just...flat. Maybe try writing it as a screenplay?

All the issues in those book seem extreme yet honestly plausible, the surrealism of it adds a bit of intrigue, but the end is a little anticlimactic, so be prepared.

Ending was alittle disappointed because I didn't want it to end just yet. But over all it's a good book.

About the author

Amanda Filipacchi is the author of three previous novels, Nude Men, Vapor, and, most recently, Love Creeps. Her writing has appeared in Best American Humor and elsewhere. She lives in New York City.