Average To Poor

I will endeavour to remain spoiler-free.

One Fifth Avenue is a slick, easy-to-read novel. The material is clearly supposed to be “Chick-lit”, and I’m definitely going to have trouble defending this book without pandering to gender-stereotypes. Not that it needs defending, although, when I first produced this book on the morning train, much to the amusement of the Metro-toting-businessmen around me, I did feel a slight pang of embarrassment.

Some conventions of chick-lit are apparent. The career-driven-middle-aged-woman, the urban setting and the mention of Shopping (I reckon its pretty bad I know what a Jimmy Choo is, although I did just Wikipedia the spelling…).

Is it actually chick-lit though? I wont ruin it, but the characters that get together at the end are never involved in any situation that could be deemed “hilarious”. Its not obvious they are heading that way at all. Also there is stuff in there that is clearly directed towards a male audience.

Also, its not cheesy, or predictable, and comes across as smart, sometimes witty, and often well-researched. Bushnell clearly knows or has read about a broad range of subjects and uses them well within the context.

On Amazon.co.uk, L. Felthouse "Avid reader…" writes:
“I felt it had too many characters to really get to know and care about them all, too many interwoven plots and too many pages.”

But that’s what I really liked. Not the “too many pages” obviously. I thought it had the right amount in relation to the amount of words.

I know somebody will get angry with me for comparing it to Pulp fiction, but it has the same sort of intertwining storyline business. And I like films, books and plays with a shit-load of characters. I am, indeed, searching for a better way to say that. I often get bored when I have to read through a hundred pages of one character’s thoughts.

As big Great Gatsby fan, I found Candace Bushnell’s Book, although not following the exact same pattern, has elements almost directly drawn from Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. The descriptions of parties and some of the dialogue are very Gatsby-esque (I’m sure that term already exists).

It’s a little obvious, but I identified with the character of Thayer Core the most. He’s around my age, sarcastic, has malicious tendencies and is, a lot of the time, unlikable. "Thayer Core was a bully, and like most bullies, he lacked courage. He was far too fearful to take physical action, striking out at the world instead from behind the safety of his computer."I may not share all of Thayer’s tendencies, who, at one point, solicits sex as payment for taking in another character, but on some level I do relate.

Considering I was defending this book as anything but Chick-lit, I will concede that characters like Thayer don’t often pop up in books of this genre, unless displayed in a noticeably “romantic-lead” way. I’m also probably not as well versed in books of this ilk to draw broad conclusions about the correct characters to include.

Ah, the character of Lola. The “sit-on-the-fence” Character. At least for me. She’s described as having had both a nose and boob-job, characteristics I would find off-putting in real life, but, when described in the novel, I find vaguely attractive. Certainly, she is a disgusting human being, bordering on prostitution as mentioned above. And again, I still find her alluring. She is obsessed with fame and wants to live in New York without doing a days work. I say fine. For some reason, she has a redeeming quality that I would like to think is anything but her physical attributes, but I’m probably wrong. Reading from a women’s point of view, I’m guessing Lola is the hated character, and I can feel the frustration the fairer sex probably feel at the end of the book.

I was going to mention the character I didn’t like, but that’s Mindy Gooch, and if you read the book you’ll see why. Even slutty young Lola is preferable as a human being in my opinion.

I should mention that some of the characters are very reminiscent of the show Gossip Girl. I like Gossip Girl, so this wasn’t such an issue for me. I’m sure Candace Bushnell is quite aware of the program. It’s a good show. Dudes can like it to. I don’t need to justify myself. Not at all.

There is a whole plot line about “The Cross of Bloody Mary”. I found it unnecessary and the book could have risen to an even better level without it. I also didn’t quite get why the book was split into Acts as well as chapters.

These are, however, just minor glitches.

The issue I am having is trying to convey the fact that I really enjoyed this book. To use an example, its not as bad as the problem I had with the second Transformers movie. I really liked this book, but after reading it I find myself taking apart elements and re-evaluating my opinion. With Transformers, I left the cinema thinking I’d seen a good film. With One Fifth Avenue, I knew I’d read a good book.

In the weeks after my cinema experience, I stripped away the “hot girl” element, who I figure has enough coverage on the Internet already, and the massive explosions and CGI. I was left with a confusing story about cars and aliens that I’m sure lots of people jizzed over, but left me with a numb-bum and confusion. Its probably my own fault for thinking it would be the height of high-culture, or even just a good movie.

I would advise anyone to give this novel a read. Guys too. It often depends on your taste in books, but good material usually transcends specific tastes. Call it chick-lit of you will, but I tend to gravitate towards books about the best city in the world, money is always an interesting subject, and there are quite a few sex bits. We all enjoy the sex bits. Although one Amazon reviewer did point out they were a little “clinical”. In fact, I think it was the same reviewer as above.

Sweet. First Blog done.

I enjoyed that.

I will eventually come up with a hilarious signing-off line too.