Happy hump day, y’all. Last night, while I endlessly hacked and hocked, trying to recover from this virus, I finally managed to finish reading retired supermodel Paulina Porizkova’s 2007 novel, A Model Summer. Today, I’m going to offer a review, even though this book has been around for almost 20 years.

I picked up A Model Summer in December 2022, which was when I read Porizkova’s memoir, No Filter: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful. Porizkova charmed me when she served as a judge on America’s Next Top Model for three cycles. I definitely preferred her to Tyra Banks, and I knew she had an interesting life story. That’s why I wanted to read her memoir.

Coincidentally, Paulina Porizkova has been in the news recently for lamenting about how difficult it is for older women to find dates. 🤨 She claims she became “invisible” after she turned 58, even though she’s still gorgeous. Paulina did eventually find a new man, having divorced the late rock star Ric Ocasek; she and her second husband, Jeff Greenstein, married in Italy this past July.

I already liked Paulina Porizkova before I read her life story. After reading her memoir, I liked her even more. So, although I don’t read very much fiction these days, I decided to download Paulina’s novel. It’s taken me almost four years to finally get around to reading it, which is not a reflection of her writing skills as much as it is my preference for non-fiction.

The plot

It’s June 1980, and 15 year old Jirina Radovanovicova, a Swedish girl of Czechoslovakian descent, is on her way to Paris, France. Jirina and her equally young companion, Britta, have been discovered and plucked from their mundane lives in Sweden. With glamorous dreams of fame and fortune, the two girls are about to embark on a journey into the world of fashion.

The adolescent pair plan to spend the summer in Paris, trying their luck at modeling. They will be exposed to the harsh realities of the business, as well as the rewards that make the dream so tantalizing to so many young people. They will be forced to grow up much sooner than they should, as they encounter drugs, alcohol, perverted old men, and cut-throat competition.

A Model Summer is written in the historical present tense, with Jirina as the protagonist. Although the story starts out with Jirina traveling with Britta, Britta turns out to be a very temporary presence in the story. This is Jirina’s story as a model in the early 80s, and that is when the story is set.

Jirina has been raised by her single mom, a woman with a revolving cast of boyfriends who serve as “uncles” to Jirina and her younger sister, seven year old Kristynka. Jirina’s mother is very narcissistic and immature, which means that Jirina has had to raise her sister. It’s hard on Jirina to move away from the girl, but this is her big chance to forge a better life. Jirina’s mother doesn’t make any money, and is basically a loser. Jirina wants more.

Blessed with a keen intellect to go with her exotic looks and extreme youth, Jirina seems like a natural for the fashion industry. But, from the moment of her arrival in France, Jirina learns that she will have to earn her spot, and pay her dues in ways that seem unthinkable for such a young girl. Will she be able to make it as a model in Paris?

My thoughts

It’s pretty obvious that A Model Summer is highly influenced by Paulina Porizkova’s own life story. In 2007, perhaps that was not as obvious as it is in 2026, after Paulina published her memoir. If I had picked up this novel when it was first published, maybe it would have seem more far-fetched than it does to me in 2026.

In 2007, I didn’t know anything about models or the fashion industry, but Tyra Banks, as obnoxious as she is, changed that with her reality show, America’s Next Top Model. No, I don’t think ANTM really represented what modeling is like, but watching that show did introduce me to basic concepts in that field. Then I read more about it on my own, by reading books by people in the industry. I may not know that much about fashion or modeling, but I do know that it’s not nearly as glamorous as people think it is.

In 1980, Paulina Porizkova was, herself, a 15 year old girl, embarking on a career as a fashion model. Although Jirina is Swedish born to Czech parents, Paulina was born in what is now the Czech Republic. She spent her earliest years living with her grandmother behind the Iron Curtain, separated from her parents, who had defected to the West after the Soviet Union invaded in 1968. In 1974, Paulina moved to Sweden, and her parents promptly divorced.

I know from reading Paulina’s memoir that she suffered a lot of bullying in Sweden. While it’s hard to fathom the idea of mean kids in a country known for its benevolence and emphasis on social justice, the truth is, there are mean people everywhere. Paulina Porizkova stood out like a sore thumb. She wasn’t blonde, and she came from what was then a communist country. In A Model Summer, Jirina is called “communist cow”. I’m sure Paulina was called that, or something similar.

Paulina Porizkova has publicly maligned the modeling industry and the job, as a whole. She has flat out stated that modeling “sucks”, and that she did it strictly for the money. She has said that it was something she happened to be good at, not an actual passion of hers.

I think that opinion colored the way Paulina created Jirina, by making her older and wiser than her years. Jirina reads Kafka, and listens to classical music. She fools men into thinking she’s much older than she is, although some of them clearly don’t care that she’s a child.

Within weeks of arriving in Paris, Jirina is going off the deep end, trying drugs and alcohol and losing her virginity. Somehow she manages to give a director a blow job, so she can score a lucrative job, even though she’s only recently become sexually active. Maybe this is how things really happen in the fashion industry, but it seems a little contrived to me, especially in such a short time frame.

I’ve noticed other readers commenting on how Jirina doesn’t come across as a 15 year old, but more like a woman in her 30s or 40s. I concur with that observation. I have known some very intelligent and well-read teenagers, but it seems a bit much to package Jirina as extremely beautiful and seemingly also a genius. On the other hand, it does keep the story interesting. Maybe it would have worked better if Jirina had told the story as an adult. I know some kids are “old souls”, but the character of Jirina comes across as an unrealistically “old soul”.

I did appreciate how Paulina Porizkova mostly maintained the reality of how the world was in 1980. She refers to paying for things in French francs, not euros. She writes of Czechoslovakia, not the Czech Republic or Czechia. By 2007, those things had changed. In 2026, they have long since changed! How time flies!

I don’t speak French, but there is a fair amount of French included in this book. Another reviewer, who claimed to know French, mentioned that a lot of Paulina’s French language use is incorrect and needs editing. I can’t confirm that myself, but thought it was worth mentioning for my French speaking friends and readers.

I also hated the ending. It’s ambiguous, and left me with questions. I was actually confused when I reached the end of the book, so much so that I consulted AI to see how it ended. I thought maybe I missed something. That didn’t leave me with a good impression, although Paulina might have thought the uncertain ending might be considered edgy. Personally, I found it very annoying.

Overall

Since I had already read Paulina Porizkova’s memoir before I read her novel, I know that A Model Summer is loosely based on her own experiences as a model coming of age in the 1980s. If I had read A Model Summer when it was first published, I might not have had that insight about Porizkova’s personal history, which I do think is important when reading this book. I suspect most people who have already read A Model Summer did not have the insight provided by knowing something about Porizkova’s life story.

Paulina’s personal story is fascinating. She’s also a pretty good writer. The “chick lit” style she uses is easy to read and entertaining. There are even a few funny moments in the book, which I appreciated, given the prevalence of heavier subject matter in the story. However, I think Paulina should have stuck to writing the truth about her life, rather than writing a novel based on her life. Either that, or perhaps she could have made Jirina seem more like a teenager than a middle aged woman in a teen’s body. Her maturity level is too high to be believed, even for someone who is also very intelligent and well read.

My rating

On a scale of 1 to 5 stars, I’d give A Model Summer 3.5 stars. I mostly enjoyed reading this novel, but I really hated the way it ended, and I found Jirina a bit unbelievable. I did, however, get a kick out of the acknowledgments. Paulina thanked her late ex husband, Ric Ocasek, calling him “her love”, reminding everyone how long ago 2007 was.

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