The Shallow Man

Book excerpt: The 20th Anniversary Edition, the Author's Cut: 100 PAGES of PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED MATERIAL. Front cover featuring Alessandra Ambrosio; back cover featuring Ana Beatriz Barros, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Irina Shayk photographed by Peter Beard, Giant Polaroid "Tom Wolfe rewrites American Gigolo." -- Kirkus Reviews "The novel is crass, entertaining, slangy, and reeking of sun bronze and the fresh turnover of fleshy delights makes the narrator's decision to become an aging roue instead of a responsible adult seem like an honest, admirable choice. Felske writes like a gigolo and treats seduction as a dirty sport." -- James Wolcott, Vanity Fair "Model Citizen: the story of a man who never met a beautiful woman he didn't like." -- David Kelley, The New York Times Book Review "Favorite Novel: The Shallow Man by Coerte Felske which begins with the line 'I never met a model I didn't like.'" -- Candace Bushnell, Vogue "Coerte V.W. Felske's novel The Shallow Man turned the fashion world on its head-and introduced the term 'modelizer' into the collective consciousness." -- Detour "A Model Wordsmith." -- New York Magazine "In his first novel, The Shallow Man, Coerte V.W. Felske spins a clever tale of the narcissistic world of fashion modeling. In this comic send-up, Nick Laws is the shallow man whose every thought and word reflect his sole interest in life: boffing models. From the late-night clubs of Manhattan to the art deco bars of Miami, Nick searches for beautiful women to take to bed. He's so perfect, he's hilarious. Is there a man with a soul so noble that he has not entertained this fantasy? In real life, no one could stand around all day in his motorcycle jacket and sunglasses, purring platitudes to curvaceous dimwits. But Nick's relentless, self-conscious pursuit is very funny. Nick reminds us, "Never judge a book by its contents." Certainly not this book. The Shallow Man is fun, flash, and filigree--a sexy, witty spoof of the Nineties." -- Digby Diehl, Playboy "Shallow waters run deep. This stunning but unreflective man knows more than you think. Behind those big blank eyes and that deep tan is...well, something that women find hopelessly tempting: a healthy disdain for thinking too much. Since he can't be bothered connecting the dots, he maps out the politics of the jejune with an easy straight line. Reading the quick-witted prose, one begins to think less about things and more about Thing, the Shallow Man's tag for the women he dates: gorgeous, seemingly unattainable models. Nick Laws is like Hamlet without the mental baggage, tumbling Ophelia by Act II. Felske's The Shallow Man makes a case for the unexamined life." -- Esquire "I may not have been the king of Generation Face," proclaims hipster Nick Laws, in author Felske's first novel, "but I was definitely one of its princes." Nick can't get enough of "Thing" his catchphrase for impossibly stunning women; his every moment is devoted to bedding them-as long as they're not Civilians (regular-looking women). Spiked with original Nickspeak and hilarious dialogue, Felske's depiction of the physically elite is so clever in its anthropological detail that we can forgive his protagonist for just about anything. Besides, The Shallow Man harbors a few glimmers of Nick's humanity. You just have to dig to find them." -- People "PLAYBOY CENTERFOLD DATA SHEET, 'Favorite Book: "The Shallow Man" by Coerte Felske. It's about a very shallow man and his involvements with models.'" --Priscilla Lee Taylor, Miss March, 1996, Playboy ----------------------- "Fear not the Shallow Man, For all that is lost is one night." Such is the credo of Nick Laws, the suave party promoter who lives on the other side of the velvet ropes. Nick's world is an exclusive arena of fast-food romances, sex, and mind-boggling glamour. It's Nick Laws's obsession, and he is not in denial about it. "The Shallow Man" is his confession. Welcome to Generation Face...