The New York Times Book Review
- Leslie Camhi
…Virginia Postrel lays out the case for glamour as a life-shaping force, whether for good or for ill. Neither a lament for a lost world nor…a mere encomium to glitz, Postrel's cleareyed and exhaustive analysis looks not only at the history of glamour, but at how it works, developing a theory that explains, in her words, "how Jackie Kennedy is like the Chrysler Building or a sports car like a Moleskine notebook, or why some audiences might find glamour in nuns, wind turbines or Star Trek." That list gives readers some indication of the provocative range of Postrel's inquiry, which stretches far beyond glamour's traditional province of feminine luxury to examine such concepts as military glamour and the lure of Shanghai's ultramodern skyline.
