Promotional Information

* A cool witty novel about urban sexuality, from the author of SEX AND THE CITY

About the Author

A seasoned freelance writer, Candace Bushnell wrote the SEX AND THE CITY column for many years. She is also a regular contributor to VOGUE. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

The author whose name is synonymous with her novel Sex and the City weighs in again with four loosely linked tales that form a sexually charged and withering analysis of how New York'sÄand London'sÄwomen work feverishly at their relationships, meanwhile trying desperately to make their names. In the first chapter, the bluntly scheming, semisuccessful model Janey Wilcox is in her 10th year of charming powerful, rich men into installing her in their Hamptons homes for the summer. The mutual benefits are obvious: the moguls get a gorgeous sex kitten to display and bed, while she summers in high style. When this arrangement leads to a few humiliating encounters, however, Janey tries her hand at screenwriting and attempts real estate school, but eventually she finds her fortune in a more realistic endeavor: a lucrative lingerie modeling contract. The next story features Winnie, a successful columnist married to a mediocre literary journalist. The victims of relentless ambition and disappointment, they lash one another with insults, each finding their only solace in one-night stands. The third tale is the paranoid confession of Cecelia, who wants to be "normal" and pops pills to mitigate her fear of being nothing without a man. The last blonde is an unnamed 40-year-old journalist who, disillusioned with Manhattan males, travels to London on a magazine assignment to compare English and American men's attitudes about sex. The Brit banter revolves entirely around sexual technique and penis size, but manages to be entertaining. Mostly, the novel is New York-centric, focused on the obsessions of desperate people and replete with glittering details to satisfy the most exacting fashionista. Though superficial, these characters' envy and spite rises from their fear of mortality, of dying without having left their mark. Mercilessly satirical, Bushnell's scathing insights and razor wit are laced with an understanding of this universal human fear, and they inspire fear and pity in the reader. Agent, Heather Schroder, ICM. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

'Stiletto-sharp wit and dialogue...A compulsive read.' OK MAGAZINE 'Extremely funny, but it's a hard boiled humour with a cruel edge.' OBSERVER 'Bushnell is a fabulous writer who captures her world in hard, glittering prose.' EVE 'Thank God this book is about four separate people- if it were about one, I wouldn't have been able to put it doen at all- stylishly presented in dark and illuminating chunks.' IRISH TATLER 'Sassy... Fast moving tales of fast lives.' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 'It is bleak, it is bitterly funny, it is unputdownable stuff. One of sharpest practitioners of her art around. Bushnell is also a clever and subtle moralist. Here is the post-modern woman taken to the nth degree.' SUNDAY TIMES 'Sharp, witty and sassy.' COSMPOLITAN 'Bushnell cleverly exploits the chasms in relationships.' SUNDAY HERALD

Lorelei King's narration outclasses these drab tales of upper-class angst. In her four short stories, Bushnell, columnist for the New York Observer and author of Sex and the City (now a popular HBO series), paints a dismal picture of love in the Big Apple. In "Nice N' Easy," model Janey Wilcox hooks up with a different man each summer so she can vacation at his home in the Hamptons. When asked if she's concerned that her reputation will eventually catch up with her, she explains, "I'm a feminist it's about redistribution of wealth." "Highlights (for adults)" and "Platinum" show two marriages buckling under the pressures of demanding careers and high society. "Single Process" features a sex columnist researching the differences between British and American men. Even King's excellent performance is not likely to arouse most listeners' interest in Bushnell's sketchy, self-absorbed characters. Not recommended. Beth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., OH Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.