PERFECT SKIN

by Nick Earls

The sequel to the bestselling "Bachelor Kisses". Jon Marshall has come a long way since his bachelor days. He's a partner in his own practice,drives a BMW, owns his own home, and has a six-month-old daughter, Lily. But life hasn't taken the path he guessed it would back in his twenties.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Australia, Young Adult, Comedy, Book Club

354 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Nick Earls is the author of twelve books, including bestselling novels such as Zigzag Street, Bachelor Kisses, Perfect Skin and World of Chickens. His work has been published internationally in English and also in translation, and this led to him being a finalist in the Premier of Queensland’s Awards for Export Achievement in 1999.

Zigzag Street won a Betty Trask Award in the UK in 1998, and is currently being developed into a feature film. Bachelor Kisses was one of Who Weekly’s Books of the Year in 1998. Perfect Skin was the only novel nominated for an Australian Comedy Award in 2003, and has recently been filmed in Italy.

He has written five novels with teenage central characters. 48 Shades of Brown was awarded Book of the Year (older readers) by the Children’s Book Council in 2000, and in the US it was a Kirkus Reviews selection in its books of the year for 2004. A feature film adapted from the novel was released in Australia by Buena Vista International in August 2006, and has subsequently screened at festivals in North America and Europe. His earlier young-adult novel, After January, was also an award-winner.

After January, 48 Shades of Brown, Zigzag Street and Perfect Skin have all been successfully adapted for theatre by La Boite, and the Zigzag Street play toured nationally in 2005.

Nick Earls was the founding chair of the Australian arm of the international aid agency War Child and is now a War Child ambassador. He is or has also been patron of Kids Who Make a Difference and Hands on Art, and an honorary ambassador for both the Mater Foundation and the Abused Child Trust. On top of that, he was the face of Brisbane Marketing’s ‘Downtown Brisbane’ and ‘Experience Brisbane’ campaigns.

His contribution to writing in Queensland led to him being awarded the Queensland Writers Centre’s inaugural Johnno award in 2001 and a Centenary Medal in 2003. His work as a writer, in writing industry development and in support of humanitarian causes led to him being named University of Queensland Alumnus of the Year in 2006. He was also the Queensland Multicultural Champion for 2006.

He has an honours degree in Medicine from the University of Queensland, and has lived in Brisbane since migrating as an eight-year-old from Northern Ireland in 1972. London’s Mirror newspaper has called him ‘the first Aussie to make me laugh out loud since Jason Donovan’. His latest novel is Joel and Cat Set the Story Straight, co-written with Rebecca Sparrow.

Reviews

[A]

This is still my all time favourite contemporary novel.
It initially appealed to me because I was curious to read a man's take on the chick-lit genre. However it turned out to be much, much better than I expected. 'Perfect Skin' is not as superficial as many chick-lit books, but is just as entertaining. Even my husband (a man's man) enjoyed the book too.

I won't repeat the fine information provided by the jacket blurb. Here are a few other things worth mentioning about the book.

The writing style is very unique to Mr Earl's writing. Most authors use quoted dialogue to describe conversations between characters, which makes me feel like a 'fly on the wall' with privileged access to the main characters' thoughts. In contrast, Nick Earls uses no quoted dialogue. Instead, he simply describes the dialogue, which takes a little getting used to at first. This style made me feel like I was experiencing the events from INSIDE the main character's head. It works and it's a really cool effect.

I also enjoyed the story's setting. It's set in Brisbane suburbs (Brisbane is a city in the semi-tropical north-east of Australia). Too many books are set in the USA and UK:...ho hum. I enjoyed the novelty of a book set in Australia, with Australian cultural references. For the most part the setting is very generic western culture but every now and then you get a hint of Australian culture - it's not difficult to understand at all - just a cute spicy difference to the setting.

