I'd be more impressed if Veronica had been plain-looking, of average to low intelligence, worked as a check-out chick or a nursing-home slave-wages worker and maybe had an under-used talent for scrap-booking or scone-baking. But who gives a f*uck about someone like that? *beep* off already!
That was the entire point in the story. She was attractive and successful in the book also. The major point that the author is trying to get across is that she was the one who was trying to achieve her dream, whereas others "normal people" forget.
"If everyone realised their dreams this place (Villete) would be empty."
^That's the entire point of the movie and book.
FYC: Nine / Day-Lewis / Cotillard / Waltz / Cruz