JOAN JULIET BUCK - "The Price of Illusion: A Memoir"

From Joan Juliet Buck, former editor-in-chief of Paris Vogue comes her dazzling, compulsively readable memoir: a fabulous account of four decades spent in the creative heart of London, New York, Los Angeles, and Paris, chronicling her quest to discover the difference between glitter and gold, illusion and reality, and what looks like happiness from the thing itself.

Born into a world of make-believe as the daughter of a larger-than-life film producer, Joan Juliet Buck’s childhood was a whirlwind of famous faces, ever-changing home addresses, and a fascination with the shiny surfaces of things. When Joan became the first and only American woman ever to fill Paris Vogue's coveted position of Editor in Chief, a “figurehead in the cult of fashion and beauty,” she had the means to recreate for her aging father, now a widower, the life he’d enjoyed during his high-flying years, a splendid illusion of glamorous excess that could not be sustained indefinitely.

Joan Juliet Buck is an American novelist, critic, essayist, and editor. She served as editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris from 1994 to 2001, the only American to have ever edited a French magazine. While a contributing editor to Vogue, Vanity Fair, Traveler, and The New Yorker, she wrote two novels, The Only Place to Be and Daughter of the Swan. Currently, she writes for W, Harper’s Bazaar, and The New York Times Magazine.

“One knows from the opening paragraph that one is in the presence of a truly original, and compelling, voice...” --Michael Cunningham, bestselling author of A Wild Swan and The Hours 

“Buck’s brilliant wit, her entirely original sense of style, her capacity to negotiate tragedy, and her gift for self analysis make this book not only riveting, but also unforgettable.” ---Andrew Solomon, bestselling author of Far From the Tree

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