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One Fifth Avenue | 
| Author: Candace Bushnell
Publisher: Voice
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy Used: $13.99
You Save: $11.96 (46%)
New (49) Used (15) Collectible (3) from $13.99
Rating:  51 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 448
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.5
ISBN: 1401301614
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781401301613
ASIN: 1401301614
Publication Date: September 22, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
"ONE FIFTH AVENUE is a modern comedy of manners -- a landmark novel, if you like. Its observations about money, the Internet, the function of art in society as wellas sex romps, social climbing and snobbery enhance Bushnell's reputation as an astute observer of modern life....Carrie Bradshaw wannabes as well as women (and men) near Bushnell's age -- she turns 50 this year -- will be pulled into this refreshing and highly entertaining novel about the power of money, sex and celebrity."
--USA TODAY "Bushnell...broadens her scope in her latest ode to New York strivers and sophisticates...The fun lies in the author's acute observations about everything from real estate envy to midlife crises."
--More "Where [Bushnell] goes, her army of stilletoed fans follow. You gotta love it: the conflict, the secrets-telling, the peek into the world of the rich and valueless. It all adds up to a juicy summer read."
--New York Post "One Fifth Avenue is all things an escapist read she be: quick and wicked and wry. There's a blown-out bitch to root against, a star-crossed couple to root for, and a Tim Gunn-style best friend who deserves his own book. Great, guiltless fun."
--Entertainment Weekly 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 46 more reviews...
Great Read ! Recommended November 21, 2008
Erin Brooks (London)
Great read following the inhabitants of "new york society" institution that is the One Fifth building. All looking for money, power and status, from Lola the gold digger, to Mindy the tight and bad tempered career woman, Schiffer the actress on a come back to Enid the old fashioned gossip columnist, there is something for everyone... Fun read, well written. Recommended.
 One never knows when their very own "million-dollar" lover will jet them away to Fifth Avenue for life's greatest indulgences November 18, 2008
Bookreporter.com (New York, New York)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The pursuit of money and the extravagances it can buy, and what it is like to live when money is no object, is the fascinating social commentary written by one of New York's premier 21st-century novelists, Candace Bushnell. Those who possess old money and new money are striving for status, art, publicity and New York real estate.
The reader is seduced by New York City and the fantasy that if you can make it in the Big Apple, you can make it anywhere. Money, odd couple relationships and age are recurring themes with Carrie Bradshaw-style commentary by Bushnell: "Perhaps too much money was like too much sex. It crossed the line and became pornographic."
Bushnell's fifth novel shines the spotlight on an eclectic group of people who currently live at or who are scheming to live at One Fifth Avenue. Bushnell's characters are socialites, writers, gossip columnists, actresses and hedge-fund managers, and for contrast she has thrown in Mindy Gooch, who writes a blog titled "The Joys of Not Having It All." She is the outsider looking in, even though she resides at One Fifth.
When the "queen of society" Louise Houghton dies leaving her "legendary collection of jewelry," including the mysteriously stolen Cross of Bloody Mary and her historical penthouse at One Fifth with a domed ballroom and a 360-degree view of Manhattan, the race to see who can acquire the coveted real estate first begins.
The idea that money seduces us and creates aspiring social-climbing whores and that "Forty million isn't real money. A hundred million is getting there" paints a picture of our society that is alarming but possibly true. Bushnell concludes that the young are afraid to grow up to be the "establishment" --- that is, until money talks. There is power in having limitless amounts of money, but she also writes characters like Annalisa Rice who are unhappy, despite their billions and Chopard watches.
Philip Oakland grew up at One Fifth. He has won a Pulitzer Prize and an Oscar, and is writing screenplays for Hollywood, yet he is restless, out of touch and easily seduced by the much younger Lola, who is seeking to marry into money. Lola's character is the energy in this novel. She has the "unbridled confidence of youth," a keen sense of status and the power to use sexual temptation to elevate her social status. Each of her conquests is a writer, and her sexcapades are the only sex here. Romance is absent in ONE FIFTH AVENUE, but surprisingly the older women are ultimately winners over the younger ones. Age, wisdom and money still have clout, but sex without romance is like marriage, and Bushnell's readers are used to fantasy and lovers who excite us.
