Sonoma State Star

Issue date: 10/7/08 Section: Arts and Entertainment

Bushnell's biting satire flies off the page in "One Fifth Avenue."

When Candace Bushnell was twenty-something, just starting out as a writer in New York City, she lived in a tiny walkup apartment with no furniture because she spent every nickel on rent and clothing. 

Like so many of her characters, Bushnell was in love with the glamour of Manhattan and was willing to do anything to live there.

And as the bestselling author of "Sex and the City" and "Lipstick Jungle" she's written about the love affairs and careers of modern New York women, and now, with her new novel "One Fifth Avenue," she turns her focus on where they live.

The story revolves around One Fifth Avenue, a prestigious Art Deco building. 

The novel opens with the bizarre death of one of the buildings most high-profile residents, society queen Louise Houghton.

The sudden availability of an apartment causes a flurry of gossip-worthy action, and sends the community into a frenzy.

For the women of One Fifth, the building is essential to the lives they have established, and hope to establish in New York City- from the aging gossip columnist, to the elegant, free-spirited movie star, to the bitter magazine editor.

"It was part of the pain of living in Manhattan, this overwhelming ache for prime real estate. 

"It could cause people to do all kinds of things-lie, stay in marriages that were over, prostitute themselves, even commit murder," Bushnell writes, ominously foreshadowing the delicious intrigue to come.

With delightful precision, Bushnell illustrates the people for whom living in New York City is everything. 

She observes, with impressive accuracy, the lives of modern New Yorkers who would rather live in a closet on Fifth Avenue than in a mansion anywhere else.

Bushnell's acute observations of people make her a modern, mainstream social critic. 

Her harsh social commentary is neatly mixed with lots of delightful, easy to read action, lots of sugar to make the medicine go down easier.

Nothing is safe from Bushnell's incisive satire, as she targets everything from climate change to Facebook. 

She turns her particular focus on the new generation of Manhattanites, pulling no punches and she examines the self-absorbed lives of Manhattan's young.

"Kids my age don't get hurt feelings. It's just drama. Everyone's on their own reality show. The more drama you have, the more people pay attention to you," explains Sam, a thirteen-year old resident of One Fifth.

Continued...

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