It's a woman's world! (Lipstick Jungle - Candace Bushnell)

Member Name: UK1981_female

Product:	Lipstick Jungle - Candace Bushnell
Date:	27/08/09 (158 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very likeable yet complex characters

Disadvantages: None I can think of!

I have just finished reading 'The lipstick jungle' by Candace Bushell for the second time. I bought this book from Waterstone's around 2 years ago as part of a '3 for 2' offer. I really enjoyed reading it the first time round and wanted to review it on DooYoo, but I thought reading it again would make for a better review!

'The lipstick jungle' is written by the same person that wrote Sex and the City. When I first bought this therefore I was quite sure that it would entertain me, from start to finish. I am not actually a fan of Sex and the City, unlike most women I know, but I do know that it probably has an interesting plot, which is why it has so many followers. I've never really got into it as I don't really have the time, and anyway I much prefer to get into a book that has a great plot than a TV show.

The story 'The lipstick jungle' centres on 3 main female characters; Victory Ford - a very successful self-made fashion designer, Nico 'O' Reilly - the Editor in Chief of one the best selling magazines in New York, and Wendy Healy - the head of Parador Pictures, and an extremely successful movie producer. All three of these women live in New York, are best friends with each other and are quite famous as a result of their success.

The story quite nicely gives an equal amount of attention to the 3 main characters. They are successful and rich, but I really like the way that Candace Bushell, the author, manages to present to us the complexities of each of their lives. Being rich, powerful and female is perhaps the dream of many women, and this book definitely points out the pros of being a successful woman. But at the same time, we realise that each of these women do not have it easy.

For example, Victory Ford, the fashion designer is proud of how hard she has worked to get to where she is, but finds that she is always being pushed around by men, both in her professional and romantic relationships. This just makes her want to work harder however, and through the course of the book we see how she achieves her dreams and what hurdles she needs to face to realise them.

Nico 'O' Reilly is another example of a woman who is powerful and successful in her line of work, but sometimes she wonders whether this is all that life is, and the more we get to know Nico, the more we realise that sometimes men and women are not all that different.

In the case of Wendy Healy, she is almost what some women might see as the 'perfect woman' - she is successful, rich and still manages to have 3 children, although it is her husband that stays at home and looks after them. I found the story of Wendy Healy most interesting, as the role reversal involving her going out to work whilst her husband looks after the home showed that swapping the conventional roles that society has placed upon us i.e. the woman as the house-carer, reveals some of the problems that might crop up in a relationship where the woman earns all of the money.

I think by now you can tell that I did enjoy this book. In some ways, I think you could describe it as 'chick-lit' but I feel that the character complexity of the main characters makes this book a bit more special than your average 'chick-lit' novel. It's amazing the way that our first impressions of Victory, Nico and Wendy are quite different to how we see them at the end. In addition I found myself really liking each one of them.

The book is 432 pages long, which in my opinion is just about the right length. The story was concluded well, and ended just at the right point in my opinion.

The RRP of 'The lipstick jungle' is £6.99 but you can buy it used from Amazon for £0.01. In addition I have recently found out that 'The lipstick jungle' was made into a TV show, but as far as I know I think it only airs in the US.

Thanks for reading!

Summary: Very enjoyable read.