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xsBusiness - One Fifth Avenue
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List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $9.59
Your Save: $ 16.36 ( 63% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Voice
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781401301613
ISBN: 1401301614
Label: Voice
Manufacturer: Voice
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 433
Publication Date: 2008-09-22
Publisher: Voice
Release Date: 2008-09-22
Studio: Voice
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Lust for Power and Social Position...
Comment: In an Art Deco building in one of Manhattan's oldest and most hip neighborhoods, a conclave of fictional Manhattanites reside; they are a mix of old and new money, a power-hungry and socially eager group that will do almost anything to maintain their residences - and hence, their social positions - in this piece of real estate that represents so much more to each of them. Thus begins the tale of One Fifth Avenue.
First, we meet some of the elder residents - those who have the respect of the others. We meet Louise Houghton, who has been in the building for more than thirty years - and is nearly 100 years old - who occupies the penthouse apartment that hovers like three tiers on a wedding cake, above all the others. Then we see Enid Merle, whose apartment on the thirteenth floor is the best (after the penthouse, of course) and is next to her nephew Philip Oakland, a writer. She, too, is elderly.
Louise and Enid are the historians for the place, and know "where all the bodies are buried".
Schiffer Diamond, an actress, has primarily lived in LA for the past several years, but after obtaining a part in a TV series, she returns to her small unit at One Fifth Avenue.
Billy Litchfield resides on lower Fifth Avenue and has little money. However, he acts as a kind of concierge to the very rich, and thus has entrée into the soirees and special events attended by the very rich. He is in and out of One Fifth Avenue, mixing with the residents as if he belongs.
On the very bottom floor, Mindy and James Gooch reside, with their 13-year-old computer-whiz of a son. Theirs is a cramped unit with a series of box-like rooms - they were formerly luggage space - but Mindy Gooch is the head of the board for the cooperative apartment building. She wields some power in enforcing the rules and keeping out the unsavory potential residents.
But the residents shun her and exclude her from the social events.
When Louise Houghton dies unexpectedly - strangely put, since she is so old, but everyone expected her to live forever - her prime penthouse apartment is "up for grabs".
Enter Paul and Annalisa Rich, the new rich - he is a hedge fund billionaire and she, a former attorney - and more drama begins.
When the Rices buy the penthouse for 20 million, they are welcomed - at first. Then a series of events, coupled with Paul Rice's arrogant and paranoid behavior, lead to a warring of various factions, until in the end, everyone wants Paul out. He, on the other hand, with his money, greed and power, hopes to eliminate the others.
Mixed with various romances and the sexually-charged liaisons of the characters, we have a dramatic tale of power and lust gone mad.
What will happen to ultimately tip the balance of power and who will end up reigning? What sabotage will finally lead to tragedy, and who will end up paying the highest price?
These characters, richly drawn and compelling, remind us of Bushnell's other works - Sex and the City and Lipstick Jungle - and their antics kept me turning the pages eagerly until the final act.
Laurel-Rain Snow
Author of:
Embrace the Whirlwind, etc.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Finished it happily
Comment: First book in my life outside of high school, under grad, and grad school that I finished completely through. Point made.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just Plain Miserable
Comment: I had read so many positive reviews about One Fifth and how it was a light, fun, and witty read from the woman who created Sex and the City. I was extremely excited when the book arrived and eagerly started reading it. After slogging through about 165 pages, I had to put the book down. There were too many characters and too little plot to keep the novel cohesive and moving forward. To make matters worse, every single character wasn't just self-absorbed and greedy (as other reviewers have noted), but they were so miserable!! I've had many experiences while reading. Books have made me laugh and cry--always within the context of the story. This is the first book that made me depressed about the world in general! The author makes life, especially middle-aged life, seem bleak, pointless, and filled with nothing but unhappiness. This is not the light and fluffy book I expected. Wealthy New Yorkers whining incessantly about how awful it is to be rich just wasn't my cup of tea.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Worth It
Comment: I've read all of Bushnell's books and she is growing as a writer. This book contains her usual peek into high-society life in Manhattan, but she goes inside various characters' heads with skill and insight. Escapist fun with a few deep thoughts about modern life. I paid full price and don't regret it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Life is too short
Comment: to waste time listening to the rest of this book. I found the characters unbelievable and unable to hold my interest. I am a former New Yorker and had a sister caught up in the status issues raised in this book. This is not realistic and is very boring.
As a side note, if the author states that a character laughed, it is NOT necessary for the narrator to "hehehe" after reading the line!
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Editorial Reviews:
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"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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