Book Description

In a way, Candace Bushnell's Lipstick Jungle picks up where her career-defining book Sex and the City left off, in the money-soaked, power-hungry, beauty-obsessed jungle that is New York City. This time around, the ladies are a bit older, a lot richer, but not particularly wiser nor more endearing than Bushnell's earlier heroines. Lipstick Jungle weaves the stories of Nico O'Neilly, Wendy Healy, and Victory Ford, numbers 8, 12, and 17 on The New York Post's list of "New York's 50 Most Powerful Women." But this is 21st Century New York, and to get ahead and stay ahead, these women will do anything, including jeopardizing their personal and professional relationships. Take for example Nico, editor-in-chief of Bonfire magazine, who betrays her boss to rise to the top of the entire magazine division at media mega-giant Splatch-Verner. As president of Paradour Pictures, Wendy may be poised to win an Oscar for her 10-year labor-of-love, Ragged Pilgrims, but her marriage is in shambles and her children care more about a $50,000 pony than their mother. And for single, 43-year-old fashion designer Victory, pleasing tough critics may be more important than ever finding the real relationship she's convinced herself she doesn't need. This racy tale of women behaving badly manages to shrewdly flip the tables to show us how gender roles are essentially interchangeable, given the right circumstances. Whether that was Bushnell's intent when crafting this wicked tale is another story. --Gisele Toueg10 Second Interview: A Few Words with Candace Bushnell Q: Were Victory, Wendy, and Nico inspired by any real-life women? A: The characters and situations in Lipstick Jungle were inspired by the real-life women I know and admire in New York City. As with Sex and the City, I spent a lot of time thinking about where women were today, and what I noticed was that there was a fascinating group of women in their forties who were leading non-traditional lives. They were highly successful and motivated, they often had children, and usually were the providers for their families, and yet, they didn't fit the old stereotype of the witchy businesswoman. Indeed, so many of these women were the girls next door, the girls who reminded me of my best friends when I was a kid and we used to fantasize about the great things we were going to do in life. Like the women in Sex and the City, the Lipstick Jungle women are charting new lives for themselves, redefining what it means to be a woman when you really are as powerful, or more powerful, than a man. Of course, you probably want specifics, so I will say that there was a moment when it all clicked. Tina Brown used to write a terrific column in the Washington Post, and one of the things she was always mentioning was how there was a group of powerful women who were meeting and lunching at Michael's restaurant. They'd been working for over twenty years, their children were now in their early teens and didn't need them every minute, and now, in their forties or early fifties, they had time to strive for new career goals and to spend more time with their girlfriends. I thought, "Aha--that's the Lipstick Jungle."Q: What kind of research did you do to cover fashion, film, and publishing in one book? A: To research fashion, film and publishing, I did what I always do--I talked to my girlfriends! Of course, it helps that I've worked in magazine publishing and have had my share of experience with Hollywood. I'm also lucky enough to have a couple of girlfriends who are top designers, who offered to help me out with the specific details. I still remember the afternoon when one of my girlfriends and I sat down to talk--she was over eight months pregnant, and I was worried that we were going to have to run to the hospital!Amazon.com's Significant SevenCandace Bushnell graciously agreed to answer the questions we like to ask every author: the Amazon.com Significant Seven. Q: What book has had the most significant impact on your life?A: So many books have affected my life it's hard to pick just one. When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with Kurt Vonnegut, and Evelyn Waugh; when I was in my early thirties, a girlfriend and I re-read House of Mirth, and freaked out--we didn't want to end up like Lily Bart. Most recently I read Angela's Ashes for the first time and was absolutely stunned.Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD--what are they?A: Make Way for Lucia, by E.F. Benson, a book that I always hope will never end; Van Morrison's greatest hits; and Pride and Prejudice, the six-part mini-series..Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?A: "My e-mail isn't working." I'm not a good liar. It's one of my flaws. I'm too forthright and usually have to apologize the next day for telling the truth the night before.Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.A: All I need is a desk, a chair and my computer. Once I start writing, I don't notice my environment. In fact, I've had people try to talk to me when I'm writing and I literally can't hear them. I see their mouths moving but no sound comes out.Q: If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?A: "I don't ever want to be asked about my own epitaph!"Q: Who is the one person living or dead that you would like to have dinner with?A: Tolstoy. I've read that he loved gossip. It would be great to have a good old gossip with him.Q: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?A: Flying, of course. Who wouldn't want to be unfettered by gravity?

Customer Reviews:

Not a bad read!.......2007-10-03

I enjoyed the book as a light read, the ups and downs of the older women sometimes were so easy to relate to, even though they are 20 years older than me. I enjoy the in-depth look of each of the characters and even though I would have like to have read about these characters prior to the time period given in the book, Candace did a great job explaining each of their backgrounds.
Read on your lunch at work, you will be done in a few days, or take with you to the beach...