If you are looking for another SEX AND THE CITY with rich relationships between female friends, lovers and sexy shoes, or another LIPSTICK JUNGLE, with women working and sleeping their way to the top, you will not find that in this latest Bushnell effort. The author has matured, and in many places I felt she was writing her own experiences about million-dollar book advances, two-week book tours, fleeting fame and growing older in a city that requires mega money to surpass your peers in the "playground of New York society."
ONE FIFTH characters all share a love for New York and lead glamorous lives full of photo shoots, private dinners, ad campaigns, red carpet events, society photos, fashion and gossip. Enid Merle is a gossip columnist living at One Fifth who harbors the secrets of the bastion of the wealthy. Actress Schiffer Diamond returns to New York after a Hollywood divorce and pursues former lover Philip Oakland.
To put the characters' silver-lined lives into perspective, one of the most memorable conversations in this book is between Schiffer Diamond and society escort Billy Litchfield: "He keeps turning up like a bad penny, doesn't he?" "More like a million-dollar bill," Billy said. Now this is the Bushnell we have come to know and love. One never knows when their very own "million-dollar" lover will jet them away to Fifth Avenue for life's greatest indulgences. Don't forget --- Champagne, Chopard and Chanel are a girl's best friends!
--- Reviewed by Hillary Wagy
 Bushnell brings characters to life November 16, 2008
Jill M. Matthews (San Jose, CA)
Bushnell does a fabulous job in bringing the characters in One Fifth to life. One Fifth is a fun, candy for the eyes read about the upper crust in Manhattan.
One Fifth Avenue - don't expect Sex and the City November 15, 2008
wogan (Severna Park, MD United States)
Do not expect One Fifth Avenue to be Sex and the City. It is more in the style of 740 Park or High Rise Low Down, except that it is in the fiction genre. There are many characters, but even the problems that I normally have in keeping characters separated weren't too difficult. , however I wish that they could have been more `fleshed out' in their motives and inner thoughts - most are only implied. It's an interesting read, but there are many other non fiction books out there on the same subject.. Life in an exclusive New York apartment that are a much more interesting read because they are non fiction and therefore the characters and their motives are more fully developed - just do not expect the `normal' Candace Bushnell novel
Very well Done!!! November 14, 2008
Ei (Seekonk, Massachusetts)
"One Fifth Avenue"m the latest novel by "Sex and the City"'s writer, Candace Bushnell is the first book I've read of hers. So I have nothing to compare it to nor did I go into it with any expectations, aside from hearing it was on the NY Best Sellers list. I think the reason she is on the best seller's list isn't so much about the story but for her writing. She is a very descriptive writer, and well, she has done a lot of writing now and seems like a truly good writer. The dialogue was great. There was some snappy bits about life in NYC strewn throughout the entire book. It is basically about One Fifth Avenue, a building/co-op where the rich, new rich, and not so rich but on the co-op board reside. Many of them have been there for years, and one of the oldest residents, Mrs. Houghton, passes away. When her 'apartment', which is described more like a house or small castle, is up for sale, there is a lot of banter back and forth from Mindy Gooch, the co-op president, and the other residents. Philip Oakland, a writer, that also lives in the building thanks to his Aunt Enid, gets involved with Lola, a young, mindless, sex starved girl that will stop at nothing to keep her new lifestyle up. But does she survive in NYC? And she does she win Philip's heart over movie star, Schiffer Diamond?
Paul and Annalisa Rice buy Mrs. Houghton's place and change it drastically, to which Mrs. Gooch is none to pleased with. There a lot of characters in this book, and they all add to the mix like a great spice that makes a dish worth savoring. There is a rather myriad assortment of characters, too.
Reading this was like looking into the building to see how these people live and how the react to each other. There is quite a bit of sex in this as well. But what else would any reader expect from the writer of Sex and the City?
It was a good idea for a book. There were subplots due to the various characters storylines. I bought it and it was worth the price. I will definitely be reading more of her Candace's books.
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