Trading Up

Bushnell, Candace

ISBN 10: 1401396704 ISBN 13: 9781401396701

Publisher: Hyperion, 2003

Synopsis

With a brilliant comic voice as well as Jane Austen's penchant for social satire, Candace Bushnell, who with Sex and the City changed forever how we view New York City, female friendships, and the love of a good pair of Manolos, now brings us a sharply observant, keenly funny, wildly entertaining latter day comedy of manners. Modern-day heroine Janey Wilcox is a lingerie model whose reach often exceeds her grasp, and whose new-found success has gone to her head. As we follow Janey's adventures, Bushnell draws us into a seemingly glamorous world of $100,000 cars, hunky polo players and media moguls, Fifth Avenue apartments, and relationships whose hidden agendas are detectable only by the socially astute. But just as Janey enters this world of too much money and too few morals, unseen forces conspire to bring her down, forcing her to reexamine her values about love and friendship-and how far she's really willing to go to realize her dreams.

About this title

Review

Janey Wilcox is an MAW (that's Model/Actress/Whatever to the uninitiated). The problem with Janey, the protagonist of Trading Up, the new novel from Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell, is not the M or the A part. It's the W. Here is a rare alphabetical anomaly: in Janey's case, W stands for "prostitute". Janey never crosses the line into actual hookerdom, but she does sleep with extremely wealthy men in the hopes they'll improve her status, her financial situation, or her lifestyle.

When we first met Janey in Bushnell's novella collection 4 Blondes, she was up to her usual tricks (so to speak)--scamming a guy for a Hamptons vacation rental. At the opening of Trading Up her fortunes have improved. She's now the star of a Victoria's Secret ad campaign and as such she's found access to undreamed-of echelons of New York society. She makes friends with Mimi Kilroy, a senator's daughter "at the very top of the social heap in New York." She gets invited to all the best parties. And she finally finds a wealthy man who will actually marry her: Seldon Rose, a powerful entertainment industry executive. Of course, Janey's social ambitions are not hampered by her marriage to Seldon and the clash between her expectations (more parties) and his (normal life) send Janey into a tailspin that leads to heartbreak. Bushnell is clearly trying to channel Edith Wharton (The Custom of the Country is even invoked by Janey as a screenplay idea), but ends up sounding a lot more like a cross between Tama Janowitz and Judith Krantz. This is a novel about shopping and sex, and while it's fizzy enough, it's not Cristal. --Claire Dederer, Amazon.com

Review

The pace never flags and the plot twists remain compelling. The pithy elegance of her writing and the faultless ear for barbed chit-chat reminded me of Dorothy Parker (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

A dark, pitiless world lit up by Bushnell's razor-sharp wit. (INDEPENDENT)

There is something that sticks in the memory after TRADING UP is closed. Bushnell is so good at conveying the clenched teeth behind the most brilliant smile (GUARDIAN)

Hugely entertaining, and littered with the astute observations that have become the writer's trademark (INDEPENDENT)

Edition details

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1401396704
• ISBN 13: 9781401396701
• Binding: Audio Cassette