Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Half of L.A. has had their nose fixed to look like hers.
Cassidy cannot abide more forgeries.
I want water, not the knockoff, she tells a waitress earlier in the book.
I want a hundred percent.
The book seems to be set in the future, just barely.
The story is told from the perspective of a hapless middle-aged novelist named Patrick Hamlin.
Like gold-seekers and small-town beauty queens before him, Patrick imagines California as a magical solution to his problems.
Cassidy tells Patrick that the taste and texture of WAT-R freak her out.
Its less a flavor, she explains in L.A.-speak, than … the awareness of a presence.
And I wondered, as I have wondered since, what was this place?
At one point, Patrick meets one of Cassidys megafans (who even got her nose).
Whats she like, she asks him, you know, is she real?
The real reason Cassidy hates WAT-R is because its fakeness reminds her of herself and everyone around her.
This mundanity also seems to be Kleemans point.
Is there really such a thing as a shocking twist under capitalism?
Its only because of the movies that we expect otherwise.
Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism.
