One of Us Is Dead

The main characters cultivate their images with care. They spend hours at the salon, have cosmetic procedures, and are always ready with a “Buckhead smile.” They consciously perform certain roles and resist others.

Jenny’s clients obsess over their physical appearance, trying to project the eternal youth and normative beauty that their socialite status demands. She can charge high membership prices because the women can afford to “pour resources into fighting the greatest war of their lives: the one against the effects of time on the human body” (9). They embrace artifice and resist natural change, also patronizing Karen’s husband, Mark, a plastic surgeon. Though the fight against time is ultimately doomed, the novel suggests that the battle is a necessary part of their age and lifestyle. They fear being replaced by younger wives. When Karen observes Olivia’s vitriol toward Shannon, she notes that the women are close to the same age and Bryce “traded [Shannon] in for a newer model. [Olivia’s] hatred toward her was laced with insecurity and fear” (32). Crystal is “fresh-faced” and beautiful with a natural “glow” (27). She is initially uninterested in joining Jenny’s salon, free from the anxious need that drives women to Glow.

The characters put the same conscious effort into their manners and social performances.