No Filter: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful

Model, actor, and writer Porizkova (A Model Summer) shares her thoughts on beauty culture, the end of her marriage, and honesty online in this solid collection of memoir-driven essays. Much like her social media presence, the writing is simple to a fault but disarmingly honest. Porizkova’s scene setting is consistently vibrant enough to draw readers in, though the notes she hits can become repetitive. She describes everything from growing up as a poor Czech refugee in Sweden and her habit of reading palms as a young model in Paris to secretly dating (and later divorcing) Ric Ocasek, lead singer of the Cars. Some of the insights—especially those about social media, the beauty industry, and the fetishization of youth—are sharp, crystallized by more than four decades in the spotlight. One particularly interesting essay, “Nude, Not Naked,” delivers a striking treatise on feeling free vs. feeling exploited while posing nude; here, Porizkova delineates the nuances of choice and power in a nude photo shoot in a way that few others could. Other insights, such as the idea expressed in the essay “Childhood” that women marry men like their fathers and men marry women like their mothers, are more banal. Fans of Porizkova’s work will enjoy this glimpse into her life, but ultimately little sets it apart from other celebrity memoirs in the same lane. Agent: Marly Rusoff, Marly Rusoff Literary Agency. (Nov.)