Sex and Shopping: Confessions of a Nice Jewish Girl

I've loved Judith's work over the years. Her last two novels haven't been the greatest and one wonders what's she's doing now. Because I was mildy disappointed in her last two novels, The Jewels of Tessa Kent and Models (?...really the worst one, but much better than any other fiction I try to read), I wasn't as hopeful. But, it really was Judith at her best! I couldn't put it down and I had to read it until 5 a.m. (Just like the old days:-) I hope we have more coming. ... I didn't find Judith being self-serving. If you write about yourself, which must be very difficult for anyone; what are you going to say? Hopefully you will try to be objective and say some positives and negatives. I found that she dicussed both the good and not-so-good in this book.

When I checked out this book, I was not quite sure what to expect. However, after reading the first few pages, I knew this was going to be a very good read. Judith Krantz is a wonderful storyteller (there is not one dry or boring moment) and she has led a fascinating life! (Many of her experiences you will recognize from her 10 books.) I definitely recommend that any fan read this book; I was sorry to finish it!

Anyone who ever read one of Judith Krantz's novels and wondered exactly where she finds her fascinating ideas will have that mystery resolved by SEX AND SHOPPING. Trite though it may be to say, Mrs. Krantz has led a life more amazing than most fiction.Maybe it just has been luck, or maybe she really was born under a lucky star, but her life has been filled with magic. She was born to two successful European Jewish immigrants to New York who gave her every advantage educationally and materially--except perhaps mother love. Barbara Walters set her up with her husband, even provided the dress she would wear when they met. (Admittedly, they had not yet grown up to be Great Dames; they still just were a couple of eager girls.) Her brother married Shari Lewis. She and her husband sold their co-op on Central Park West to David and Helen Gurley Brown. By her own report, the entire ride's gone that way.Immediately following World War II, right after Judy had graduated from college (Seven Sisters, it goes without saying), her father placed her for a year with an impoverished aristocrat in Paris. At the time, Judy barely understood French. By the end of the year, she spoke a perfect, fluent, Parisian-accented version, in which she can converse to this day. Anybody who read SCRUPLES, her first blockbuster, will remember that this is a history that her heroine shared. Oh, yes, and Judy also finally lost her virginity in the City of Love.She writes bluntly about the sexual conventions of her generation, strange by contemporary standards. In those pre-birth control days, she ended up needing an abortion. And she had the abortion the day before she had her first date with her husband. Yet the date must have gone well, since they are married over forty years, with children and grandchildren.This is a woman who would have had a lovely and interesting life, even if she never had written a word. The most serious problems she admits to having encountered were the polite anti-Semitism of post-war Paris and some overt anti-Semitism when she was on a book tour in Germany in the 1970's. Professionally, Judith Krantz has specialized in writing the kind of popular novel which often is referred to by a more vulgar phrase than "sex," always combined with shopping. She certainly did not invent this genre, but she formalized it and designed the format which has had to have been followed by any author emulating SCRUPLES.With sex and shopping to keep her busy along the way, Judith Krantz has led a fascinating life.

This autobiography was actually more enjoyable than Judith Krantz's latest book "The Jewels of Tessa Kent." I had no idea she was brought up in such a wealth family. Unfortunately, the wealth did not bring happiness. Her mother, whom she was constantly trying to please, was cold and aloof and her father, who Ms. Krantz adored, was more interested in his many mistresses than he was his children. The book is written in a friendly, almost chatty way. I felt that I got to know a little bit about the author - the good parts of her life anyway - she left out anything bad happening and even put a somewhat sunny glow on alcoholism and abortion. The only time I got the impression that her life was not going as expected was when she discussed her first boyfriend (a total jerk) who sexually molested her at the age of 15. Yet, the book is very enjoyable. I would recommend it.

Judith Krantz has written a terrifically entertaining memoir... fresh, funny and real. She doesn't take her life, her affairs (pre-marital, I might add), or her work too seriously, which makes her name-dropping and stunning successes fun to read about, rather than insufferable as in so many other books of this nature. She is her own best heroine.Much of this book is very moving and insightful...her often-strained but always respectful relationship with her mother, the absolute worship she had for her father, her candid but loving observations on her husband and marriage plus much more. It was worth the price of the book to read that indeed Pamela Harriman WAS the inspiration for one my favorite Krantz characters of all, Anabel of "Princess Daisy," as I'd long suspected.Judy Krantz and that other "wild again" woman of a similar vintage, Helen Gurley Brown, are living proof that one doesn't lose one's passions as one gets to be a woman of a certain age. These ladies live life to the hilt with gusto that would put a twenty-something to shame!Great job, Judy. What a treat to read about the geniune article that created such memorable, glamorous, unforgettable stories.