cover image Lift: Wanting, Fearing, and Having a Face-Lift

Lift: Wanting, Fearing, and Having a Face-Lift

Joan Kron. Viking Books, $23.95 (264pp) ISBN 978-0-670-87060-8

""I had hoped that a face-lift would make me recognizable to myself again and lift my spirits. And it did. It also gave me something I hadn't bargained for--a new career--or, more precisely, a new niche in my old career."" A seventy-something veteran of two face-lifts, Kron (Home Psych) has written a highly informative guide for men and women considering whether to ""prune the tree--stop the skin, fat, and muscle from heading south."" Kron offers sound practical advice on how to find ""Dr. Right,"" choose types of anesthetic and navigate the hospital, as well as emotional guidance on how to decide if one is really ready for a lift, dealing with disapproving family and friends and coping with the post-op carnage. She paints a full picture, incorporating a limited historical and sociological overview of aesthetic surgery, interviews with noted plastic surgeons, sociological studies and, most compellingly, her own experiences under the knife. However, Kron, who covers plastic surgery for Allure, clings to a largely positive and uncritical stance that may not convince a skeptical audience, failing as it does to challenge the reasoning that youth and beauty are essential to happiness and success. Author tour. (Nov.)