Luckiest Girl Alive.

Blessings Counted

TifAni FaNelli—that’s the way her name is spelt—is the tough heroine of Jessica Knoll’s latest bestseller, Luckiest Girl Alive.

By age 28, she has reinvented herself as Ani, the stylish editor with the upmarket, The Women’s Magazine. She has clawed her way up from her small town, middle-class past and as a badge of achievement flaunts the emerald and diamond engagement ring given to her by the rich, handsome and prize ‘catch’ Luke Harrison. The ring papers over any cracks she may have in her façade, but she cannot get over a terrible secret from her past.

By today’s standards, Ani (“Ahnee not Annie”) has it all—beauty, almost size zero figure, perfect hair, designer outfits and accessories, an enviable job, a doting fiancé, a splashy society wedding in a few weeks, when the strings start to unravel.

All through her teen years she is as embarrassed by her curvy figure as by her mother who drives a flashy BMW,  and wears garish make-up. Even as a child, Ani realises that, “Education, travel, culture — this is what any pennies pinched should be used for, never flashy cars, loud logos, or personal maintenance.”

It is all connected with what she went through at school, when she tried desperately to belong to the ‘It’ group of rich kids, who allowed her entry, but made her pay a terrible price. The humiliation she went through was enough to break another teenager; Ani survives with some help from a sympathetic teacher, Mr Larson, but not without major damage.

As if this public flaying was not enough, something worse happens – much later in the book when the reader feels assured that Ani is safe. It is this second incident that scars her psyche—why she is called “luckiest girl alive” has nothing to go with good fortune, quite the opposite, in fact.

Knoll has worked Cosmopolitan and Self  magazines, so she gets the initial cut-throat The Devil Wears Prada vibe perfectly. Ani is the superior bitch who judges other women by their appearance, so confident is she of her own perfection. But nobody can pretend all their life, is what Ani finally figures out.

Knoll’s book—dark and twisted below all that glamour—is being compared to Gillian Flynn’s mega-seller Gone Girl. The move rights have already been picked up by Reese Witherspoon’s production company, Pacific Standard, as was Gone Girl.  Knoll’s book is a damning critique of the sexism, misogyny and class snobbery built into American society, while keeping the tone chick-lit breezy, thus mocking the accepted conventions of the ‘women’s novel.’ 

Luckiest Girl Alive

By Jessica Knoll

Published by Simon & Schuster

Pages: 352