Thursday, March 12, 2009

Sex and The City - The Book



Since I'm a big fan of the series, I decided to pick up and read the book. The characters are different and the focus is more on Carrie.

Like the show, there are different side stories and different people you meet. Miranda Hobbes shows up from time to time, but is not an attorney. She is a cable executive. Also, Samantha Jones makes some appearances, too. Though, she is not a PR executive - she is a movie producer. Charlotte York is hardly in it - I think she's depicted as a British woman. Stanford Blatch seems to be the only consistent character from the series. Though, he's portrayed as a screenwriter in the book.

When I first started reading the book, it seemed just like the show except there was no focus on the characters. It seemed like a bunch of stories about the dating mishaps in Manhattan. However, as I progressed through the book I found out more about Carrie and her relationship with Mr. Big. Then, it would go back into another side story and back to Carrie and Mr. Big. Like the show, it went back and forth between the stories.

What I found interesting about the book (warning - spoiler alert) was that it really did not have the typical "Cinderalla" type ending. It was very interesting. Here is an excerpt by author Candace Bushnell:

"This edition of Sex and the City contains two new chapters, which were written after the book was originally published. And so, at last, the book has a real ending, in which Carrie and Mr. Big break up. It's a bittersweet ending - not just the end of her dream of finding the proverbial Mr. Big - a man who doesen't really exist. If you read closely, you'll discover that even Mr. Big himself points out that he is a fantasy in Carrie's imagination, and that you can't love a fantasy. And so we leave Carrie to enter a new phase in her life when she understands that she will have to find herself (without a man), and in doing so will hopefully be able to find a relationship."


I really like Bushnell's themes about working women and their lives - it's all very interesting to me. I'm on to more of her books - just picked up Lipstick Jungle (now a series) and 4 Blondes.

Happy reading!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with you. I was a bit lost when I started to read this book coz it was so different from the show. I still havent finished yet but I hope to see what Bushnell intends to deliver to her readers about Carrie's fantasy.

Film Gurl said...

Yes, it seems to be a recurring theme in Bushnell's books - wanting the fantasy. I'm onto her next book Lipstick Jungle, I hear it's her best book! We'll see. Enjoy the read!