Natural Beauty

The narrator is a young pianist at a Conservatory, and she produces a sound from the piano that none of her classmates can match. She learned the technique from her parents, both gifted musicians, who left China after the Cultural Revolution. When an accident leaves them debilitated, she gives up her musical future and takes a job in New York City.

The job is at Holistik, a high-end beauty and wellness store famous for unusual products and procedures. Among them are remoras that draw out cheap Botox and eyelash extensions spun from spider silk. Working there lets her into a privileged circle and gives her the feeling of belonging she has craved.

She becomes fixated on Helen, the niece of the store's charismatic owner. The two become friends, and the friendship drifts, in a hazy way, into something more. Meanwhile the narrator is handed one product after another to slim her thighs, smooth her skin and lighten her hair. Something sinister sits beneath the creams and tinctures.

The novel is narrated in the first person, with a sly, darkly funny tone and a sharp edge. It touches on consumerism, self-worth, race and identity, and it builds toward an unsettling revelation. It won the Lambda Literary Award in Bisexual Fiction.