false 34386630 1060805 3218147 0307268284 9780307268280 73 <![CDATA[How Perfect Is That]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3218147.How_Perfect_Is_That 3.13 183 Blythe Young—a wannabe Texas princess, a heroine as plucky, driven, and desperate as Vanity Fair’s Becky Sharp—is plummeting precipitously from up- to downstairs, banging her head on every step of the Austin social ladder as she falls. Not unlike the country as a whole, Blythe has surrendered to a multitude of dubious moral choices and is now facing the disastrous consequences: bankruptcy, public humiliation, a teensy fondness for the pharmaceuticals, and no Pap smear for ten years. But worst of all, she is forced to move back into the fleabag co-op boardinghouse where she lived when she was a student at the University of Texas.

Though Blythe cares much more about the ravaged state of her nails, and how to get the ingredients for Code Warrior—Blythe’s proprietary blend of Stoli, Ativan, and Red Bull that keeps everything in focus—her soul is hanging in the balance. Only when she is in danger of losing the one friend who’s been her true moral center is she ready to face her sins and make amends.

And her penance is merciless: she must find a way to lure her former socialite friends into the tofu tenement she has been reduced to. Little does Blythe know that the ensuing collision between the pierced, tattooed, and dreadlocked inhabitants and the pampered, Kir-sipping socialites offers the only hope of finding a way out of her moral quagmire.

Funny, fast-paced, sharp-eyed, an old-fashioned morality tale with an appropriately twenty-first-century ending, How Perfect Is That is a comic triumph of a novel.

]]> 191417 3.59 1072 241 2008 0 2008-12-04T09:37:31-08:00 148833 195 2008-12-04T09:37:31-08:00 0 2008-12-03T09:39:59-08:00 145843 157 2008-12-03T09:39:59-08:00 0 2008-12-02T09:56:18-08:00 143024 94 2008-12-02T09:56:18-08:00 0 2008-12-01T13:15:24-08:00 140532 35 2008-12-01T13:15:24-08:00 3 0 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Oct 02 14:31:15 -0700 2008 Mon Dec 08 09:28:38 -0800 2008
The protagonist is indeed difficult to relate to, but that was the whole point of the novel. It was a parody of a certai...more...]]>