'Perfect Skin' was the first of Nick Earls's novels that I read. I had no trouble understanding the the story. I later discovered that it is set after 'Bachelor Kisses' which is about the main character of 'Perfect Skin', set a decade earlier at a very different stage of his life. You don't need to read 'Bachelor Kisses' to understand 'Perfect Skin'. They are very very different books (Bachelor Kisses is much less moving but more pant-wettingly/embarrassingly funny).

I recommend 'Perfect Skin' for its wonderful entertainment value, for the curious writing style and for the armchair-traveller feeling bestowed by the Australian setting.

[Tricia]

A story about a young laser skin surgeon who is raising his daughter alone.

This was a good easy read. There were a few sections that I thought were quite funny.

[Nereia]

Non l'ho letto, l'ho divorato. Lo stile frizzante si combina meravigliosamente con gli elementi strambi della trama, senza mai lasciare spazio alla noia o alla banalità. I protagonisti sono caratterizzati molto bene e perfino Fagiolino, che ha solo 6 mesi, sembra quasi essere un personaggio profondo! Le parti comiche sono seguite fluidamente dalle parti introspettive o dai ricordi di Jon, senza che questo causi una forzatura nella narrazione e, soprattutto, senza rallentare il ritmo della lettura (più volte, infatti, ho rischiato di non scendere alla fermata corretta dell'autobus!). Alcune parti sono così sceme che mi hanno fatto scoppiare a ridere senza riuscire in qualche modo a trattenermi, nonostante mi trovassi in un posto pubblico circondata da diverse persone.
Ad ogni modo, la statuetta del "personaggio preferito" se la aggiudica Elvis, il cagnolino di Jon, capace, con uno sguardo, di accusare il padrone di essere responsabile del brutto tempo.
Certo, non è un capolavoro, come non lo sono neanche tre quarti dei libri che diventano dei best seller... Si tratta più che altro di una lettura leggera, una lettura leggera di tutto rispetto però.

[Fiona Hamer]

Life affirming and funny

One of my favourite Nick Earls books. Wonderfully authentic and intermittently hilarious adventure of a doctor facing parenthood alone. Love that friendship and connection are given such value.

[Gaëlle]

As I was reading the first few chapters of Perfect Skin, I couldn't help but wonder where all of this was going, and whether I would like it or not! At first, I thought it would be some sort of male-authored chick-lit novel (if that makes any sense) but it was very different from that. Maybe a little deepest, less conventional, and in all cases very refreshing!

It turns out that I loved it. It was a sweet little novel about the everyday life of a very normal person, at times touching, at times hilarious, with underlying themes of loss, of recovery and finding one's place in the world, and with well-defined, realistic and lovable characters.

[Bron Nie]

This book is hilarious and very cleverly written, with some sad bits thrown in. Absolutely loving it!

[Jeff]

Sort of that Nick Hornby-style male protagonist trying to get through life and love, but not quite as well done as some others I've read recently. The main character's wife died during childbirth, and it almost felt like a gimmick in some places, and it might have actually worked better as a movie idea than a novel. At least that's how I kept visualizing it.

[Danimal]

People have called Earles the "Australian Nick Hornby" but I'd say he's closer to David Nicholls. But not as good as either, of course. This one had bad slapstick with a cat and a weirdly paced love story and boring baby stuff, and I still read it all the way, so that must mean something (about me more than him?).

[Ian Wynne]

This is my absolute favourite Nick Earls book and would make my shortlist of all time favourite books. It touches the heart, is hilariously funny and is just beautifully written in every respect.

[Mariesa]

Description makes it sound like some kind of horrible romance novel from a male author, but it's not. Made me chuckle throughout.

[Liz Hobson]

A new author for me and I am already on the look out for other books from Nick. He is, quite honestly, hilarious! I laughed out loud at all the scenes involving the cat. I won't say more, just read and look for the cat. I also loved reading a book from a male POV - it seems to be rather unusual in the world of writing and Nick does it really well.

