Joan Juliet Buck

The videos on this page were taken at Stair Galleries in Hudson, New York. The readings are from the later portion of the book, when the mental state of Buck's father was compromised, his sense of reality gone, but his eye was still true. The second video concerns the statue of the Virgin Mary made by the sculptor Robert Graham for the Cathedral of Our Lady Of The Angels in downtown Los Angeles. It's good to watch them in sequence. Called by the New York Times "One of the most compelling personalities in the world of style," Joan Juliet Buck dives deep below the surface in 'The Price Of Illusion' to investigate, in a hilarious and heartbreaking way, the toxic appeal of fame, fashion, and glamour. Her two first novels 'The Only Place To Be' and 'Daughter Of The Swan' were published in 1982 and 1987. A television and film critics, she was a member of the New York Film Festival Selection Committee when she was unexpectedly chosen to be the editor in chief of French Vogue in 1994. After the abrupt end to the fashionable life in 2001, she resumed acting ('Julie & Julia', 2009, 'Supergirl', 2015) , performs with The Moth ('The Ghost of the Rue Jacob') and spent six years on her memoir. She lives in the Hudson Valley. “Lapidary. . . elegant. . . psychedelic. . . brilliant.” Publishers Weekly *starred review **** in USA Today An Oprah Pick A-, Entertainment Weekly "Buck’s brilliant wit, her entirely original sense of style, her capacity to negotiate tragedy, and her gift for self-analysis make this book not only riveting, but also unforgettable" Andrew Solomon "One knows, from the opening paragraph, that one is in the presence of a truly original, and compelling, voice." Michael Cunningham