Sex and the city by Candace Bushnell

[pull_quote_center]Love is dangerous, if you know it’s dangerous, that makes you treasure it, and you’ll work harder to keep it.[/pull_quote_center]

Far from being ‘fabulous’, as Samantha used to say in the Sex and The City (the TV series), the book is way below the movie. I’ve searched for that ‘je ne sais quoi’, and I hoped to find some of the passion that used to keep me glued to my TV screen. But I only got a bitter sensation.

‘Sex and the city’ by Candace Bushnell is about relationships. But, unlike the movie, the book has some superficial characters with faded stories, some characters who are just passing by, searching for something… There are more than four girls involved in the story, but there is no special relationship between them. We have no coffee meetings and no love & sex & career talks. Instead, we have discussions between characters with no apparent feelings – a number of snobbish ladies whose only job is to show off their health, find a husband and make him happy… or not!

The title ‘Sex and the city’ is far from the book theme. I think it’s more about that magnificent city and the people who live in it, those people with their strange habits and no purpose. This is a book about luxury, about nightlife, about fornication and how to make a stand. In this city, if you have money, you’ll have everything you want. If you don’t have it, you better do something and get it, even if that means to ‘love’ some ugly, boring guy.

Maybe it was a big mistake to look for the brilliance of the movie in the book, but I really hopped in some happy ending. Unfortunately, with each page was another step toward a gloomy end. I tried to look through the eyes of the characters, but their coldness turned me into a numb spectator, dissatisfied with their performance. In the movie I was part of the action – I laughed, I cried, I loved the girls, I found myself in their relationships… The book didn’t impress me at all. More than that, the end of my favorite couple – Carrie & Mr. Big – was a little bit of a disaster, although they ended, in some way, happy: “Mr. Big is happily married. Carrie has a happy solitude.”

We can rarely say that the movie is better than its book. In this case, there’s no doubt! The movie is better and I sincerely hope that, someday, we’ll have a ‘Sex and the City’ book as we know it from the movie.

Have you read ‘Sex and the city’? Have you seen the movie? I’m curious – what do you like more? And what’s your opinion about the book-movie duo?

Do I recommend you this book? After my review, you’d probably think not. But you’d be wrong. I recommend you this book because every SATC lover must have it. It’s a must, and that’s that!

Andres