michaelkerr 's review for:

Miss World 1970: The Craziest Pageant in History and the Rest of My Life by Jennifer Hosten

3.0

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I found this book an interesting quick read. Jennifer Hosten kind of fell into the Miss World beauty competition in 1970--the year Feminist protest of the pageant erupted in a big way. Racism was also very much on the cultural agenda at the time; so her win, as Miss World 1970, was a kind of watershed moment. Unfortunately, the book doesn't give a lot of insight into these cultural dynamics. Instead, it's a quick amusing read about a beautiful woman who seemingly Forrest Gumped her way into the tectonic shifts of the 70s. The last third of the book, where Ms. Hosten worked in the area of foreign aid, then as a political figure during the coup in Grenada, were at least as interesting (and maybe more so) than the beauty pageant of the title, though here too, there could have been more self-analysis and depth. Still and all, Miss World 1970 is an enjoyable diversion, even if it could have been so much more.