A Model Summer

by Paulina Porizkova

Book Overview

An incisive, beautifully written first novel by a former supermodel that explores the glamorous and gritty world she inhabited Only a handful of women in the world have experienced what Paulina... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1401303269
• ISBN13: 9781401303266
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Hachette Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Completely true to life and well written.

I was on my first magazine cover in Paris at 16 and everything Paulina writes is EXACTLY what goes on over there. The drugs, playboys, clubs, fast cars and broken little girls who are thrust in the middle of so much decadence and lust. Its a wonderful book that shocked me with its attention to detail and its warmth, compassion, and humor. Paulina is a smart wrtier and a very deep person. BRAVA! Buy this book. Buy 2 and give to your best friend. No other book explains how modeling really is. I left modeling at 19 to have a normal life and never regretted it but people still think I was crazy to give up that "easy money" Now I can say--read this book--modelling is a ugly business!

who knew she was such a good writer!

This is an excellent book, one you won't be able to put down once you start. I expected to be reading a somewhat simple memoir when I bought this book, an easy beach read. Instead I found a compelling story about what it's really like to be a model, and how difficult it is for some of them. If you liked Memoirs of a Geisha, you will love this book too.

Couldn't Put Down. "Bravo!"

"From school grounds to wedding gowns"- Jirina, just fifteen, has to grow up quickly to meet the demands of the illusive fashion world. But is she ready for it? Fast and furious, Jirina has to navigate through foreign cities, sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, flashing cameras and much more. You find Jirina dashing off to go-and-sees and into trouble....but with a soft spot in your heart-you want her dreams to come true! Told with a brave vulnerability; Porizkova succeeded in writing a poignant and true story (I should know, I was a model) swirling around a flawed and superficial business. I couldn't put it down. "Bravo!" P.S. This book should be "required reading" for aspiring models and their parents!

Cheers!

This book was an incredible read. It was gritty, raw and uncomfortably honest. Porizkova definitely has a way with words. Her style is blunt and vulnerable, confident and romantic. I couldn't help but become fully submerged in the world she created. A world where I fell in love with her muse, Jirina, a model stumbling through the streets of Paris. Once an innocent 15 year old girl, Jirina is forced to remold herself into a street wise woman for survival and success in the cruel modeling world. Cheers to Porizkova. What an impressive literary debut.

It's all about the girl

"A Model Summer" follows Jirina, an insecure, vulnerable fifteen-year old thrown into a very adult world that she doesn't know how to handle. And yes, Paulina is a super famous model writing about that world, but there's a lot more to this book. What I loved were the fast pace - from the moment she gets off the plane in Paris she is thrown into one situation after another, the interesting and well-drawn secondary characters, and above all, Jirina. Most of us don't become models when we're fifteen or grow up so suddenly, but we remember (or still feel) the alienation, the helplessness of being in love, and the insecurities that Jirina faces. She's so richly developed as a character that her humiliations and her rare moments of triumph become your own.