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Look at Me
First published 2001 · 528 pages
An eerie, symphonic exploration of identity and alienation in a world where surface and reality are indistinguishable.
What it feels like
This ambitious and symphonic novel offers an unsettling, intelligent dive into the fragile nature of human identity. The reading experience is both eerie and spellbinding, wrapping the reader in a surreal atmosphere where image and reality blur into one another. Driven by dazzling, graceful prose, the narrative weaves together themes of alienation, the obsession with surfaces, and the profound difficulty of cultivating an inner life in a commodified world. It moves at a steady, deliberate pace toward a haunting convergence, maintaining a tone that is simultaneously a sharp satire of image culture and a deeply psychological mystery. It will delight readers who seek intellectually rigorous fiction that challenges the very meaning of truth and reality.
- Mood
- eerie
- alienated
- surreal
- reflective
- Tone
- satirical
- intelligent
- unsettling
- graceful
- ambitious
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- the illusion of identity · surface versus reality · alienation and invisibility · the commodification of self · image culture
- The writing
- Dazzling and symphonic, written with powerful intelligence and grace that weaves a spellbinding narrative.
- The arc
- Moves from a disorienting loss of self toward an eerie and unsettling confrontation with the nature of reality and image.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave ambitious, psychologically complex fiction that critiques modern image culture and explores the fragile nature of identity.
Content notes
- traffic accident trauma
- mental instability
- inappropriate teacher-student relationship
- alienation
About the book
In her first novel since her widely praised debut, The Invisible Circus, Jennifer Egan demonstrates once again her virtuosity at weaving a spellbinding story with language that dazzles. In this boldly ambitious and symphonic novel, she captures the tenor of our times and offers an unsettling glimpse of the future.Fashion model Charlotte Swenson returns to Manhattan, having just recovered from a catastrophic car accident in her hometown of Rockford, Illinois. The skin of her face is perfect, but behind it lie eighty titanium screws that hold together the bones that were shattered when she hit the unbreakable windscreen of her car.Unrecognizable to her peers and colleagues, Charlotte finds it impossible to resume her former life. Instead, she floats invisibly through a world of fashion nightclubs and edgy Internet projects, where image and reality are indistinguishable.During her recovery in Rockford, she had met another Charlotte, the plain-looking teenage daughter of her former best friend. Young Charlotte, alienated from parents and friends, has come under the sway of two men: her uncle, a mentally unstable scholar of the Industrial Revolution, and an enigmatic high school teacher whom she seduces.In following these tales to their eerie convergence, Look at Me is both a send-up of image culture in America and a mystery of human identity. Egan illuminates the difficulties of shaping an inner life in a culture obsessed with surfaces and asks whether "truth" can have any meaning in an era when reality itself has become a style. Written with powerful intelligence and grace, Look at Me clearly establishes Jennifer Egan as one of the most daring and gifted novelists of her generation.From the Hardcover edition.
Description from Open Library.
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