"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 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 n-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.