Lipstick Jungle

Sex and the City grows up a little bit (and drops the Charlotte-type character that everyone pretended to hate but actually identified with) in Candace Bushnell’s fourth novel Lipstick Jungle. Three 40-something friends Nico O’Neilly, editor-in-chief of Bonfire Magazine; Victory Ford, a high-end fashion designer; and Wendy Healy, president of Parador Pictures, are some of the most powerful women in America. And while romantic relationships are difficult to maintain in New York City (like Sex proved) women striving for power and respect in business is even more brutal.

Bushnell provides a lot of business advice through the situations the three characters encounter. “You had to be able to walk into a situation and read it immediately,” is a lesson your professors probably didn’t preach from their soapbox, but Bushnell does from her’s. From deciphering if someone is trying to get Nico fired to Victory making deals with the most important people in the fashion industry, all of the business in the novel is very calculated. It’s kind of like doing business with the mafia. But wearing Manolo Blahniks when making a deal with “The Boss.”

And while dressing sexy for multi-million dollar dealings is very en vogue, pounding half-assed feminist ideals into your readers’ heads is not so fashionable. “Why was it that when men were concerned about making money, they were admirable, while women in the same position were considered suspect?” Most women in America are wondering that same thing, Bushnell. Try something different and actually answer that question.

Also not in style this season are clichés. They ruin the whole outfit, to put it metaphorically. “And if you worked really hard, and believed in yourself, and were willing to experience pain and fear… you might get really lucky and have a night like tonight.” As my friend Joey Lawrence from Blossom would say, “Whoa.” There is a cliché overload in that one quote and also throughout the whole book. When Bushnell actually drops the common sayings, she really can create new language to apply to old situations. “Nothing made a woman feel better than a man who had been with a supermodel… and rejected her!” Whoa.

Lipstick Jungle was picked up by NBC on Monday, May 14th, to make the book into a half hour television show that is supposed to air this 2007 season, for which Bushnell is excited. “It's a hot, hot, hot, fantastic idea, and it captures the zeitgeist,” says Bushnell, despite rumors that she and Sex and the City producer, Darren Star, had a business associate’s rumble. It’s a good thing Lipstick will be a television show, too. Bushnell’s concepts come off much better on screen than on page. Still, Lipstick is worth the read before it skyrockets to superstar status like it’s little sister, Sex and the City.

Rating
8 out of 10 Lipsticks.

Scot on the Rocks

The new novel, Scot on the Rocks by Brenda Janowitz, will make any break-up seem tame in comparison. Acting like a lunatic in love completely encompasses the main character, Brooke Miller, a young New York City attorney. Planning to go to her ex-boyfriend’s wedding in Los Angeles (who is marrying Hollywood’s newest “it” girl) with her handsome Scottish boyfriend all goes to pieces days before the nuptials. Self-centered and using his accent to attract other women, the Scot (Douglas) turns their relationship on the rocks by breaking up with Brooke over a disagreement about what he should wear to the wedding. Here’s a quick summary:

Scottish Hunk: I want to wear a kilt that has been passed down in my family for many generations to embrace and celebrate my culture.
Brooke: You must hate America.
Scottish Hunk: Get out of my glamorous 32nd story SoHo condo.

This big mess unravels T-minus three days until Brooke has to put on the air of perfection at her ex-boyfriend’s wedding. Who else will be her knight in shinning armor but the handsome, charismatic, best friend slash co-worker, Jack?

As The Church Lady would say, ‘That was convenient.”

This is author Brenda Janowitz’s first novel and it’s obvious. As funny and light-hearted as the novel is, Janowitz tries too hard at times to make her characters sound like they belong in this chick lit book. Janowitz applies language to Brooke, who is supposed to be from New York City, which makes her sound like she’s a valley girl from California. “’Brooke, let’s not get hysterical,’ Douglas said. Hysterical? I was, like, so not hysterical.”

Brooke, though, is a loving, clumsy and good-intentioned character, which will make any reader feel sympathy (or empathy) for her. She also confesses to being a size 10, which makes her a hero in many women’s minds.

One great lesson to take away from Scot on the Rocks is that, nowadays, it’s socially acceptable to go to your ex-boyfriend’s wedding. What’s not socially acceptable is making fun of Scottish kilts. That will only get a girl kicked out of a 32nd story SoHo condo.

Rating
7 out of 10 Scottish Kilts.