Books › One Fifth Avenue
One Fifth Avenue
First published 2008 · 721 pages
A mercilessly witty and glamorous deep-dive into the combustible mix of old money, new ambition, and the lengths women will go to secure their place in Manhattan's elite.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like stepping into the gilded, high-stakes lobby of Manhattan's most exclusive address. The narrative moves at a brisk, engaging clip, fueled by mercilessly witty observations about the combustible clash between old money and new ambition. It immerses the reader in a glamorous yet cutthroat atmosphere where every interaction is laced with sexual politics and the desperate thirst for social prominence. The prose is astute and fresh, capturing the zeitgeist of New York's elite with the sharp social commentary reminiscent of classic Gilded Age and Jazz Age tales, yet entirely modern. It will delight readers who love a tough, tender, and gossipy exploration of real estate, power, and the carefully curated public lives of ambitious women.
- Mood
- glamorous
- combustible
- status-obsessed
- gossipy
- Tone
- witty
- astute
- satirical
- engaging
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- social climbing · old versus new money · sexual politics · real estate ambition · public versus private lives
- The writing
- Acutely observed and mercilessly witty, the narrative reads with the fresh, fast-paced energy of a modern-day comedy of manners.
- The arc
- A sharp and observant journey through the desperate ambitions and calculated triumphs of women navigating Manhattan's elite social hierarchy.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave sharp social commentary wrapped in the glamorous, high-stakes world of Manhattan real estate and elite society.
Content notes
- sexual politics
- financial ruin
About the book
From one of the most consistently astute and engaging social commentators of our day comes another look at the tough and tender women of New York City--this time, through the lens of where they live.One Fifth Avenue, the Art Deco beauty towering over one of Manhattan's oldest and most historically hip neighborhoods, is a one-of-a-kind address, the sort of building you have to earn your way into--one way or another. For the women in Candace Bushnell's new novel, One Fifth Avenue, this edifice is essential to the lives they've carefully established--or hope to establish. From the hedge fund king's wife to the aging gossip columnist to the free-spirited actress (a recent refugee from L.A.), each person's game plan for a rich life comes together under the soaring roof of this landmark building.Acutely observed and mercilessly witty, One Fifth Avenue is a modern-day story of old and new money, that same combustible mix that Edith Wharton mastered in her novels about New York's Gilded Age and F. Scott Fitzgerald illuminated in his Jazz Age tales. Many decades later, Bushnell's New Yorkers suffer the same passions as those fictional Manhattanites from eras past: They thirst for power, for social prominence, and for marriages that are successful--at least to the public eye. But Bushnell is an original, and One Fifth Avenue is so fresh that it reads as if sexual politics, real estate theft, and fortunes lost in a day have never happened before.From Sex and the City through four successive novels, Bushnell has revealed a gift for tapping into the zeitgeist of any New York minute and, as one critic put it, staying uncannily "just the slightest bit ahead of the curve." And with each book, she has deepened her range, but with a light touch that makes her complex literary accomplishments look easy. Her stories progress so nimbly and ring so true that it can seem as if anyone might write them--when, in fact, no one writes novels quite like Candace Bushnell. Fortunately for us, with One Fifth Avenue, she has done it again.
Description from Open Library.
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