performing arts

If you are a huge fan of the HBO series, (and if not, why not?), keep in mind that this book does not follow the lives of the four heroines as the show does. Carrie and Mr. Big are largely featured, as are the other ladies to a much lesser extent, but this book does not follow your typical story-telling format. Hardly surprising as it is a collection of articles.

Overall, I found the writing excellent and witty, but the format rather disjointing. It's a fun read with colorful characters. There is no depth to them, but shallow seems to be the key theme in Bushnell's examination of the Manhatten single scene. If you are looking for love in the Big Apple, you may find this book either a) full of helpful hints or b) so depressing you want to run home to Connecticut. I enjoyed it, but it's easy to put down and forget about.

Look. Seriously, now. If you like the show or the book even a little bit, you realllllly need to investigate books by Cynthia Heimel. Heimel was the original and she remains the best. She's smarter and funnier and a thousand times more interesting than Candace Bushnell or Carrie Bradshaw. Heimel is a little grittier than SATC. She's weak for shoes and designer clothes but she lives strictly in the real world. Please, please PLEASE read "Sex Tip For Girls" or "But Enough About You" or "If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead Yet" if you want to see what Candace Bushnell is DESPERATELY TRYING to do! Try Heimel once. You'll never read Bushnell again. You're welcome!

Bushnell has been hyped as "Edith Wharton with a Martini". If anyone actually believes this, then I am horrified at how low American literature has sunk. She's not even Jacqueline Suzann or Jackie Collins. These little vignettes are superficial, dull, and neither particularly intelligent nor particularly witty. Other reviewers are correct when they point out that the series was much smarter and funnier (at least, the first three seasons, anyway). It amazes me that this crap ever got published, and now Bushnell fancies herself a clever writer, so she has begun foisting other bombs on us as well (Trading Up and Four Blondes, both as dull and unimaginative as Sex and the City). She is an amateurish writer with painfully sophomoric "insights" who has benefitted from the hype of a great show based very loosely on her column (and I mean VERY loosely). As someone who lives in NYC, I can tell you that the people Bushnell reveres as the power players and "in" crowd are the (...) of many a joke in other social circles. Not everyone in this city worships superficiality and eternal adolescence. Don't waste your money!!