One Fifth Avenue

One might think upon first looking at the cover of Candace Bushnell's latest novel, One Fifth Avenue, that it's going to be a fun, Sex and the City-ish story of stylish young women living in a New York apartment building. Not so much. The story is centered around the lives of the residents of One Fifth Avenue, which is the place to live in Manhattan. The building is occupied by an aging gossip columnist, a movie star, a Pulitzer-Prize winning author and his gold-digging young girlfriend, a struggling novelist and his embittered wife and tech-savvy son, a hedge-fund manager and his wife, and an aging socialite wannabe (who doesn't actually live in the building, but spends a lot of time with the residents). Their lives are filled with affairs, betrayals, gossip and an obsession with the pursuit of wealth and status. I am still conflicted over how I feel about this book. On one hand, I absolutely hated every single character. There was not one character with any redeeming qualities. Most of their problems were of their own making, and I have a hard time empathizing with millionaires. But, on the other hand, I couldn't quit reading. I wanted to. I really wanted to just put the book down, but every time I thought about not finishing, I couldn't. I had to know how everything turned out. Maybe it was the train-wreck factor that kept me going. In any case, don't expect a funny, light-hearted story about romance and shoe-obsessed socialites. The tone is much darker, the story is much more serious and the characters' lives are not as fabulous as the cover would lead you to believe.