Hard to Find Likeable Characters In This One..........2007-08-26

"Lipstick Jungle" is about women fighting for definition by their own standards separate from those of a male-dominated society. Though offering humorous moments, it suffers from a fault common to literary cynicism: there are no characters or causes worth rooting for.

Victory Ford is an award-winning fashion designer; Nico O'Neilly one of the youngest magazine editors in town, and Wendy Healy an acclaimed director at a New York film studio. Each has relied on their own wits for success, are "self-made"; two of them have forged a delicate balance between success and family, the third is a confirmed "bachelorette".

Though witty at times, "Lipstick Jungle" offers few positive resolutions. Nico engages in a risky affair simply because she's bored with her disinterested, distant husband; Victory entangles herself with a spoiled billionaire and proves herself just as spoiled, and the most likable character, Wendy, is so consumed by her career she's barely aware her family is falling apart around her.

Though sexism is unjust and wrong, there's very little inspiration found here to champion against it, especially for us "regular folks". At best, the novel offers voyeuristic glimpses of the rich and powerful. The men are weak, conniving, disinterested or petty; and the main female characters lack depth as much as the men do. Good "Chic Lit" always revolves around the banner of "girl power", but this is the worst kind of Chic Lit, because the desired power simply makes these women just as shallow as the men they take it from.

Her Best Yet.......2007-08-12

Anyone who enjoys Manhattan high-society as much as I do will once again be lured to Bushnell. Again, I waited months and months until after this book came out to finally read it. Whereas in the past the characters in her books have been almost loathesome and the plot/storyline almost choppy, Lipstick Jungle had three distinctive female leads who were all likeable. I thoroughly enjoyed this book as for once I was able to sit back and enjoy her wonderful description of life in New York without having some annoyingly negative characters get in the way. Her best yet, by far.

Ready For More?.......2007-07-26

I'm pretty sure we're going to be hearing a lot more about this book and Bushnell once again given that NBC is developing a TV version of the book for 2007/2008...and we all know how successful her last adaptation was (Sex & The City).

I had mixed feelings going into this book. On one hand, Bushnell is a noted writer because of the TV adaptations I mentioned above, which means she must be doing something right...On the flip side though, I really didn't like "Four Blondes" - Bushnell's collection of novellas, and I hadn't heard the greatest things about Trading Up, which I have yet to read (FYI - there is a crossover mention of the character of Janey from 4B & TU in this book). Sex & The City is known to be a big (and better) departure from its book version as well.

Truly though, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this story - I devoured it in three short days! The book is about three women in their early 40's - Victory, Wendy, and Nico, who are corporate magnates in their glamorous fields, fashion design, executive movie producer, and magazine editor respectively. Being powerful women doesn't come without its challenges though as these women deal with the boys in a messy corporate sandbox filled with gender expectations and rules that the women are both striving to break and afraid to.

Victory is negotiating her financial stability between business obligations and relationships as she tries to blossom into a huge-name designer. Wendy is trying to deal with intense pressure at work and intense problems at home when her stay-at-home husband gets fed up with her. Nico is trying stuck in two scenarios where she is trying to KO the other person before they KO her. Their storylines interweave with the fact they are best friends (although missing the camaraderie one would expect from Carrie Bradshaw's creator) and they have a ton of mutual people in common among the society set.

The things I liked about this book were the fun, fantastical lifestyles of the women and the light easy prose of the book that felt neither flaky nor overdone, and managed to stay fresh. I also enjoyed the girl power aspect that shed some harsh and some enlightening light on what it's like to be a corporate top gun as a woman...almost like a business world Valley of the Dolls.

The ending was a bit - wow, okay it's done? - but left plenty open for further exploration in say, a TV show? My one concern with reading this book is the slightly skewed nature of the girl power aspect. While these woman are powerful and manage to work things out in very creative and strong ways, they can really only afford to do so with money. Although the money aspect of the story definitely adds to the interest level, it also is a bit disheartening that you can only solve problems with oodles of dough at your fingertips.

Still a great, fun read and one I would surely reccomend - by far the best of anything I've read by Bushnell.

Nitwitlit.......2007-07-16

A co-worker loaned me this book and it failed my "first paragraph" rule which is, if I'm not hooked by then I usually pass. But I gave it a try for the sake of camraderie. How does the stuff Bushnell writes get published? Do her editors actually read this pap? It's not literature, it's nitwitlit. My rating? Two eyelids down. If amazon allowed a rating of less than 1 star, I'd give it.

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