|
Manhattan Melodrama
It's lonely at the top for these Fortysomething gals.
by Rachel DiCarlo
11/12/2005 12:03:00 AM, Volume 011, Issue 10
Lipstick Jungle
by Candace Bushnell
Hyperion, 353 pp., $24.95
IN LIPSTICK JUNGLE, Candace Bushnell intertwines the stories of a group of women who eat lunch together a lot, talk about relationships, and are more than a little self-obsessed. The Lipstick Jungle, of course, refers to the power, money, glamour, and rivalry drifting in the Manhattan air. Sounds familiar, right? But instead of Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw & Co., we get fortysomethings Wendy, Nico, and Victory, who are numbers 8, 12, and 17 on one newspaper's list of the 50 most powerful women in New York.
These women don't chase Mr. Big; they are Mr. Big. But just because they have top jobs doesn't mean life is perfect. It's lonely at the top. Being a successful woman comes with its own set of difficulties, as Bushnell writes; and, a lot of the time, life for career gals isn't that glamorous at all.
Workaholic Wendy Healy, the president of Parador pictures, has six Oscar nominations this year, but her kids care more about getting a new pony than they do about spending time with mom. To top it off, her husband wants a divorce. When Wendy asks why, he tells her it's because she's pathetic.
Cutthroat Nico O'Neilly, editor in chief of a major glossy, is trying to bump off her boss at the megamedia conglomerate Splatch-Verner (which bears at least a few striking similarities to Condé Nast) in order to grab the coveted CEO job. At the same time, Nico is juggling her marriage, daughter, and ...
|
