- Hamilton, Jane
- Robbins, Tom
- Crider, Bill
- Fundamentalism
- Cellular
- Nepal
- Early 20th Century 1901-1913
- Oxford University Press
- Wildlife Conservation
- Fournier, Alain
- Sawm
- English
- Hall, Mary Bowen
- Directories
- Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Pokémon
- Harris, Charlaine
- Arcade & Platform Games
- Civil
- Weir, Arabella
- Cascone, A. G.
- Romanian
- Miller, Harland
- Oracle Certified Professional Developer (OCP)
- Romance
- Railway Technology & Engineering
- Tremain, Rose
- Accident & Emergency Medicine
- Bordeaux
- Nottinghamshire
- Some of our other sites:
- Books
- Clothing, Shoes and Accessories
- Baby Clothes and Accessories
- Cosmetics, Beauty Products and Fragrances
- Cellphones, Call Plans and Accessories
- Video Games
- DVDs
- Electronics, Gadgets and Computers
- Health and Personal Care
- Home and Garden
- Home DIY
- Jewelry
- Magazines and Newspapers
- Music Downloads
- Musical Instruments
- Office Equipment and Supplies
- Software and Games
- Sporting Goods
- Toys and Games
- Watches
- UK Books
- UK Video Games
- UK Home and Garden
- UK Electronics, Gadgets and Computers
- UK Baby Clothes and Accessories
- UK Software and Games
- UK Sporting Goods
- UK Toys and Games
Books : Fiction : Contemporary Fiction: 1970 Onwards : Authors A-Z : B : Bushnell, Candace
-
-
-
-
-
Candace Bushnell made her reputation as the creator of the hit US TV series Sex and the City, based on her book of the same name (based in turn on her Eros-intensive New York Observer column). In Four Blondes, she returns with a quartet of novellas on her favourite subject--the mating habits of wealthy, sex-, status- and media-obsessed New Yorkers. These are people for whom a million or two does not make you rich, and who consider Louis Vuitton and Prada bare necessities. Janey Wilcox, for example, is a former model who each summer chooses a house in the Hamptons--or rather, picks up a wealthy man with a pricey rental. With one movie in her past, her "lukewarm celebrity was established and she figured out pretty quickly that it could get her things and keep on getting them, as long as she maintained her standards". Yet even Janey eventually realises that what she's getting isn't exactly what she wants. Cecelia, on the other hand, has gotten the ultimate prize: a royal husband. Still, she finds herself descending into paranoia as the Manhattan media circus reports her every flaw. Then there is Winnie Diekes, a high-powered magazine columnist whose marriage flounders as she pushes her unambitious husband to write the book that will make him--and her--famous.Finally, in the most clearly autobiographical story, a writer gives up on the commitment-impaired men of New York and goes to London to find a husband. There she trawls for the so-called typical Englishman--"a guy who had sex with his socks on, possessed a microscopic willy, and came in two minutes". Bushnell is famous for this sort of sexual brashness, and the book is full of her sharp wit, both in and out of the boudoir. She also clearly enjoys her characters and their misadventures, with one exception: the politically correct Winnie, with her distaste for alcohol, night life, and casual sex, inspires an odd sort of authorial contempt. Otherwise, though, the Bushnell's ironic takes on the sexual foibles of the rich and famous are mordant, mischievous fun. --Lesley Reed
-
Janey Wilcox is an MAW (that's Model/Actress/Whatever to the uninitiated). The problem with Janey, the protagonist of Trading Up, the new novel from Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell, is not the M or the A part. It's the W. Here is a rare alphabetical anomaly: in Janey's case, W stands for "prostitute". Janey never crosses the line into actual hookerdom, but she does sleep with extremely wealthy men in the hopes they'll improve her status, her financial situation, or her lifestyle.When we first met Janey in Bushnell's novella collection 4 Blondes, she was up to her usual tricks (so to speak)--scamming a guy for a Hamptons vacation rental. At the opening of Trading Up her fortunes have improved. She's now the star of a Victoria's Secret ad campaign and as such she's found access to undreamed-of echelons of New York society. She makes friends with Mimi Kilroy, a senator's daughter "at the very top of the social heap in New York." She gets invited to all the best parties. And she finally finds a wealthy man who will actually marry her: Seldon Rose, a powerful entertainment industry executive. Of course, Janey's social ambitions are not hampered by her marriage to Seldon and the clash between her expectations (more parties) and his (normal life) send Janey into a tailspin that leads to heartbreak. Bushnell is clearly trying to channel Edith Wharton (The Custom of the Country is even invoked by Janey as a screenplay idea), but ends up sounding a lot more like a cross between Tama Janowitz and Judith Krantz. This is a novel about shopping and sex, and while it's fizzy enough, it's not Cristal. --Claire Dederer, Amazon.com
-
"Relationships in New York are about detachment. But how do you get attached when you want to?"Candace Bushnell, in the divinely bitchy Sex and the City, answers this question by introducing a formidable corps of successful grown-ups who are each "up to their cuffs in polished cynicism". Fully equipped with high credit limits, high heels and a never-ending supply of condoms, they storm their way through the stars and bars of New York doing drugs, drink and sex and treading the dangerous waters between the easy-living twentysomething years and the last-chance thirtysomethings.
