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| One Fifth Avenue | 
enlarge | Author: Candace Bushnell Publisher: Voice Category: Book
List Price: $25.95 Buy New: $15.34 You Save: $10.61 (41%)
New (51) Used (15) Collectible (3) from $12.50
Avg. Customer Rating: 50 reviews Sales Rank: 246
Media: Hardcover Number Of Items: 1 Pages: 448 Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6 Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.5
ISBN: 1401301614 Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9781401301613 ASIN: 1401301614
Publication Date: September 22, 2008 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Condition: gift quality
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Product Description "ONE FIFTH AVENUE is a modern comedy of manners -- a landmark novel, if you like. Its observations about money, the Internet, the function of art in society as wellas sex romps, social climbing and snobbery enhance Bushnell's reputation as an astute observer of modern life....Carrie Bradshaw wannabes as well as women (and men) near Bushnell's age -- she turns 50 this year -- will be pulled into this refreshing and highly entertaining novel about the power of money, sex and celebrity." --USA TODAY "Bushnell...broadens her scope in her latest ode to New York strivers and sophisticates...The fun lies in the author's acute observations about everything from real estate envy to midlife crises." --More "Where [Bushnell] goes, her army of stilletoed fans follow. You gotta love it: the conflict, the secrets-telling, the peek into the world of the rich and valueless. It all adds up to a juicy summer read." --New York Post "One Fifth Avenue is all things an escapist read she be: quick and wicked and wry. There's a blown-out bitch to root against, a star-crossed couple to root for, and a Tim Gunn-style best friend who deserves his own book. Great, guiltless fun." --Entertainment Weekly 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 45 more reviews...
Sexier Than Edith Wharton September 24, 2008 46 out of 55 found this review helpful
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.
Bushnell does it again! September 23, 2008 10 out of 12 found this review helpful
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
Surprisingly good October 1, 2008 7 out of 11 found this review helpful
I was shocked and amazed (and possibly a little embarrassed) by how much I enjoyed this book! One Fifth Avenue renewed my faith in chick-lit.
At first I needed to make a 'cheat sheet' to remind me who all the characters were and how they were connected. Within 100 pages, I was completely hooked and fascinated with how Bushnell tied everything together. I'd love to read a sequel and hear what Lola Fabrikant is up to 5 years later!
Quick, satisfying read.
Real Estate is the New Black October 9, 2008 7 out of 9 found this review helpful
This novel, "One Fifth Avenue," gets its name from the Art Deco building in New York's ultra-hip Greenwich Village. Living there has a certain status to which the middle-aged main characters aspire. In "Sex and the City" it was shoes. In this book, it's real estate.
Mindy Gooch is the building's board president. She's a bitter blogger, whose husband, James, writes a commercially successful novel. Schiffer Diamond is an actress who has a relationship with a fellow tenant, a Pulitzer Prize and Oscar-winning author, Philip Oakland. Philip's Texan aunt, Enid Merle, is an 80-something gossip columnist; and the woman who has turned Philip's head is a schemer named Lola Fabrikant (what a name!) The designated bald, gay man is Billy Litchfield and the designated beauty queen is Annalisa Rice, who gets a strong lesson in the social rules of One Fifth Avenue. As a host of characters come and go (a LOT to keep track of particularly at first), the story is filled with competition for success and sexual tension and ultimately pulls together. There are philosophical generational conflicts (middle-age characters are "snobby," and 20-something characters are "without conscience") coupled with the age-old conflict of old and new money.
Like Candace Bushnell's previous books, it's more about colorful characters than good writing. I believe both "Sex and the City" and "Lipstick Jungle" made better television series than books and my guess is the same is true for this title. 3.5 stars.
Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club.
One Half October 4, 2008 6 out of 8 found this review helpful
I forced myself to keep reading the book, because I knew Candace Bushnell would not let me down (as I had read all of her other books) and love the show Lipstick Jungle! It really started to pick up and the characters started to come into their own about halfway through the book. At times I was almost embarassed at the graphic sexual content, yet relieved it wasn't the main focus of the book. I felt a new level of understanding for the "rat race" of New York & appreciation for my suburban space after reading about how the characters would do anything for bigger, more prestigious living space. It is not the fastest read as there are a lot of characters to keep track of and it is not obvious how they are all connected until halfway through, yet I couldn't put it down near the end.
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