The Flawless Skin of Ugly People: A Novel

The Flawless Skin of Ugly People: A Novel
by Doug Crandell

The Flawless Skin of Ugly People: A Novel
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Book Summary Information

Author: Doug Crandell
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-18
ISBN: 0753512998
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Virgin Books

Book Reviews of The Flawless Skin of Ugly People: A Novel

Book Review: Unflinchingly Ugly
Summary: 5 Stars

The Flawless Skin of Ugly People is a most unusual tale of love and family. Hobbie has lived with grotesque facial acne since he was a teen. His common-law wife, Kari, is grossly overweight and has shut herself in a fat farm, decreeing that he is to have no contact with her beyond the daily letters she sends him.

The harder he tries to be alone, however, the more his life seems to trip him up, and soon he's off trying to find Kari in the company of a new makeshift family: his father-in-law Roth, Roth's ex-wife Sally, and Sally's (ex-?)boyfriend Donny.

There are parts of this book that make it quite difficult to read. Hobbie's stress-relieving `facial' is nothing short of grotesque, and the molestation that scars his and Kari's teenage years is depicted starkly and unflinchingly. There's something uplifting, however, about seeing such messed-up and normal people work their way through difficulties and become stronger for it. There are no falsely beautiful people in here, either inside OR out--just real people, going through real things and trying to find real compromises and answers.

Summary of The Flawless Skin of Ugly People: A Novel

Thanks to Ugly Betty, America is finally ready to read a love story about a couple who isn't sleek, slick, tucked, pulled, or plastic.
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Do we have to be beautiful to be loved? ?Hobbie-this novel's darkly romantic hero-has been banished to homely man exile in the North Georgia Mountains, where his enemies are mirrors and bears.? Things are not going well for Hobbie. ?His skin? ?Pizza Face, super-sized, with extra pepperoni and pitted olives. ?Job status? ?Former bank teller. ?Love life? ?His common-law wife Kari has gone AWOL at a weight-loss clinic in North Carolina.
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But just as it seems Hobbie is doomed to go through life as a sweet, self-pitying "anonymous joke," he jumps out of his skin and becomes downright heroic.
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Can Hobbie rescue Kari from the weight-loss clinic? ?Can he pull his fractured family together? ?Plastic surgery-will he or won't he? Will love endure if Hobbie's skin clears up, Kari drops pounds, and ugly people become flawless? Readers won't be able to put the book down until they find out.

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