Everything About Me Is Fake...And I'm Perfect

May 1, 2004
Supermodel Dickinson does not waste time sugarcoating her addictive quest for physical perfection--or"perfliction," as she dubs it--in this collection of pithy biographical anecdotes and advice. In blunt, riotous prose, she confesses how utterly unattainable this perfect image is by"ripping off the designer clothes, washing off the makeup, letting the rest of the mascara run, and stripping away all the layers that created my life as a photo shoot." While it may be difficult to swallow this lesson in un-perfection from a supermodel, Dickinson refreshingly steers clear of feel-good platitudes. Instead, as in her last memoir, No Lifeguard on Duty, she deliciously dishes on everyone from former lovers Mick Jagger and Sly Stallone, to fellow supermodels Christie Brinkley and Iman, and finally, her-superficial-self. Although ostensibly sensitive to the devastating pressures young women--and girls, including her 10-year-old daughter--face for beauty, she recounts her past debaucheries with little regret. Looking back on the sex-crazed, drug-addled days at the height of her career, Dickinson muses,"Nowadays, all that delicious, reckless self-indulgence has been replaced by the glaze of real life. Am I happier now? Maybe, maybe not." And she's never coy about her endless pursuit for the ultimate body:"I will go to any extent to suffer for beauty. That's just who I am." This includes plastic surgery, Botox, obsessive exercise and even putting on false eyelashes, one at a time. Despite (or perhaps because of) her completely uncensored mouth, Dickinson comes off as likeable and, ironically, very real. 16 color and b&w photos.