FRENCH WOMEN DON'T GET FACELIFTS

A new book from the author of French Women Don’t Get Fat (2004).

Former Clicquot Inc. CEO Guiliano’s (The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook, 2010, etc.) new book is subtitled “The Secret of Aging with Style & Attitude.” Readers will be forgiven if they think of “The Golden Girls,” and if you are old enough to remember the show, you’re probably the target audience for this book. The idea is that French culture has some unique cultural standards that enable French women to cheat the entropy of aging. Guiliano stresses the importance of attitude, and she devotes most of the first chapter to it; how we look at aging, she writes, can shift the effect it has on us. What would have made for a useful article in a magazine at this point devolves into “The Secret of Aging for Those with Lots of Disposable Income.” From consideration of what top fashion designers can do to help you dress younger to touting expensive argan oil for the skin, Guiliano’s target audience shrinks drastically. She tepidly raises concerns about Botox for wrinkles but then admits these concerns center mainly on the availability of top-tier doctors, wondering what could come of Botox treatments from the doctors the rest of us might use—and then, nudge-nudge, wink-wink, can’t exactly say she’d rule it out. The author also includes recipes, and there’s little to argue with in terms of her suggestions for eating healthier and avoiding fad diets. The author only makes brief mention of the media’s unhealthy infatuation with the cult of youth, which drives women to feel self-conscious and obsessed with finding ways to look younger.

Mostly frivolous reading—which is not to say it won’t sell well.