Just weeks after the release of "Sex and the City: The Movie" had women around the country screaming "Oh my God, I can't believe they made a movie!," fans were in for another treat. Candace Bushnell, author of the novel-turned-HBO-series-turned-movie "Sex and the City," released her fifth book, "One Fifth Avenue." The novel is filled with as much glitz and glamour as her original cult favorite.
The book and its infamous namesake building represent the surviving old and the emerging new that are constantly battling in New York.
"You know New York never changes," said Phillip Oakland, a Pulitzer Prize-winning screenplay writer. "The characters are different, but the play remains the same."
Bushnell's usual cast of characters are all here -- the gossip columnist, the over-40 actress, the scorned businesswoman and the alpha males. In her other books all the characters are vying for the opposite sex, but here they're after something a little more valuable in New York these days: real estate.
One Fifth Avenue is an art deco historical landmark in Greenwich Village that has housed artists, muses, musicians and actors for almost 80 years. When the building's 100-year-old Brooke Astor-type owner unexpectedly dies, leaving the building's $20 million triplex open, every character in the book is affected in some way. The building's residents pride themselves on being the anti-Upper East Side - not the home of doctors, lawyers and business types but of art, class and social value - and they fear the arrival of a new owner.
What they get is Annalisa and Paul Rice, newcomers to the city and the social scene. Paul's hedge fund management money allows them to pay the $20 million in cash, and they start renovating right away. The two bring in satellites, aquariums and the proposal of in-the-wall air conditioning units that would alter the granite fa?ade and antiquity of the building.
Also contrasting the old and new are characters 45-year-old Phillip Oakland, whose personal style and home décor are stuck in the seventies, and his 22-year-old researcher Lola, who types on her iPhone, checks PerezHilton.com or watches reality TV shows instead of working. When Paul tells her he has no information on money-obsessed brides for his new screenplay, she gasps "Haven't you ever seen 'Bridezillas?'"
Bushnell's ability to be a social critic in this book shines like the Harry Winstons her characters wear. Her observations on money, the Internet, blogging and the value of art and class in society are written so precisely that it's no wonder two of her books have become highly acclaimed TV shows ("Lipstick Jungle" airs on NBC). Her writing is at its best when she leaves the reader hanging in the suspenseful sexual tensions and rising successes that are constantly building between characters.
This book is quintessential Bushnell with its biting satire, sticky sex scenes and designer-clad women. Carrie Bradshaw fans - men and women alike - won't be able to put this one down, dying to know how they, too, can move into One Fifth Avenue.
