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Living Section of the San Bernardino SUN June 6, 2004 Issue 
The Botox Diaries By Janice Kaplan and Lynn Schnurnberger Ballantine Books, 2004 
Middle-Age Worries It is the title that caught my attention. Botox seems to have become ubiquitous. Is there a magazine today where that word is not mentioned at least once? Is botox replacing collagen as the panacea for aging? The new book, "The Botox Diaries" by Janice Kaplan and Lynn Schnurnberger is just the latest addition to a very popular topic and genre today, I call reality fiction. It is similar in style to the best selling "The Devil Wears Prada" (reviewed 5/25/03). It depicts a slice of Americana in most realistic if prosaic terms utilizing the current jargon, activities and lifestyle of the chosen group. Much of the book consists of trendy dialogue and thought. There is no introspection or analysis of feelings and thoughts or descriptions of nature and surroundings unless it is a mention of something trendy - Manolo Blahnik shoes, Mies van der Rohe chairs, designer clothing, tony stores and restaurants. Books like this are very cinematic and have much more in common with a television show than with literature. Yet, they are great fun to read. And I firmly believe that some day, many moons from now, they will be used as textbooks for studying American social and cultural history at the beginning of the 21st century. With all their faults and lack of literary quality, they manage to capture the ethos of the times. "The Botox Diaries" is about the life of two forty-one year old New York women in the early 2000s. Jessica is the narrator. She is a wholesome single mom working from home as the fundraiser for the Arts Council for Kids which raises money to teach music, art and the literary arts to children in economically depressed schools. She has been divorced from the mysterious Frenchman Jacques for ten years. Because he was too controlling? Did not want children? Or because of his philandering ways? Her best friend in New York suburbia is Lucy, who in the 1980s would have been called a supermom and a yuppie. But remember, this is the early 2000s. The dynamics of family and working moms have changed. Lucy is a mega - bucks TV producer. She is also happily married with a husband who helps take care of their three children while she jets around the country producing TV things. A 21st century supermom is no longer a woman who juggles career and family and has it all. Rather, it is a stay-at-home mom dressed in J. Crew khakis whose primary concern is her kids' development - the best music and dance lessons, organic food, protection from reality. Otherwise Jesse and Lucy's lives are as ordinary as every one else's in that social set. They talk on the phone sharing imaginary crisis in their lives. They worry about loosing their youthful looks as they enter middle age. They arrange play dates for their children, go to school visits, PTA meetings, lunch and shopping. Nothing much happens, life flows and time overtakes them as it does all of us. And then things start to heat up. Lucy begins an affair with a semi-famous TV game show host from LA. Does she feel unfulfilled in spite of having it all? Is she yearning for something intangible? Nothing so deep - Lucy may be going through the type of midlife crisis that touches everyone at some point. The affair is only a diversion, an entertaining fling. Unwillingly, Jesse becomes her friend's cover-up. LA lover-boy and Lucy take Jess to a Willie Nelson concert and a post-concert private party. They take her to Le Retreat, the ultimate romantic resort in Puerto Vallarta where they have tantric sex, reflexology and a myriad of other trendy stress-reducing treatments. Of course Jesse disapproves and begs Lucy not to destroy her family. But Lucy does not heed the warnings. She is so taken with her own life that she has very little time to think about the big event in her friend's life. After a ten-year absence Jacques reappears and tries to warm his way into Jesse's heart again with that stereotypically French approach to love. Fundraising is a difficult job. But Jess lucks out. A group of rich Park Avenue moms form a committee for the Arts Council for Kids to produce a benefit musical with poor and rich kids participating side by side. A thousand dollars for a ticket! Ten thousand dollars for pre-performance dinner with the kids! There is something very depressing about "The Botox Diaries" and it is not the plain and sometimes even terrible writing. It is the weak characters and lack of principles and social consciousness of the real-life people who fill the book's pages. It makes us wonder if indeed the majority of us are as shallow and empty headed as are the characters in the book. Ophelia Georgiev Roop Library Director San Bernardino Public Library |
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