4 Blondes by Candace Bushnell

Reading Level: Adult

This is the second book I've read by acclaimed author Candace Bushnell, and I
must admit, it was not as good as the first. "4 Blondes" does not have the
cohesiveness and complexity of "One Fifth Avenue," which I read last week.
These 4 vignettes about different female characters are not tied together in any
way (except supposedly by hair color), and are a little like reading 4 short stories
by the same author.

The chapter headings are all hair-color terms: Nice N'Easy, Highlights, Platinum
and Single Process. And while using these terms as story separators is creative,
that is where the magic ends. The first vignette involves a character named
Janey Wilcox, who is the most interesting of the four. I wish Bushnell had written
the whole book about her, but I guess she felt that that story line just petered out.
The other vignettes cover Bushnell's usual targets - ambitious female models or
journalists who are on the prowl for men. Nothing new there. Most disappointing
for me - one couple in this book, James and Winnie Dieke, are absolutely the
same characters who appear in "One Fifth Avenue." In that book, however, they
are James and Mindy Gooch, but they have the same jobs (writer and journalist),
and the same relationship (unhappily married with one chile) to each other. It's as
though Bushnell has plagiarized her own characters. How creative is that?

There are some twists and turns, some expected, some bizarre, and each
character has a different voice, but all the characters are forgettable. Unlike "One
Fifth Avenue," this work seems tired and forced, as if Bushnell needed to provide
her publisher with something on a deadline, but COUldn't be bothered to make it
something worthwhile. I have two more Bushnell books on my "To Read" list for
the summer - and I'm sincerely hoping they are back to the high level of talent
she exhibited in "One Fifth Avenue." "4 Blondes" is a disappointing read - the
type of a book you take on vacation and leave on the hotel nightstand when
you're done because it's just not good enough to bring back home.

Submitted by Gerti