One Fifth Avenue

If you are not a Bushnell fan, stay away. Better to start with Trading Up and moving on to Lipstick Jungle. These are great novels. One Fifth has all the elements of a Bushnell novel: Shallow, stunning protaganist attempting to sleep her way to the top, men chasing the shallow stunning girl even though she is evil, other characters who have a supporting role in the drama. But this novel is not as insightful. All the characters lack dimension. Bushnell can do better. Why 5 stars? Because I really enjoyed the book even though it was lacking.

The pursuit of money and the extravagances it can buy, and what it is like to live when money is no object, is the fascinating social commentary written by one of New York's premier 21st-century novelists, Candace Bushnell. Those who possess old money and new money are striving for status, art, publicity and New York real estate. The reader is seduced by New York City and the fantasy that if you can make it in the Big Apple, you can make it anywhere. Money, odd couple relationships and age are recurring themes with Carrie Bradshaw-style commentary by Bushnell: "Perhaps too much money was like too much sex. It crossed the line and became pornographic." Bushnell's fifth novel shines the spotlight on an eclectic group of people who currently live at or who are scheming to live at One Fifth Avenue. Bushnell's characters are socialites, writers, gossip columnists, actresses and hedge-fund managers, and for contrast she has thrown in Mindy Gooch, who writes a blog titled "The Joys of Not Having It All." She is the outsider looking in, even though she resides at One Fifth. When the "queen of society" Louise Houghton dies leaving her "legendary collection of jewelry," including the mysteriously stolen Cross of Bloody Mary and her historical penthouse at One Fifth with a domed ballroom and a 360-degree view of Manhattan, the race to see who can acquire the coveted real estate first begins. The idea that money seduces us and creates aspiring social-climbing whores and that "Forty million isn't real money. A hundred million is getting there" paints a picture of our society that is alarming but possibly true. Bushnell concludes that the young are afraid to grow up to be the "establishment" --- that is, until money talks. There is power in having limitless amounts of money, but she also writes characters like Annalisa Rice who are unhappy, despite their billions and Chopard watches. Philip Oakland grew up at One Fifth. He has won a Pulitzer Prize and an Oscar, and is writing screenplays for Hollywood, yet he is restless, out of touch and easily seduced by the much younger Lola, who is seeking to marry into money. Lola's character is the energy in this novel. She has the "unbridled confidence of youth," a keen sense of status and the power to use sexual temptation to elevate her social status. Each of her conquests is a writer, and her sexcapades are the only sex here. Romance is absent in ONE FIFTH AVENUE, but surprisingly the older women are ultimately winners over the younger ones. Age, wisdom and money still have clout, but sex without romance is like marriage, and Bushnell's readers are used to fantasy and lovers who excite us. If you are looking for another SEX AND THE CITY with rich relationships between female friends, lovers and sexy shoes, or another LIPSTICK JUNGLE, with women working and sleeping their way to the top, you will not find that in this latest Bushnell effort. The author has matured, and in many places I felt she was writing her o

I was a bit hesitant to read One Fifth Avenue, having been really disappointed by Lipstick Jungle. I'm so glad I took the chance, though. The best surprise was that, unlike LJ, I really loved these characters. I sometimes find Bushnell's characters unlikeable - the women seem to be super-power-hungry and the men are useless, and their points of view are rendered unworthy of exploration. In One Fifth Avenue, though, I found all of the women to be characters I cared about and liked, and I was impressed to see all of the points of views - men and women - equally explored. The plot took a lot of turns, but they all had a reason and I was never left wondering "what the heck??" after a chapter. Everything flowed seamlessly together, and the storylines wove in and out easily and understandably. It's a quick and easy read, but still manages to pull out emotions for the characters. Definitely a recommended read!

I had never read a Candace Bushnell novel before this and never seen a complete episode of Sex and the City, though I had heard of it. I've been disappointed by most of the recent (and ballyhooed) novels I've read. But on previewing an excerpt of One Fifth in Vogue, I was intrigued by the profoundly shallow character of Lola Fabrikant, a fabricated girl with a name to match. Now on reading the book, I am genuinely impressed. Candace Bushnell is a true storyteller, and that's no small praise. She's written a pageturner, crafted memorable characters, imbued them with individuality and personality, and given them the most luscious lines to speak. Her subject is not sex despite what you may think, and though there is considerably more explicitness than in Edith Wharton or Jane Austen (you may skip, as I did, the overly anatomical descriptions), Bushnell's real subject is the pursuit of status and success in New York City at the present moment. Many have tried this subject before, but the Jayne Krentzes and Rona Jaffes of the past were hacks compared to Bushnell. She's not an artist, but she is very clever and even wise. And she spins a darn good story, which is what a novel, to me, should be about. Almost every character in One Fifth Avenue is lacking his heart's desire, is deeply dissatisfied, and these frustrated desires, which conflict with those of their neighbors, drive the plot lines of the novel. The greatest desire of all is not for love, but for real estate, in the form of a penthouse triplex at One Fifth Avenue, up for sale after the death of its centenarian socialite owner, felled on her own terrace in a driving rainstorm. A crowning irony is that this aged doyenne who possesses the acme of desire, the immense apartment atop Manhattan's coveted address, dies of pneumonia because her servants can't locate her in time in the 7,000 square foot apartment. Such is the futility of possession.

Candace Bushnell is a genius in this medium. She is a wonderful literary talent who mixes comedy with dark drama in the most interesting of New York settings. ONE FIFTH is a comedy that both New Yorkers and Americans alike can relate to as the tenants of this grand building trample over each other when some try to reach their way to the top of the social scale and buy what is certainly one of the best penthouses in NYC's famous Greenwhich village. Where the fervent Bushnell fans will be delighted to see familar-type faces; the young Lola Fabrikant, the gorgeous actress Schiffer Diamond, that everyone wishes they were. New readers will maybe find a bit of themselves in the reserved but intelligent character of Annalisa or the overachiever, Mindy Gooch, who just never finds happiness, no matter how much she has accomomplished. ONE FIFTH is surely one of the most revelent books on the shelves right now and the best thing about it is, it's a damn good read. TS