Review: One Fifth Avenue

One Fifth Avenue Author: Candace Bushnell Genre: Contemporary Fiction Publisher:  Voice Release Date: September 22, 2008 Hardcover: 433 pages Source: Purchased from Borders Bookstore

Book Description

From one of the most consistently astute and engaging social commentators of our day comes another look at the tough and tender women of New York City--this time, through the lens of where they live.

One Fifth Avenue, the Art Deco beauty towering over one of Manhattan's oldest and most historically hip neighborhoods, is a one-of-a-kind address, the sort of building you have to earn your way into--one way or another. For the women in Candace Bushnell's new novel, One Fifth Avenue, this edifice is essential to the lives they've carefully established--or hope to establish. From the hedge fund king's wife to the aging gossip columnist to the free-spirited actress (a recent refugee from L.A.), each person's game plan for a rich life comes together under the soaring roof of this landmark building.

Acutely observed and mercilessly witty, One Fifth Avenue is a modern-day story of old and new money, that same combustible mix that Edith Wharton mastered in her novels about New York's Gilded Age and F. Scott Fitzgerald illuminated in his Jazz Age tales. Many decades later, Bushnell's New Yorkers suffer the same passions as those fictional Manhattanites from eras past: They thirst for power, for social prominence, and for marriages that are successful--at least to the public eye. But Bushnell is an original, and One Fifth Avenue is so fresh that it reads as if sexual politics, real estate theft, and fortunes lost in a day have never happened before.

From Sex and the City through four successive novels, Bushnell has revealed a gift for tapping into the zeitgeist of any New York minute and, as one critic put it, staying uncannily "just the slightest bit ahead of the curve." And with each book, she has deepened her range, but with a light touch that makes her complex literary accomplishments look easy. Her stories progress so nimbly and ring so true that it can seem as if anyone might write them--when, in fact, no one writes novels quite like Candace Bushnell. Fortunately for us, with One Fifth Avenue, she has done it again.

Review

As most of the books sitting on my bookshelf collecting dust, this one came from the Borders "Going Out of Business" sale.  I bought it solely based on the cover and nothing else.  I love the art on the cover and I didn't even realize who the author was.  I loved Sex and the City and I miss it.  Why did you have to go away?  I was hoping to get the old love back from the TV series from this book....but nope!  Not even close.  
This book is about way to many characters who live the good life in a historical art deco building in New York City called One Fifth (because it is on One Fifth Avenue).  All characters are rich to some degree from their novels, screen plays, old money, or high profiled careers.  They all seem to have drank the "kool-aid" and are caught up in keeping up with Jones's and maintaining their status in the New York high social society.  Art galleries, museums, lunches, and benefits are all they care about.  I was just so annoyed with this book because all the characters seem to be so self centered and shallow.  The most interesting person Annalise Rice turns from a real person (former lawyer) into one of them and she has no redeeming quality at all.  I had high hopes for her.  The book would have been much more exciting if it was about her, her life only and how she holds on to her humanity in the mist of this craziness.
As a 41 year old woman, I think it might be me but dang all the reference and the mention of being old.  This book makes 40 seem like 80 and with one foot in the grave.  The over 40 men feel like that in this book until they have sex with a 20-something.  Whatever!!!
Let's talk about that...sex...for a minute.  Clearly, the author loves shock and awe. Candance Bushnell made 50 Shades of Grey look like kiddie stuff.  And I am not talking about the S&M crazy stuff in the red room but the language in which she tells you about it. 

WOW!  This was just too much for me and I've read erotica.  I think the issue is the language felt unnecessary and was just to shock the reader.  There were so many other ways that could have been written.  
Ok, since I am on a small rant.  Why do all the characters have crazy names?  
I just had so many high hopes for this book that I can't get over this is the same Sex and the City author/ creator.  I wanted to fall in love with this book but.... nope!   

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Recommendations

I recommend this book to adult readers due to the strong graphic sex.

Challenges

This book is number 4 in my Dusty Bookshelf Reading Challenge
This book is number 5 in my Off the Shelf Reading Challenge
This book is number 10 in my New to Me Author Reading Challenge
This book is number 3 in my Rewind Reading Challenge
This books is number 2 in my TBR Pile Reading Challenge
This book is number 11 in my Goodreads Reading Challenge
This is the letter O in my Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge