Adina Giorno

Adina Giorno is the main character of the novel. Beautyland depicts Adina’s life from life to death, and therefore derives its primary tensions from her internal and external experiences. Adina is born on September 5, 1977, the same day that the “Voyager 1 spacecraft launches in Florida” (3). The concurrence of these events narratively begets Adina’s extraterrestrial identity and corresponding purpose in life. When she is a child, Adina becomes convinced that she is an alien who has been sent from her home planet, Planet Cricket Rice, to report on human behavior so as to aid her intergalactic superiors. After her mother Térèse Giorno excavates an old fax machine from the neighbor’s trash, Adina adopts the machine and uses it for her private mission. Throughout her childhood, coming of age, and early adulthood, Adina closely observes and writes about her experiences, relationships, and surroundings. She sends...