Bibliofemme Bookclub An Irish Bookclub

For her fourth book, Candace Bushnell tries to recreate a world as compelling and fascinating as Sex and The City. Unfortunately she has not succeeded.

In Lipstick Jungle, high fashion meets the powerful women who actually wear it. Single, beautiful, creative and unconventional, Victory Ford has worked for years to create her own independent fashion house. When her company goes into a tailspin, Victory falls into the arms of ruthless cosmetics baron, Lyne Bennett. As she struggles to keep her company afloat, she learns crucial lessons about what she really wants from a relationship.

Nico O’Neilly is one of the most powerful women in publishing. She seems to have it all: a stellar career, a well-respected husband, and an eight-year-old daughter whom she adores. But, at forty-three, Nico finds that this isn’t enough. Her secret ambition is to become the first female CEO of Splatch-Verner – the multimedia company that owns her magazine – but if she’s going to achieve her goal, she needs to start acting now.

Wendy Healy, President of Parador Pictures, has chutzpah to spare. It has propelled her to the very top of the cutthroat movie business yet, as she tries to bring her most important movie to the screen, her drive is not enough to save her. Selden Rose, the president of MovieTime, is secretly lobbying to oust Wendy and take over Parador. Meanwhile, Wendy’s twelve-year-marriage to her househusband is falling apart. One has to go and, in a series of unconventional plot twists, Wendy finds a startling answer.

It’s not Sex and The City but Lipstick Jungle is a gripping read. While the characters are hardly lovable – and one questions whether this book merely adds a feminist sheen to greed and consumption – they are utterly involving. However, as Bushnell has no doubt realized by now, nothing will ever manage to equal Sex and the City.