One Fifth Avenue
by Candace Bushnell
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Book Reviews of One Fifth Avenue
Book Review: A total waste of paper and ink.
Summary: 1 Stars
In 1967 I applied to sub-let an apartment at One Fifth Avenue. It was unique, there was a sofa in the kitchen, a fireplace in the bedroom, a maze of isolated rooms and halls. And it was affordable. But, since nobody in their right mind would sub-let to an eighteen year old, I was disappointed...but I never forgot that apartment.
So, when I saw the title of the book, advertised in Vanity Fair, I just had to read it. I was especially excited, because I absolutely loved every single second of every single episode of "Sex and the City."
So, I paid full retail at an airport book store. But my flight offered more stimulating reading material in the pocket of the seat in front of me. Yes, that in flight rag-mag was better written.
But, having shelled out $28.00, I was determined to plow through the whole book, hoping for one single laugh, one tidbit of entertainment, one glimpse of the mind that created Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and the darling Charlotte. But it never happened. I hated every character in the book. They were all one dimensional stereo-types, with no redeeming qualities.
But...several of the characters did have one interesting characteristic: they had twenty foot long expanda-arms. They could press the button on the elevator while walking across the lobby. Like so many high school sophomores, Miss Bushnell, seems to think that dangling participles makes her writing sound more creative.
Usually, I loan out my books until they don't come back. This one went straight to the recycling bin....after I defaced the "authors" photo.
What a shameful waste of paper and ink.
Book Review: Real Estate is the New Black
Summary: 4 Stars
This novel, "One Fifth Avenue," gets its name from the Art Deco building in New York's ultra-hip Greenwich Village. Living there has a certain status to which the middle-aged main characters aspire. In "Sex and the City" it was shoes. In this book, it's real estate.
Mindy Gooch is the building's board president. She's a bitter blogger, whose husband, James, writes a commercially successful novel. Schiffer Diamond is an actress who has a relationship with a fellow tenant, a Pulitzer Prize and Oscar-winning author, Philip Oakland. Philip's Texan aunt, Enid Merle, is an 80-something gossip columnist; and the woman who has turned Philip's head is a schemer named Lola Fabrikant (what a name!) The designated bald, gay man is Billy Litchfield and the designated beauty queen is Annalisa Rice, who gets a strong lesson in the social rules of One Fifth Avenue. As a host of characters come and go (a LOT to keep track of particularly at first), the story is filled with competition for success and sexual tension and ultimately pulls together. There are philosophical generational conflicts (middle-age characters are "snobby," and 20-something characters are "without conscience") coupled with the age-old conflict of old and new money.
Like Candace Bushnell's previous books, it's more about colorful characters than good writing. I believe both "Sex and the City" and "Lipstick Jungle" made better television series than books and my guess is the same is true for this title. 3.5 stars.
Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club.
Book Review: Guilty pleasure with sharp, critical observations about NYC life
Summary: 4 Stars
It's popcorn, but it's also not shallow.
Overall this book was enjoyable. The theme, I think, is that although the players might change, the play stays the same in the NYC rat race. So it goes with this particular set of characters, not all likeable, but that's the point. Bushnell really goes through the privileges, prejudices, aspirations and problems of these very New York City characters, whose lives intersect only because they live in the same building. (And anyone who has ever lived in NYC will surely report how oddly familial and important your neighbors can be in your existence -- in both good and bad ways!).
I think the novel works because it is full of both superficial guilty pleasure and sharp critical observations. There are some real barbs about age and aging in general -- the arrogance of youth, the strains of success and failure in middle age, and the inevitable process of aging. What I liked best about the novel is how Bushnell reminds the reader that TMZ and Perez Hilton didn't invent scandal...gossip, social power plays and social climbing have been around for a long time, and are perhaps even a fundamental component of any social scene (in this case wealthy, downtown NYC). That's the point, the story itself is just a light and entertaining way to explore the good and bad realities of social interaction and strategy.
Not a literary classic, but easy juicy reading.
Book Review: Thought it would be funnier
Summary: 3 Stars
What I loved most about Sex and the City was the way that everything was always kind of over the top. Compared to that, One Fifth Avenue falls flat. For example, at what seems to be the high point of the book, Sam, the young son of the coop board's president, gets angry at Peter, the newest fabulously rich and corrupt tenant -- so he cuts the wires to his internet and Peter loses a business deal. Boo hoo! I kept waiting for the over the top behavior -- I was expecting Sam to kill the wife or attempt to burn the apartment building down. I kept waiting for Lola to marry Philip, just so she could get his fabulous apartment, and then she would turn around and dump him and his aunt out on the street. But none of that happened. Instead, the apartment was sold and no one liked the new tenants, and a few people lost their jobs, but it was all rather tame, really. It's as though the emotions are heated and the plot twists and turns, but it's all rather . . subdued. At one point in the beginning, Bushnell makes mention of Thackeray and Vanity Fair, and Henry James and I felt like perhaps she was going for an upstairs,downstairs sophisticated drawing room comedy kind of thing. Me, I was waiting for Samantha from Sex and the City. You know what? She never showed up.Book Review: The Generation Gap hits the Sex in the City crowd
Summary: 2 Stars
Candace Bushnell has apparently decided that the world is seperated into two groups: the rich and sucessful and those who envy them.
In this book, the two groups are further divided by age.
The young are sociopathic, exhibitionistic, fame junkies who live only to consume and snark on their "betters".
The old are bitter and envious, but still hold onto a shred of decency while wondering blankly why the young are so...young.
It's an amusing read that shows very clearly that Bushnell's world has reduced itself to a pinpoint view of a small, self-selecting class. Regardless of age or income, they're all reprehensible and, as Bushnell portrays it, stupid.
It's a sad book full of sad people who you will alternately shake your head at or cringe at.
If "Sex and the City" made you envious of the lives of New Yorkers, "One Fifth Avenue" will make you glad you don't know any.
I give it 2 stars based on her schadenfreude-licious observations and clear understanding of her peer group and their hangers-on.
She's a sort of Dominick Dunne. Which is to say a sort of Edith Wharton.
But not up to their mark.
Jacqueline Collins is about the level of this book.
Which is perfectly fine as a summertime read.