Flawless Skin of Ugly People by Doug Crandell

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"Love is blind." The truth of this cliché has never been more thoughtfully or movingly examined than in Crandell's debut novel. In today's world of Botoxed and surgically altered humanity, this refreshing tale of inward goodness and outward imperfection raises some troubling questions about how our experiences affect our appearance, and vice versa.

Holed up in north Georgia, the acne-riddled Hobbie lives a solitary existence. For years, he and his girlfriend, Kari (who weighs about as much as an NFL linebacker), have moved from town to town, avoiding ties with other people. But Kari has recently entered a weight-loss clinic, and in her absence, Hobbie is having trouble maintaining his anonymous existence.

Crandell weaves the funny and outrageous with the sad and disturbing. Hobbie's new life without Kari is quickly populated with quirky people and hilarious interactions. But as he reflects on his shared history with Kari, he's forced to consider that the consequences of such a past are more far-reaching than he'd ever allowed himself to think. (Holiday 2007 Selection)

From the Publisher

Thanks to Ugly Betty, America is finally ready to read a love story about a couple who isn’t sleek, slick, tucked, pulled, or plastic.
 
Do we have to be beautiful to be loved?  Hobbie—this novel’s darkly romantic hero—has been banished to homely man exile in the North Georgia Mountains, where his enemies are mirrors and bears.  Things are not going well for Hobbie.  His skin?  Pizza Face, super-sized, with extra pepperoni and pitted olives.  Job status?  Former bank teller.  Love life?  His common-law wife Kari has gone AWOL at a weight-loss clinic in North Carolina.
 
But just as it seems Hobbie is doomed to go through life as a sweet, self-pitying “anonymous joke,” he jumps out of his skin and becomes downright heroic.
 
Can Hobbie rescue Kari from the weight-loss clinic?  Can he pull his fractured family together?  Plastic surgery—will he or won’t he? Will love endure if Hobbie’s skin clears up, Kari drops pounds, and ugly people become flawless? Readers won’t be able to put the book down until they find out.

Publishers Weekly

Hobbie, the narrator of this endearing debut novel, prefers the company of his beloved mutt, Terry, to the companionship of most humans. Hobbie, who has a blistering case of chronic acne, and Kari, his obese girlfriend of 20 years, continually aggravate their situations: Hobbie picks at and further inflames his bad skin while Kari eats in response to a shared tragedy from their youth. When the novel opens, Kari's ensconced at a weight-loss clinic hundreds of miles from their temporary north Georgia home, and Hobbie lives like a hermit until he's attacked by a bear. While recovering, he's sucked into the messy world of Kari's father, Roth, and slowly, clumsily becomes part of Roth's family once Kari goes missing from the clinic. Crandell has an exquisite eye for small details-Kari's letters home are written on "lined paper, the same kind we wrote love notes on"-that lend a tender feel to what could easily be overwrought. Though the novel turns on some unconvincing plot twists (particularly in the concluding section), the characters and situations are so simultaneously moving and unique that a bit of contrivance doesn't sink this tale of misfit love. (Sept.)

Christine Perkins - Library Journal

This bittersweet first novel centers on Hobbie, an unemployed bank teller with terrible acne who's holed up in a secluded rental home in the north Georgia mountains. He's waiting despondently for common-law wife and true love Kari to complete an in-patient weight-loss program in Durham, NC, with only their aging dachshund, Terry, for company. Hobbie and Kari have been together since junior high, when the discovery that they were both sexually abused by a church deacon forged a bond. Since then, it's been the two of them against the world, seeking jobs in anonymous suburbs because "if we live in the suburbs we'll just be another couple that hates their lives. No one will bother us." It takes a freak bear attack to galvanize Hobbie, who finds the courage to overcome his past, rescue Kari, and reunite their strange but loving family again. Crandell has a gentle touch with his characters, who are very sympathetic despite their inner flaws and outward appearance. An easy purchase; strongly recommended for all public libraries [This marks the launch of Virgin Books USA.-Ed.]

Kirkus Reviews

In the Georgia-based author's debut, a sweet-natured misfit with a debilitating acne problem takes heroic steps to gain control of his life after his live-in girlfriend takes residence at a fancy fat-farm. Hiding out from the judging eyes of a harsh and beauty-fixated world may have become a way of life for 37-year-old Hobbie, but since high school he at least had a partner with whom to share his exile, his long-time love Kari. With his cystic acne and her obesity, the couple traveled from suburb to suburb, never staying anywhere long enough to make friends or live up to their potential. Tellingly, both were molested by the same church deacon as young teens, shattering their self-images. So when Kari finally decides to make a change in her life and enrolls in a strict in-patient weight-loss program in North Carolina, Hobbie is understandably bereft. Left with their small dog Terry in rural Georgia, and forbidden to contact Kari, he subsists on regular missives that document her rapidly diminishing weight. Wondering when, or if, he will ever see her again, he is shaken out of his stupor when Terry is attacked by a bear. Hobbie fights off the hungry animal with an umbrella and wakes up with an impressive gash on his already ravaged face. Taken in by his de-facto father-in-law Roth-a church bookkeeper guilt-ridden over what happened to his daughter and Hobbie-he discovers a family secret that Kari and her father had been keeping from him. But it is when Roth is suddenly felled by a stroke that Hobbie decides to stop waiting and go after Kari. He hits the road with Roth, Terry and Kari's estranged mom Sally, in a tragicomic quest to save her from herself. Along the way, Hobbie comes to termswith his past and starts to actually see a future. Full of insight and wonderfully complex characters, this deceptively slim work is emotionally satisfying-assuming readers can get past the frequent gross descriptions of Hobbie's skin condition. Gently comic depiction of love's power to heal internal and external wounds. Agent: Robert Guinsler/Sterling Lord Literistic Inc.

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