She Treads Softly: The Other Profile

Friday, January 26, 2024

The Other Profile

The Other Profile by Irene Graziosi, translated by Lucy Rand
2/20/24; 224 pages
Europa Editions

The Other Profile by Irene Graziosi, translated by Lucy Rand is a so-so novel about social media influencers. Maia, 26, is living with an older professor and works a couple days a week as a waitress at his insistence. After the death of her younger sister she just wants to lay on the sofa and watch Law and Order SVU. Then the opportunity arises to work for Gloria, an 18-year-old influencer with millions of followers. Maia's job is basically to help Gloria keep her image which is all she has and maybe include a bit of personality in her interactions.

Maia is an unreliable and unlikeable narrator. Gloria is an insipid, vacuous inst-influencer. It is a struggle to care about either of these characters throughout the whole novel, beyond being annoyed by them. The novel itself has a vague, unfinished feeling. This one is best skipped unless you are really interested in on-line personalities. Two stars because I finished it, but, honestly, I wish I had simple set it aside and moved on. Thanks to Europa Editions for providing me with an advance reader's copy. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.