4 Blondes
Candace Bushnell made her reputation as the creator of the HBO  specialSex and the City, based on herbook of the same name(based in turn on her eros-intensiveNew York Observercolumn).  InFour Blondes, she returns with a quartet of novellas on her  favorite 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 one 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 realizes 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's 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 trolls for the 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, Bushnell's ironic takes on the sexual  foibles of the rich and famous are mordant, mischievous fun.--Lesley Reed--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.