A Model Summer

This weekend I ready A MOdel Summer by Paulina Prokzkova. First off, this was the book of the month for my Book Club. We'll be discussing it Tuesday night. I am curious to see how the discussion goes. The author was a model, formerly the face of Estee Lauder. In this book she gives us a fictional account of breaking into modeling in the 1980's, which cannot be much different than it is now. If anything, it is probably worse now than it was then as society continues to become more accepting of this lifesyle rather than less. This is the story of Jirina, a 15 year old gil from Sweden. She spent 15 years in Sweden being made fun of as the "ugly imigrant cow" as her parents were Czech. Apparnelty the little Swedes didn't like her much. She is found and travels to Paris for the summer to become a model. The story details her exploits. She starts off with the best of intentions, reading Kafka and exploring the culture of Paris. It does not take long for her to join the true underbelly of Model Society- getting introduced to sex, drugs, and rock and roll. If analyzed the story has lots of moral undertones and leaves the reader wiht many good questions and introspection. However, I felt it was a bit trashy, and too full of sex and drugs. It saddened me to see the changes in Jirina and the encouragement she recieved from the modeling industry.