Funny, grotesque, and, finally, fairly frightening. That kinda sums up Mark Wisniewski's 2011 novel SHOW UP, LOOK GOOD, with its tough and diminutive heroine, thirty-something Michelle, who flees a ruined relationship in Kankakee to try to "make it" in the mean and heartless streets of Manhattan in the year 2001. Some of the characters she meets, in her continuous search for stability and shelter - an old woman who wants a very personal bath from her nightly, a swinger couple from Astoria, a group of pretentious, aspiring writers, and Ernest Coolridge, a cancer-disfigured ex-Yankee - made me think of Flannery O'Connor's Southern grotesques. It figures that NYC would have its own. Consider James Leo Herlihy's MIDNIGHT COWBOY, just for starters, which could easily be a not-so-distant ancestor of SU,LG. (And I'm not gonna try to explain the title, as that might constitute something of a spoiler.)

While there's nothing terribly deep or profound here, it is a most enjoyable and thoroughly entertaining read. Highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )

Show Up, Look Good is a novel about a jilted woman whose move to Manhattan and relationship with an elderly, mute former New York Yankee help her accept her innocence in her mother's death and admit her complicity in an outbreak of disturbing secret crimes.

Show Up, Look Good is narrated by Michelle, a 30something small town girl from Kankakee, IL. After she catches her fiance jerking it to a plastic vagina, she decides that their relationship isn't what she thought it was and leaves for New York City. Upon arriving, she encounters a series of off-beat roommates, sometimes horrible, until she finally settles on her own in Queens.

A lot of things bothered me about this book. It wasn't that Wisniewski tried to write a female lead and didn't accomplish it, which I assumed would be the case going into the novel, but more that over the course of 224 pages, I had to read the thoughts of an annoyingly selfish character. The above quote is from the publisher's website, outlining what the book is generally about. I want to break it down:

1. She was obviously in a bad relationship with her fiancee. She talked too much, he didn't listen, she was selfish, and, I'm assuming, so was he. They were both assholes. Their breakup garners all of a handful of pages throughout the book.

2. She was a baby when her mother dies and even the main character admits that she didn't think about her mother's death often and she certainly didn't have any emotional issues surrounding the circumstances to her mother's death up until the character mentions she realizes she didn't do anything to contribute to her mother's death. It isn't a major plot point.

3. If by "a series of disturbing secret crimes" they mean consensual sex between two parties in someone's apartment until someone is murdered, then yes, there is a series of disturbing secret crimes. Or not. The murder is mentioned on the first page but then isn't mentioned again until the last part of the book, as if the author was trying to tie up loose ends and realized he left out the murder bit. There might be a series of disturbing secret crimes, something that would require more time explaining and building than what Wisniewski has given us.
There are plenty of opportunities for Wisniewski to redeem himself in the novel, but he doesn't quite make it. There's so much lacking from the story that any potential Show Up, Look Good had is almost non-existent. I had hope, which is why I finished, but there just wasn't enough in the end to make it worthwhile.

Michelle is one of the most unlikable protagonists that I've come across. She's hypocritical, annoying, selfish and shallow, and naive, all without any redeeming qualities. I find it very hard to feel sorry for a character, or even a person I know in real life, that puts themselves in undesirable situations and complains about them the whole time. Michelle chooses to leave her fiancee, she chooses her roommates with their annoying quirks, habits, and friends. She makes fun of her MFA roommate and her friends for their creativity and poseur attitudes, but then doesn't think that teaching herself to paint is any different.

Wisniewski writes so much crap from, and about, Michelle that he sacrifices parts of the story that could truly be interesting by focusing more on the bit characters like Etta, Ernest, and Sarah. Instead he leaves us with a very unlikable character and a book that is basically Michelle's internal monologue full of her selfish and hypocritical thoughts. ( )

"...I'd need to begin and finish before anything worthwhile came of what a woman like me could do with a cheap paintbrush, four signature colors, and a decision to live with nerve."

This decision to live with nerve comes pretty quickly when Michele decides to leave her cheating fiance in Kankakee and move to New York. Specifically, Manhattan. To become an artist. Something she's never done before. Art.

I know! You're thinking, "I know where this one is headed!" Too many Country Mouse, City Mouse stories have made the small-town-girl-goes-to-the-city seem like a sad, predictable genre of its own. Or maybe it was Crocodile Dundee II that did us in. In any case, hearing the basic layout makes one think this young woman is going to end up as a serial killer's victim or a suddenly-discovered genius who ends up in a penthouse with a view, buying Jimmy Choos and designing a fragrance collection. You just know beige leather sofas and clear glass vases of tulips are on their way.

So... you'd be wrong. I was wrong. There is nothing predictable or routine in this story of starting somewhere new and trying to reinvent yourself. (Geez: Just that previous line sounds as corny as the genre!) First off, Michele is smart, and she's not expecting much. She knows everyone back home is expecting her to fail, which propels her to succeed. She's not looking for glamour; she's looking for a parking spot for her crappy Renault. Her time is spent looking for an apartment, then a room, possibly a closet: anywhere to live and remain in the city. That she's willing to bathe her new old lady landlord to instill "trust" shows her desperate need to stay. The city means that much to her.

Making rent money is an issue, and she starts an innovative street business that has something to do with David Letterman. She sells the Renault in a scene where you can't be sure if the perspective buyers want a test drive or just free use of the car. Significantly, she meets an elderly man, an ex-Yankee, who gives her some guidance and life advice although he can't speak.

Between a fire, an audition for Stupid Human Tricks, and a job as a clerk in the world's most disgusting grocery store, she manages to survive. She even survives a side trip to Astoria with a creepy new age couple who seem to be overly helpful--that she considers walking away from them an 'escape' is telling.

It's not all fun, and just when you are reading along and giggling, a transition takes place that smacks you down. Wait! What happened? Could she be the subtle and evil villain known as the 'unreliable narrator'? Things change, and now the story takes on a different aspect. Same people, same places, but with a bit more information. It's not as funny, but that doesn't mean it's diminished. It's manipulative! It makes you reassess what has been happening so far.

"Then there's the reality very few people care to face: unless you have majestic beauty or power, your secrets rarely matter to anyone but yourself." She said this in the beginning, but I didn't catch the ominous tone. With the shift, though, comes even more suspense. Who is Michele? The breathless voice she's used to describe her adventures...was she holding back? What secrets did we need to know?

This is a great read that went too fast. I loved that it didn't play to type and that Michele never becomes that celebrity-wannabe that appears on every other reality show. The only thing I don't understand is, what's so bad about Astoria? ( )