***SPOILER ALERT***This novel recounts the trials of a child star and former junior beauty queen and her struggle to live a normal life. Along the way it pokes fun at the beauty pageant fast food, car driving North American culture. The main character is raised by a woman who wants her to be a beauty queen and starts entering her in contests when she is very small. The treatment of these child...
more ***SPOILER ALERT***This novel recounts the trials of a child star and former junior beauty queen and her struggle to live a normal life. Along the way it pokes fun at the beauty pageant fast food, car driving North American culture. The main character is raised by a woman who wants her to be a beauty queen and starts entering her in contests when she is very small. The treatment of these child beauty queens is very dismal and they develop these monstrous personalities. The family moves to sparsely populated Wyoming so the girl will have a better chance as a teenager in national contests. The child is ultimately not successful enough for her mother but does land a job on a sitcom and affairs some national notoriety. After her television career is over in her early twenties she struggles along but then a break opens. She walks away as the only survivor from a jetliner crash in the Midwest. She is presumed dead and hides out for a year with a former beauty pageant judge giving birth to his child in the interim. She leaves him at returns to Los Angeles where she meets a fellow celebrity retread. The book climaxes with the mother kidnapping the child to repeat the beauty queen saga. Coupland is a younger Tom Robbins putting out big counter culture ideas in a humourous, enjoyable read.
hide
Yes (0) 
No (0) 
