Thing of Beauty
Dec 2011 · Simon and Schuster
4.5star
67 reviewsreport
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432
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About this eBook
The inspiration behind the Emmy Award–winning HBO film Gia with Angelina Jolie, this “vivid…exhaustive” (The New York Times Book Review) account of the iconic and tragic life, career, and legacy of supermodel Gia Carangi features a new afterword by the author.
At seventeen, Gia Carangi was working the counter at her father’s Philadelphia luncheonette. Within a year, she was one of the world’s top models, gracing the covers of Cosmopolitan and Vogue, partying at Studio 54, and redefining the fashion industry’s standard of beauty.
But behind the glitz and fame, Gia was a young woman in pain, desperate for her mother’s approval and facing a drug addiction that quickly spun out of control. With dizzying speed, she went from $10,000-a-day fashion shoots to using drugs on the streets of New York and Atlantic City before finally being blackballed from modeling. At twenty-six, Gia once again made history as one of the first famous women to die of AIDS.
This “chilling tale” (The Boston Globe), based on hundreds of interviews with friends, family, lovers, and fashionistas (the term author Stephen Fried coined for her industry colleagues), is comprehensively explored in this unputdownable biography that will introduce Gia to a new generation. It is also a powerful exploration of our society’s views of beauty and sexuality, fame and objectification, mothers and daughters, love and death.
At seventeen, Gia Carangi was working the counter at her father’s Philadelphia luncheonette. Within a year, she was one of the world’s top models, gracing the covers of Cosmopolitan and Vogue, partying at Studio 54, and redefining the fashion industry’s standard of beauty.
But behind the glitz and fame, Gia was a young woman in pain, desperate for her mother’s approval and facing a drug addiction that quickly spun out of control. With dizzying speed, she went from $10,000-a-day fashion shoots to using drugs on the streets of New York and Atlantic City before finally being blackballed from modeling. At twenty-six, Gia once again made history as one of the first famous women to die of AIDS.
This “chilling tale” (The Boston Globe), based on hundreds of interviews with friends, family, lovers, and fashionistas (the term author Stephen Fried coined for her industry colleagues), is comprehensively explored in this unputdownable biography that will introduce Gia to a new generation. It is also a powerful exploration of our society’s views of beauty and sexuality, fame and objectification, mothers and daughters, love and death.
Ratings and reviews
4.5
67 reviews
Danaka Jedd
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8 July 2016
Thing of Beauty, is a great read. if you are a interested in the model Gia Carangi then you should definitely read this book. Also I just ordered another book about Gia Carangi and the name is Born This Way: Friends, Colleagues, and Coworkers Recall Gia Carangi, the Supermodel Who Defined An Era by Sacha Lanvin Baumann is another good read to get a better picture of who this beautiful young woman was. So I hope you enjoy reading these books.
5 people found this review helpful
A Google user
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9 March 2012
I read this book years ago like 2 or 3 times. It was sad to see that her mom did not have her back like she wanted her to. If she had a real friend that had time for her,maybe she would have been alive today. What would the modeling world have been like if she had not died? The movie was great, but it could have been a little more better.
Love2shop
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22 May 2015
Just after reading the sample there just seems to be too much irrelevant information. So a bit boring which is a shame because i was expecting so much more substance .
1 person found this review helpful
About the author
Stephen Fried is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author who teaches at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Rush, Appetite for America, Thing of Beauty, Bitter Pills, and The New Rabbi, and coauthor of A Common Struggle and Profiles in Mental Health Courage. A two-time winner of the National Magazine Award, Fried has written frequently for Vanity Fair, GQ, Glamour, and Philadelphia. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, author Diane Ayres. Find out more at StephenFried.com.
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