Colors Insulting to Nature: A Novel - Softcover

Wilson, Cintra

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007154577 ISBN 13: 9780007154579

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2005

Synopsis

Like any healthy, red-blooded American, young Liza Normal wants to be famous. Like "people will see me and cry" famous. She lacks only talent. . . . Colors Insulting to Nature is a scaldingly hilarious coming-of-age novel, savage on the exterior but with a heart as tender as a marshmallow chick. It is a remarkable comic debut.

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

About this title

Review:

Authors who write about the entertainment industry often extend promises of wit and edginess to attract an audience. Colors Insulting to Nature, by Salon columnist Cintra Wilson, delivers these qualities because it enters the fray not with a forgettably likeable protagonist predestined for a happy ending, but with an axe to grind. The object of Wilson's loathing is the "ego-porn" Hollywood that turns out formulaic story lines, making hapless, mediocre talents believe that their dreams of fame can somehow come true.

The central mediocre talent in this book is Liza Normal, who first appears in the story as an adolescent auditioning for a spot in a commercial. Imagine the child version of the Bette Midler character in Beaches and you're about halfway to understanding the tragic gaudiness of Liza's persona--though of course she is a sweet girl underneath it all. The novel follows Liza into adulthood, bringing other vividly drawn characters, including her shut-in brother, Ned, her narcissistic, alcoholic mother, Peppy, and a sadomasochistic dwarf named DelVonn along for the ride. Liza's cringingly funny attempts to win fame as an actress-singer never stop--and neither does Wilson's railing against the logic-corrupting, "ultimately demoralizing" messages from film and television that Liza has ingested from infancy. Will our heroine ever turn her life around and figure out that The Media made her do it? Will Wilson succeed in breaking free of formulas, or end up undercutting her own message with a fairy-tale ending? Readers who are drawn to darker comedies will enjoy finding the answers, and find this novel impossible to put down. --Leah Weathersby

About the Author:

Cintra Wilson is a pop culture pundit whose column for Salon.com and collection of essays, A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Re-Examined as a Grotesque Crippling Disease, have garnered her a cult following. An award-winning playwright and screenwriter, she has seen her work produced by Tim Robbins's Actor's Gang theater company in Los Angeles, Naked Angels in New York, and MTV, where her creation Winter Steele was a long-running segment of Liquid Television. She lives in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0007154577
• ISBN 13: 9780007154579
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 350