The Glow
'Jane Austen on steroids' (Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours)
-
- £2.99
-
- £2.99
Publisher Description
Inner peace
Glowing skin
The perfect body
How far would you go?
Jane Dorner has two modes:
PR Jane is twenty-five, breezy, clever in a non-threatening way and eager to sell you a feminist vibrator.
Actual Jane is twenty-nine, drifting through mediocre workdays and lackluster dates while paralysed by her crushing mountain of overdue bills.
Enter the impossibly gorgeous Cass, whom Jane discovers scrolling through Instagram - proprietor of a 'wellness retreat' based out of a ramshackle country house that may or may not be giving off cult vibes. Suddenly Jane realizes she might have found the one ladder she can climb.
But inner peace, shiny hair and glowing skin always comes at a price . . .
________
'Jane Austen on steroids. It's that sharp, that wicked, that laceratingly true' Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours
'Money, influence, and perfect skin do not always make for good chemistry' Elle
'A welcome dose of satire for anyone who's been duped by yoni eggs, vagina scented candles, or TikTok tarot readers' i-D
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gaynor, a senior editor at LitHub, debuts with a witty send-up of wellness culture and the perils of transforming people into brands. Jane, a 29-year-old PR manager, is losing her enthusiasm for pitching ridiculous products. She's also recently been dumped, and a six-figure medical bill from a bout of appendicitis adds to her existential spiral. Desperate for something to sell, she stumbles on an Instagram account for a weekend retreat called FortPath, led by an enigmatic and gorgeous woman named Cass. Held at a dilapidated farmhouse in New Jersey, FortPath is about what one would expect: the kind of place where people "spoke frankly about their bowels" and engage in (literally) masturbatory meditation sessions. But Cass is a magnetic presence, and everyone there buys what she sells—including her husband, Tom. Jane is a bit more skeptical, but, having been let go from her day job, she sees Cass as "a golden goose" and sets out to turn her into a star. Though the narrative idles a bit too much in exposition and backstory mode, there's an amusing story in here about the pitfalls of idol worship. With pithy and poignant observations about the costs of treating people like products, Gaynor makes this shine.
