Beauty

Obsessed with beauty, Jamie D'Angelo is an emerging New York artist whose true metier–reconstructing the human face–must be practiced secretly, since his advanced procedure has not been medically approved. With his expensive lifestyle supported by wealthy clients, Jamie longs to create a face of ultimate beauty. But when he finally fulfills his wish, the experiment backfires with hideous consequences. First novelist D'Amato, an artist himself, deftly captures society's preoccupation with youth and beauty. "Facial beauty is kind of a controlling metaphor for everything our society wants," declares Jamie, and in this deranged, arrogant character, the author stretches the compulsion to its darkest extreme. Trendiness aside, Beauty is a fascinating and memorable parable of artistic creation.