Thing of Beauty

Stephen Fried

Dec 2011 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

At age seventeen, Gia Carangi was working the counter at her father's Philadelphia luncheonette, Hoagie City. Within a year, Gia was one of the top models of the late 1970's, gracing the covers of Cosmopolitan and Vogue, partying at New York's Studio 54 and the Mudd Club, and redefining the industry's standard of beauty. She was the darling of moguls and movie stars, royalty and rockers. Gia was also a girl in pain, desperate for her mother's approval—and a drug addict on a tragic slide toward oblivion, who started going directly from $10,000-a-day fashion shoots to the heroin shooting galleries on New York's Lower East Side. Finally blackballed from modeling, Gia entered a vastly different world on the streets of New york and Atlantic City, and later in a rehab clinic. At twenty-six, she became on of the first women in America to die of AIDS, a hospital welfare case visited only by rehab friends and what remained of her family.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews with Gia's gamily, lovers, friends, and colleagues, Thing of Beauty creates a poignant portrait of an unforgettable character—and a powerful narrative about beauty and sexuality, fame and objectification, mothers and daughters, love and death.

Ratings and reviews

Revealing and riveting; the true story of Gia, especially the desertion of Sandy Linter, so called industry friends, shallow and superficial, bar Francesco Scullvillo. The selfishness of the mother, her nightmare life as a vagrant. The rapist, pimp and adulterer Rochelle - Evelyn Golden, with the clinic wondering if the friendship was genuine on her part. Another user. A testimonial to serious depression and how heroin resolves it, but is impossible to keep up, regardless of careers kept on track.

Thing of Beauty, is a great read. if you are a interested in the model Gia Carangi then you should definitely read this book. Also I just ordered another book about Gia Carangi and the name is Born This Way: Friends, Colleagues, and Coworkers Recall Gia Carangi, the Supermodel Who Defined An Era by Sacha Lanvin Baumann is another good read to get a better picture of who this beautiful young woman was. So I hope you enjoy reading these books.

Just after reading the sample there just seems to be too much irrelevant information. So a bit boring which is a shame because i was expecting so much more substance .

About the author

Stephen Fried is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author who teaches at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Rush, Appetite for America, Thing of Beauty, Bitter Pills, and The New Rabbi, and coauthor of A Common Struggle and Profiles in Mental Health Courage. A two-time winner of the National Magazine Award, Fried has written frequently for Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour, and Philadelphia. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, author Diane Ayres. Find out more at StephenFried.com.