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Four Blondes
 
 

Four Blondes (Paperback)

by Candace Bushnell (Author) "Janey Wilcox spent every summer for the last ten years in the Hamptons, and she'd never once rented a house or paid for anything, save..." (more)
2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus; paperback / softback edition (1 Feb 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 034911403X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349114033
  • Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 12.6 x 2.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 94,067 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #7 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > B > Bushnell, Candace

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Candace Bushnell made her reputation as the creator of the hit US TV series 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 favourite 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 you 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 realises 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 is 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 trawls for the so-called 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, the Bushnell's ironic takes on the sexual foibles of the rich and famous are mordant, mischievous fun. --Lesley Reed

Review

'Stiletto-sharp wit and dialogue...A compulsive read.' OK MAGAZINE 'Extremely funny, but it's a hard boiled humour with a cruel edge.' OBSERVER 'Bushnell is a fabulous writer who captures her world in hard, glittering prose.' EVE 'Thank God this book is about four separate people- if it were about one, I wouldn't have been able to put it doen at all- stylishly presented in dark and illuminating chunks.' IRISH TATLER 'Sassy... Fast moving tales of fast lives.' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 'It is bleak, it is bitterly funny, it is unputdownable stuff. One of sharpest practitioners of her art around. Bushnell is also a clever and subtle moralist. Here is the post-modern woman taken to the nth degree.' SUNDAY TIMES 'Sharp, witty and sassy.' COSMPOLITAN 'Bushnell cleverly exploits the chasms in relationships.' SUNDAY HERALD 'Candace Bushnell made her reputation as the creator of the hit US TV series 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 favourite 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 you 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 realises 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 is 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 trawls for the so-called 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, the Bushnell's ironic takes on the sexual foibles of the rich and famous are mordant, mischievous fun.' - Lesley Reed, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW

Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
Janey Wilcox spent every summer for the last ten years in the Hamptons, and she'd never once rented a house or paid for anything, save for an occasional Jitney ticket. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

27 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (9)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (12)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.3 out of 5 stars (27 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Satires on self-obsessed NY "money"- bit trashy though, 29 Nov 2002
By "lexi_wades" - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: 4 Blondes (Paperback)
Candice Bushnell creates some insigtful writing on the vain and sex obsessed New York elite. Unfortuantly it suffers from absolutly none of the characters being likable and therefore they are only engaging on a superficial lets-see-them-fail level. There isn't any depth to the book at all- this is more a read on the beach novel to a serious social commentery.
Bushnell's obsession with sex can make it seem boring at times. I thought her stories were good satire of souless and spoilt thirty-somethings untill I realised that she has a good deal of empathy with their causes.
The move to London in the final story of the book was a mistake unless Bushnell really wants to proove how superficial she is. The whole "an attractive woman in New York is beautiful in London and a beuatiful woman in London is only attractive in New York" attitude is insulting and very blind. She believes "beauty" only rests on whether you get your nails manicured and hair cut every two weeks! This end chapter spoilt the rest of the book for me. Bushnells inacuratness in dealing with English-ness made me wonder how much of an illusion the rest of the book was.
A light don't-take-seriously read. Nothing more than candy floss for the brain and a mild disapointment from the writer of Sex and the City
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Horrible characters, but addictive anyway., 11 Oct 2002
By A Customer
I found this compulsive reading. Yes, the protagonists are largely vile, shallow, self-obsessed horrors, but I hate Goody-Two-Shoes, and since when was a novelist obliged to write only about fine, upstanding citizens? People like this exist, and isn't it nice to know that you can have wall-to-wall Prada and Louis Vuitton and still be miserable as sin? I found it refreshing that Janey did not 'find herself' or (wince) 'grow as a person.' People like that usually don't. I found CB's observations honest, painfully acute, and occasionally hilarious.

Like another reviewer, I was expecting a novel but finding four novellas instead didn't bother me. On one point I have to agree with previous reviewers, though; why did she have to trot out all the old cliches about Englishmen being dirty, pervey, bad in bed, etc.? To pander to American readers who like to think it's true? Well, it IS of course - and they all wear bowler hats, only drink tea, and it's always foggy in London. This is as tedious as us Brits assuming all Yanks are either a) obese, thick and insular, or b) thin, self-obsessed and full of Californian psycho-babble. And what is this 'baby-pudding' apple crisp? Never heard of it. I think maybe she means apple crumble, which I make for my lovely, kind, clean, non-pervey, English husband on a regular basis.

I'd still read anything else of CB's, though.

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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars TERRIBLE!, 3 Jun 2004
By A Customer
This book is easily one of the worst I have ever read. Ever! Can this atrocity really have been brought to us by the creator of Sex & The City? Surely not!

As a Brit I was horribly offended by the author's description of British men and women... has she even been to England!? According to her British women make absolutely no effort with their appearance... British men however are ALL repressed and bumbling idiots... we have no taste, no style and are rubbish in bed.

This woman doesn't know what she is talking about! Obviously the success of Sex and the City was down to the talents of Sarah Jessica Parker and not Candace.

The three other short stories also left me completely cold. The characters were completely two dimentional and quite frankly boring. It's just the same formula time and time again...

Just awful! Buy something else.... ANYTHING ELSE!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Complete pants
Being a brit the fourth story didn't bother me too much, i don't take american opinions very seriously, but really the whole book was complete and utter rubbish, each story had no... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Carol Barnes

1.0 out of 5 stars Shallow, unoriginal and dull
Being a major fan of Sex and the City I was quite looking forward to reading this book. What a mistake on my part... Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2007 by S. L. Williams

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not amazing
I normally love Candace Bushnell books, but i have to admit that even though this one was quite interesting, it didn't quite... take off. Read more
Published on 2 Nov 2006 by E. Exintaris

5.0 out of 5 stars Satire and the City
I was extremely pleased with Four Blondes. I had very much enjoyed reading Sex and the City for its dark humour and wit, and had assumed that Four Blondes would be unlikely to... Read more
Published on 10 Mar 2005 by Ella

3.0 out of 5 stars Be Careful What You Wish For . . . You May Get It!
4 Blondes is three novellas and a short story about the beautiful and aspiring women in New York City. Read more
Published on 13 July 2004 by Professor Donald Mitchell

1.0 out of 5 stars Four Blondes
I found all of the stories interesting but it seemed they didn't have enough time to get going before they were abruptly ended with no real conclusion or point.
Published on 24 Feb 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars Bring back book burning
This book is a complete waste of time.Four very very bad stories with characters that are boring .The fourth story is the worst the auther if you can call her that just uses this... Read more
Published on 10 July 2003

1.0 out of 5 stars Very poor
How could the woman who created 'Sex.. .' come up with this tripe?! It seems this book is just the same insecure selfish BLONDE! Read more
Published on 29 Sep 2002 by ME

4.0 out of 5 stars More Than Sex
Most readers will probably come to this book via being fans of T.V.'s "Sex & The City". Which, in a way, is a pity - it means a lot of other people will miss out on it. Read more
Published on 3 Sep 2002

3.0 out of 5 stars Savage satire
The first two stories in this collection are savage commentaries on the vagaries of urban life. Sure, Candace is treading similar ground to Jay McInerney and Tama Janowitz (Slaves... Read more
Published on 2 July 2001

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