Look At Me has been described as the wild older sister of Jennifer Egan's acclaimed novel A Visit From The Goon Squad. Written ten years before Goon Squad, Look At Me is a very interesting and at times almost brutal novel about two women named Charlotte: one a 16 year old starved for love and the other, the main character, a successful fashion model who has a disfiguring car crash and ends up with an acceptable but completely different face, rendering her "invisible" and in search of her future and identity. The older Charlotte is not a very simpathetic character, but she is a fascinating one. There are links between the two Charlottes, both through history (the 16 year old is the daughter of her long-lost best friend in high school) and theme (both are searching for identity and love). The portrait of Rust Belt decline in Rockford, Illinois (the Charlottes' hometowns) rings true and is an appropriate metaphor for the decline of several characters in the novel. You can decide whether the ending delivers the novel's potential, but all in all, it's a strong and riveting story.
For a review of the novel from The Independent, click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/16/jennifger-egan-look-at-me
For a review of the novel from The Independent, click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/oct/16/jennifger-egan-look-at-me
