Product Description

'Bushnell's beat is that demi-monde of nightclubs, bars, restaurants and parties where the rich come into contact with the infamous, the famous with the wannabes and the publicity-hungry with the gossip-peddlers' EVENING STANDARD Wildly funny, unexpectedly poignant, wickedly observant, SEX AND THE CITY blazes a glorious, drunken cocktail trail through New York, as Candace Bushnell, columnist and social critic par excellence, trips on her Manolo Blahnik kitten heels from the Baby Doll Lounge to the Bowery Bar. An Armistead Maupin for the real world, she has the gift of assembling a huge and irresistible cast of freaks and wonders, while remaining faithful to her hard core of friends and fans: those glamorous, rebellious, crazy single women, too close to forty, who are trying hard not to turn from the Audrey Hepburn of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S into the Glen Close of FATAL ATTRACTION, and are - still - looking for love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9198 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'Intriguing and highly entertaining' Helen Fielding, author of BRIDGET JONES' DIARY 'Imagine Jane Austen with a martini, or perhaps Jonathan Swift on rollerblades' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Imagine THE SUN edited by Jane Austen ... hilarious ... a compulsively readable book, served on bite-sized chunks of irrepressible irreverence.' MARIE CLAIRE 'Irresistable, hilarious and horrific, stylishly written. You might be appalled but anyone who lives here will recognise that Candace Bushnell has captured the big black truth. The only people who won't succumb to the book's very real charms are the ones in it and they'll probably be too preoccupied trying to figure out who's who.' Bret Easton Ellis 'Punchy, archly knowing and sharply observed...Bushnell offers a brash, radically unromantic perspective...the effect is that of an Armistead Maupin-like canvas tinged with a liberal smattering of Judith Krantz...these essay are brain candy that will appeal equally to urban romantics and unromantics.' PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY 'Fascinating and haunting insights into the love lives of the rich and randy in New York...An oddly touching collection...with the detached grace of an early Didion...Often funny and occasionally bleak, this is a captivating look at the 'Age of Un-Innocence' in a city in which the glittering diversions don't quite make up for the fact that 'Cupid has flown the coop." KIRKUS REVIEWS 'Bushnell's canape-sized bites of Manhattan life stylishly capture a clubbing and dating scene...' INDEPENDENT

Freud, it seems, was a conservative: you can start messing up your children while they're in the womb. Hormone changes are inherited, "the nervous system is an organized, integrated system," the slightest tick can traumatize; the neonate will be neurotic if the mother gives birth prematurely, belatedly, laboriously or by Caesarean section. And if she doesn't lactate, breast feed, steps out to the movies before the baby's nine months' old ("it's traumatic for an infant to be fed a bottle by a sitter. . ."), isn't at his constant beck and call, one day he'll be uncoordinated, tense, pigeon-toed and in Primal Therapy screaming Maaa. . . (whereupon all those ugly symptoms will disappear; the book is filled with testimony that they do). Janov's ideal is the primevally primitive food-gathering tribe "whose style of life says all that needs to be said about child rearing." But since we all can't roam around in bands, "Primalling" will have to substitute. So get started building that Primal Room and teach your children how - we are told of parents who have done it, starting at the age of two. Eeeeow! (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author
A seasoned freelance writer, Candace Bushnell has been writing the 'Sex and the City' column since 1994. She is also a regular contributor to VOGUE. Ms Bushnell lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

"Sex and the City" the inspiration behind the TV series
I'm writing this review as a fan of the TV series based upon this book and the film which I have seen just recently - both of which have made me laugh and cry.

If like myself you are backtracking from these to this book I'd be weary. The characters from the series are here, sometimes appearing more or less frequently or have been renamed.

However from the way it is written I can't work out if it's a novel, a social commentary or a collection of Bushnell's newspaper columns with bits in between. The novel is a light read because if you're familiar with Sex And The City - Series 1 [1998], a lot of the dialogue and storylines will be familiar.

Dont buy this book!
I am a die-hard SATC fan, but was sorely disappointed by this book. The writing is really poor- changing tenses and narrator-prespectives at will. Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte & Samantha are bit-parts in this book, they're not the central cast so if you want more of SATC, buy the dvd set or go see the movie- this book will certainly not give you what you need.

Interesting read for Sex and the City fans!
If you are expecting something identical to the TV series then you probably would be disappointed, as the show is clearly only based on it. Carrie and Big feature a lot but Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha only appear a handful of times. If anything, this book made me cringe and feel less positive about finding my Mr Right than before I picked it up! It made me glad I don't live in Manhattan! However, I still would recommend it, it is a good, light read and humorous to say the least. Just don't let it put you off men completely, I'm sure there are a few decent ones out there!!!