As successful and smart single women work their way through Married Men and Modelisers (men who will only date models), Serial Daters and Perennial Bachelors, watching forlornly as the occasional Happily Married pops in to remind themselves how lucky they are, Bushnell irreverently dives in and out of varying habitats, eavesdropping on shabby lives decorated with Gold Cards and Designer Labels and taking the reader on an anthropological tour of the underbelly of the rich and the richer on their endless search for fulfilment.
Painfully sharp, often poignant and chock full with more truth than anyone would really like to admit, Sex and the City is a harem-scarem, casually vicious but ultimately thorough dissing of a thirtysomething world where gloss and glamour can never compensate for The Real Thing, and where eventually Settling is the only answer. --Susan Harrison
-
-
-
-
"Relationships in New York are about detachment. But how do you get attached when you want to?"Candace Bushnell, in the divinely bitchy Sex and the City, answers this question by introducing a formidable corps of successful grown-ups who are each "up to their cuffs in polished cynicism". Fully equipped with high credit limits, high heels and a never-ending supply of condoms, they storm their way through the stars and bars of New York doing drugs, drink and sex and treading the dangerous waters between the easy-living twentysomething years and the last-chance thirtysomethings.
As successful and smart single women work their way through Married Men and Modelisers (men who will only date models), Serial Daters and Perennial Bachelors, watching forlornly as the occasional Happily Married pops in to remind themselves how lucky they are, Bushnell irreverently dives in and out of varying habitats, eavesdropping on shabby lives decorated with Gold Cards and Designer Labels and taking the reader on an anthropological tour of the underbelly of the rich and the richer on their endless search for fulfilment.
Painfully sharp, often poignant and chock full with more truth than anyone would really like to admit, Sex and the City is a harem-scarem, casually vicious but ultimately thorough dissing of a thirtysomething world where gloss and glamour can never compensate for The Real Thing, and where eventually Settling is the only answer. --Susan Harrison
-
-
-
-
"Relationships in New York are about detachment. But how do you get attached when you want to?"Candace Bushnell, in the divinely bitchy Sex and the City, answers this question by introducing a formidable corps of successful grown-ups who are each "up to their cuffs in polished cynicism". Fully equipped with high credit limits, high heels and a never-ending supply of condoms, they storm their way through the stars and bars of New York doing drugs, drink and sex and treading the dangerous waters between the easy-living twentysomething years and the last-chance thirtysomethings.
As successful and smart single women work their way through Married Men and Modelisers (men who will only date models), Serial Daters and Perennial Bachelors, watching forlornly as the occasional Happily Married pops in to remind themselves how lucky they are, Bushnell irreverently dives in and out of varying habitats, eavesdropping on shabby lives decorated with Gold Cards and Designer Labels and taking the reader on an anthropological tour of the underbelly of the rich and the richer on their endless search for fulfilment.
Painfully sharp, often poignant and chock full with more truth than anyone would really like to admit, Sex and the City is a harem-scarem, casually vicious but ultimately thorough dissing of a thirtysomething world where gloss and glamour can never compensate for The Real Thing, and where eventually Settling is the only answer. --Susan Harrison
-
-
-
-
-
