Beauty

Pygmalion, Dorian Gray and Frankenstein find a snappy new milieu in this ambitious first novel, which explores art, celebrity and the cult of physical beauty in present-day New York's downtown scene. Rising art-world star Jamie Amato works clandestinely in a very controversial medium--human flesh. With some scientist buddies from his days at Yale, Jamie has developed a radical form of cosmetic surgery. Harnessing his aesthetic sensibility and his mastery of painting technique, he creates new faces for celebrities and the very wealthy, stripping away unsightly tissue and replacing it with an artificial skin first used on burn victims. Initially this process is merely restorative, but as his skill and ambition increase Jamie becomes obsessed with creating the ultimate beauty. His girlfriend, Jaishree, a frustrated performance artist, becomes the clay for his masterpiece. D'Amato writes with aplomb, developing a first-person narrative--in Jamie's increasingly neurotic voice--that maintains credibility throughout. There are some uneasy shifts between lofty theoretical discussion and the argot of downtown--phrases like ``megally beat''--and the theorizing itself sometimes waxes sophomoric. The frequent invocation of pop-culture icons and actual figures from the art world also becomes a bit tiresome and blunts the novel's satirical edge. Still, this literate, postmodern grab bag of weird insights and compelling themes marks an auspicious debut. (Oct.)