I read the book on a Kindle and this leads to confusion during the long, long patches of dialogue when you often cannot follow who is speaking. Nick doesn't use quotation marks or 'he said', 'she said' words - which moves the dialogue along but got me quite lost on Kindle (in a big font!). To compensate I found myself skipping some of the long, long discussions that found their way into the story and, to be honest, didn't move the story along at all. This is the only reason I gave the book 4 out of 5 and not 5 out of 5.

I didn't make many highlights either - this is either because the book move along very quickly and kept me absorbed or because there wasn't much to capture. In the case of this book it's a bit of both. It moves along quickly, I was absorbed but there also is not much in the way of description or mind blowing statements.

Have a read though - its certainly worth it.

[Jaimee]

Bought this book several years ago, along with several others, but never read it until now. The author’s way of quoting took a little getting used to, at first, but I got used to it. As I got further into the book, the more interested I became and was finding it harder to put down. The storyline of Jon, Katie, and Ash kept me going. Jon and Katie’s relationship (or lack of) was a hot mess. I couldn’t help but feel bad for Jon’s luck when it came to interactions with her (and her cat). Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. It made me laugh, cringe at times (haha), and it had a good ending. There should be another book to continue the story.

[Ruth Bonetti]

I do love Nick Earls' sense of humour, in relating happenings of the anti-hero style with wicked wit.

[Nikki Mason]

I would give this more 3.5 stars... I wish the story line was a little stronger; in saying that, it was an easy and sometimes hilarious read.

[Katie Gray]

Local setting, plot a bit flat (man who's wife died in childbirth meets younger girl. Complicated relationships, good characters)

[AliF]

I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed reading this man's version of chick lit. There were some delightful laugh out loud moments.

[Gillian]

This is the first book by Nick Earls that I have read, and I found it easy and enjoyable. I liked the medical details and realistic view of grief; and reading a male point-of-view. I also liked the open ending.

[Alicia]

1.5

[Heather Woods]

A cute love story but too slow.

[Giocina]

Le avventure semiserie di un ragazzo padre, di Nick Earls, in traduzione di Valeria Raimondi
Piacevole romanzo da ombrellone (dove è stato letto)

[Tatia Power]

I read Bachelor Kisses so many years ago, it's a little vague to me now. But reading Perfect Skin was like catching up with an old school mate, discovering how Jon's life turned out.
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The story had some laugh out loud moments (the poor cat). As a BrisVegas girl, I really enjoyed reading a story set in my hometown.
The nostalgia of a tale set in the 90's amused me too. When Jon called Ash and the line was busy, so she must still be online. Oh, dial-up internet, our youth will never understand the frustration!
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I'd forgotten how Nick Earls writes, without defining dialogue. It took some time to get used to.
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An easy, comfortable read.

[Tristan]

I will probably never go out of my way to read this book again but it turned out to be pretty good. Many times it felt like a train wreck - I didn't want to watch but couldn't look away! Some parts are very entertaining. There is a lot of language. Not the worst book I've ever read.

[Elisa Vangelisti]

Che noia. Arriva una vicina e lo vede tutto sudato dopo la corsa. In pausa pranzo sul lavoro si discute di involtini di verdure. Al supermercato si canticchia davanti a scaffali vuoti di carta igienica. Nel mio cervello una sessantina di neuroni muore. Adieu.

[Frangipani]

a happy/sad little tale, boy meets girl ending

[Will]

Perfect Skin is a perfect novel.

[Kerry]

hate it - only read it because it was either this book or the back of the cereal box!

[Matt]

Been a long time since I have read a book that kept me up longer than I wanted to be!

[Mary]

I learned that I could get so excited about an author that I could actually email him and seduce him into communicating with me several times from Australia!

[Helen]

The only book about being a new parent I really liked! (It's about much more than that of course)

[Sharyn O'Neill]

I really enjoyed this... An interesting look in to the male perspective on life, love, babies and bad dates.