“It’s not merely what’s inside that counts.” These words guided Roya Delshod’s medical career and her life. A renowned cosmetic surgeon, she was arrested for medical insurance fraud and the permanent loss of her medical license. Yet, even as a prisoner, she stood by her conviction to support women to attain physical perfection. In Pursuit of Beauty, a fascinating novel by investigative reporter Gary Baum explores the unattainable standards and cultural demands available only to the privileged, those who can afford the steep price of genetic transformation through plastic surgery.
Roya Delshod requested a “nose job” as a gift for her sixteenth birthday. Hopelessly plain, she wanted to look just like her “drop dead gorgeous” mother and sister Dahlia. Roya dreamed of having a “slightly upturned nose, bow shaped lips, exquisitely symmetrical features. She “craved to be desired” like her “perfect 10” younger sister. Their mom, Julia, loved both her daughters equally but Roya envied the conferred benefits of beauty she saw heaped on her sister, a veritable “Disney Princess.” In high school Roya retreated into herself. She didn’t attend parties. She became ”socially invisible”, anxious, depressed.
Her new- shaped nose spawned new thoughts and new confidence. Roya determines, “Genetics is not destiny.” Academically bright, Roya was accepted at medical school at Johns Hopkins and finds time for lipoplasty, a tummy tuck, breast augmentation and a few more procedures that made her look “damned hot.” She chooses reconstructive surgery as her medical elective.
During her medical tenure Roya treats burn victims, kids with cleft palates, corrects injuries in battered women disfigured from domestic violence. She travels to Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, to clinics where facially disfigured women wait months to be treated. She feels obliged to “repair the world” and sees beauty as female empowerment.
Graduating first in her class Roya was immediately hired at a top Beverly Hills Clinic working with celebrities and Dr. Norman the “undisputed boob guy” who provided luxury service for the well-heeled. She participated in all types of “healing surgeries” “mommy makeovers” areola reduction, chin augmentation--turning ugly ducklings into beautiful swans. It was the 1980s in Beverly Hills and Roya was poised “to distribute happiness”. She opened up a solo practice.
Highly recommended, Dr. Roya becomes known as “The Robin Hood of Plastic Surgery.” She serviced minorities and low income women who came begging to become “Pretty Woman.” Not all had “green card insurance” where cosmetic surgery was covered. Driven by her own past Roya found a way “to make it work,” granting procedures beyond insurance coverage or medical necessity. In prison, defiant and unapologetic, Roya tells her story to (good looking) investigative reporter that becomes her memoir titled In Pursuit of Beauty.
Compelling fiction, The Pursuit of Beauty, blurs the lines between what is natural or artificial and poses intriguing questions about beauty for the modern woman.