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Four Blondes
by Candace Bushnell
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Grove Press (2001-07-01)
ISBN: 080213825X
EAN: 9780802138255
Dewy Decimal #: 813.54
Paperback: 256 pages
SKU: BX048-071009004
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: Clean and shiny. Mminor wear. Pgs crisp, clean, tight, unmarked. No remainder mark.
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Editorial Reviews
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Amazon.com Review
Candace Bushnell made her reputation as the creator of the HBO special Sex and the City, based on her book of the same name (based in turn on her eros-intensive New York Observer column). In Four Blondes, she returns with a quartet of novellas on her favorite subject--the mating habits of wealthy sex-, status-, and media-obsessed New Yorkers. These are people for whom a million or two does not make one rich, and who consider Louis Vuitton and Prada bare necessities. Janey Wilcox, for example, is a former model who each summer chooses a house in the Hamptons--or, rather, picks up a wealthy man with a pricey rental. With one movie in her past, her "lukewarm celebrity was established and she figured out pretty quickly that it could get her things and keep on getting them, as long as she maintained her standards." Yet even Janey eventually realizes that what she's getting isn't exactly what she wants. Cecelia, on the other hand, has gotten the ultimate prize: a royal husband. Still, she finds herself descending into paranoia as the Manhattan media circus reports her every flaw. Then there's Winnie Diekes, a high-powered magazine columnist whose marriage flounders as she pushes her unambitious husband to write the book that will make him--and her--famous. Finally, in the most clearly autobiographical story, a writer gives up on the commitment-impaired men of New York and goes to London to find a husband. There she trolls for the typical Englishman--"a guy who had sex with his socks on, possessed a microscopic willy, and came in two minutes." Bushnell is famous for this sort of sexual brashness, and the book is full of her sharp wit, both in and out of the boudoir. She also clearly enjoys her characters and their misadventures, with one exception: the politically correct Winnie, with her distaste for alcohol, night life, and casual sex, inspires an odd sort of authorial contempt. Otherwise, though, Bushnell's ironic takes on the sexual foibles of the rich and famous are mordant, mischievous fun. --Lesley Reed
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Product Description
In her first book since the cultural phenomenon Sex and the City, Candace Bushnell triumphantly returned with the national best-seller Four Blondes, which The New York Times says "chronicles the glittering lives of semicelebrities, social aspirants, and moneyed folk ... [with] withering precision." Now her collection of novellas is available in paperback -- just in time to pack in your handbag for that summer weekend getaway to the Hamptons or that romantic rendezvous on Martha's Vineyard. Four Blondes tells the stories of four women facing up to the limitations of their rapidly approaching middle age in an era that worships youth. From the former "It-girl" heroine of "Nice N'Easy," who each summer looks for a rich man who'll provide her with a house in the Hamptons, to the writer-narrator of "Single Process," who goes to London on a hunt for love and a good magazine story, Bushnell brings to life contemporary women in search of something more -- when the world is pushing for them to settle for less. Sexy, funny, and wonderfully lush with gossip and scandal, Four Blondes will keep you turning pages long into the night.
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Customer Reviews
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4 Blondes: Not Sex and the City
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-07-21
4 Blondes is written by Candance Bushnell, the creator of Sex and the City, but it's most certainly not the same. Sure, there are similarities, 4 ladies, very different personalities, but do not be fooled, it's just not as good as the original.
The novel is broken up into 4 sections, each one dedicated to a different shade of blonde and the woman who the corresponding shade belongs to. When I think back and try to recall all 4 of the ladies names and their stories, I honestly cannot remember the 4th one without a memory jog from the back cover. The first woman, Janey, has the best story in terms of being interesting and the fact that it could end in an unconventional way. However, by the end, I'm disappointed by the Hollywood ending that is meant to be empowering but is completely unrealistic.
Which brings me to the next point: suspend reality to enjoy this one as the second story, while it features an empowered and powerful woman, glorifies some behavior that is, well, less than nice. Winnie (the second story feature) is a mean, bitter and obsessive compulsive. So that gets you nice and welcoming for the third story, where, suspend reality please, Princess Cecilia comes in. Yes, a real princess. Being able to connect with the neurotic, spoiled princess is a little difficult.
And like I said, I can barely remember the 4th story of woman who's name is never really made clear. Annoying and I loved the novel Rebecca, where you never find out what the main character's name is. That mystery left me in a wonderful delicate suspense. This left me in a state of "is this story over yet?"
While there were some guilty pleasure points, the overall taste left in my mouth was one of "meh."
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4 Blondes
Rating (1)
Date: 2008-07-06
I bought this book with every belief that it was going to be good (if not great) but I was sadly disappointed! These women need serious psychological help at the very least. The book goes absolutely no where with absolutely no plot. I hung in there and read it until the end but boy was I ever sorry I wasted my eyesite.
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NOT A GREAT BOOK AT ALL
Rating (1)
Date: 2008-02-12
0 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
What is the point of all the stories? The stories start out just fine but there is no sense to how it ends
Not recommended
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Read this book if you want to lose IQ points
Rating (1)
Date: 2008-02-06
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
I took this book with me on my European vaca and there was no other item that wasted more space in my luggage, including my oversized polar fleece jacket that wasn't used because the weather cooperated.
I will always read a book from cover to cover - to at least give it a chance. I did this for 4 Blondes and never once did I lose the sense of dissatisfaction and distaste.
If you have a burning desire to have your intelligence diminished, or wish to be subjected to the sordid and depressing tales of four women who fail to distinguish themselves away from the influence of a man, then by all means, read this book!
I left my copy on the ag burn pile in a local Bordeaux vineyard.
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Sharp
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-01-18
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
A collection of four loosely linked stories featuring, as the title pronounces, four blondes. The blondes in question are Janey Wilcox (`Nice `n Easy'), a model who isn't famous enough to call her own shots so she spends most of her time looking for a rich man to take her to the Hamptons every summer; Winnie (`Highlights'), a brainy columnist who has begun to hate her journalist husband for not being successful enough; Cecilia, (`Platinum') a model who marries a European prince and is terrified he's going to leave her; and lastly, an unnamed blonde journalist (`Single Process') who trolls London looking for a man because she's positive that English men have got to be better than American ones.
It's the ultimate in satire as well as a disturbing look into the many people who really do live such vapid, meaningless, extremely superficial existences, but who are at least sensible enough to be aware of and frightened by their own lack of substance. Bushnell is also the author of Sex and the City, but don't let that turn you off (as it did me, initially). I haven't read the book SatC, but after reading this I'd be willing to bet that the few bits I've seen of the t.v. show don't even begin to do the book justice, because Bushnell is absolutely brilliant, scathing and right on the mark when pegging these desperate, pathetic, yet somehow occasionally likeable women. Strange as it may sound, her writing style immediately put me in mind of Bret Easton Ellis, particularly Rules of Attraction and Less Than Zero. Bushnell's wit and timing is razor-sharp, and I was very pleasantly surprised.
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