In Pursuit of Beauty - by Gary Baum (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER

From the mind of acclaimed reporter Gary Baum comes In Pursuit of Beauty, a striking debut novel that examines the nature of truth and allure in our modern world.

What would you endure to fulfill your dreams?

What would you do to have the perfect body?

For Dr. Roya Delshad, the answers are anything and everything. A sought-after Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, Roya is also the highest example of her craft. She's had every inch of her own body sculpted, one procedure at a time. All to escape a painful and lonely past.

But when Roya gives the gift of beauty to those who can't afford the cost, the media labels her "the Robin Hood of Roxbury Drive," and she soon finds herself pleading her case from inside a prison cell.

Hoping to resurrect her reputation and obscure a trail of unhappy clients, Roya tells her story with the help of the blithely handsome Wes Easton, a journalist and failed screenwriter who agrees to ghostwrite her memoir. In a twistingly tense pas de deux, Wes struggles to tell fact from fiction, and Roya seeks to explode his notions about aspiration and desire, sending their collaboration off the rails.

A bold, stylish, and provocative thriller about surfaces and their hidden depths, In Pursuit of Beauty explores what it means to become exactly who you once yearned to be.

Review Quotes

"In Pursuit of Beauty is the kind of beach read that stays with you long after you've turned the final page...Baum's prose is sharp....and the story goes down easy."

-- "Glamour"

"In Baum's In Pursuit of Beauty, we see surface-obsessed La-La Land both from above and below...Buckle up for a two-track ride through vanity fair in America's vainest city."

-- "Daniel H. Turtel, acclaimed author of The Family Morfawitz and Greetings from Asbury Park"

"While In Pursuit of Beauty reads like a spicy thriller with sharp and charged dialogue à la Double Indemnity, the novel delves beneath the surface of modern culture and examines what it means to be (and desperately yearn to be), well, hot."

-- "Los Angeles Daily News"

"A Hollywood Reporter journalist known for his dishy investigative pieces has penned a novel about a top Beverly Hills plastic surgeon on a controversial crusade."

-- "New York Post"

"Baum has created an intriguing commentary on beauty standards and the risks we take to achieve them. His background in journalism is evident in the story, and the rapid-fire interviewing between the two characters feels authentic...Fans of Jessie Gaynor's The Glow will appreciate Baum's take on the topic."

-- "Booklist"

"It's about time someone wrote a literary study of hotness (and its discontents)! Baum wields the insights wrested from his years reporting in the Hollywood trenches with devastating accuracy in this revelatory romp."

-- "Jade Chang, bestselling author of The Wangs vs. the World and What a Time to Be Alive"

"More than a deliciously juicy read--which it absolutely is--In Pursuit of Beauty is a crash course in the techniques, thrills, deceptions, and cat-and-mouse games of investigative reporting from a master of the craft. At stake in this novel, as in journalism itself, is nothing less than the knowability of truth."

-- "Julian Sancton, New York Times bestselling author of Madhouse at the End of the Earth"

"What a debut! So complete and clear is Baum's understanding of the journalistic mind, its strategies, paranoias, and empathies, In Pursuit of Beauty could just as accurately be called In Pursuit of the Story--and that's one hell of a pursuit, for as Baum puts it (perfectly), 'Journalism's a rude business, even in its finest hours, when it's slaying dragons.'"

-- "Sam Wasson, bestselling author of The Big Goodbye and The Path to Paradise"

"In Pursuit of Beauty is a razor-sharp, emotionally rich story about identity, belonging, and the price to be paid for reinvention. With surgical precision, Baum dissects our modern culture and serves up a darkly funny and provocative meditation on ambition, appearance, and what it means to remake yourself from the outside in. I loved it."

-- "Scott C. Johnson, author of The Con Queen of Hollywood and The Wolf and the Watchman"

"In Pursuit of Beauty is part medical noir, part sociological confection, all giddy pleasure. The book just zips along. Its writer, Gary Baum, a journalist for The Hollywood Reporter, understands LA--and the neuroses of the people who live there--in a bone-deep way. This is one queasy and kinky delight."

-- "Lili Anolik, bestselling author of Didion & Babitz and Hollywood's Eve"