FIRST IMPRESSIONS
By Suchitra Behal
Lipstick Jungle, Candace Bushnell, Abacus, £2.50.
IF you belong to that rarefied sect of successful, rich and middle-aged women, then this is one book that you'd love to read. Here's a successful trio who head the list of who's who in New York City. One is a fashion designer with a reputation as a woman of style. Her best friend is the head of an equally successful production firm and the last is the editor of the city's style bible. Together, they pack a punch. Each woman seems to have achieved everything that life could want. Money, fame, great lives and loads of fun. That they are hitting their forties and still looking good is an added bonus.
But the fun begins when each one begins to scrutinise her life. Victory, the successful designer bombs on the catwalk with her new look for the season. Wendy, the head of the production firm suddenly finds that life is not rosy anymore. And Nico, ,with a successful marriage to an understanding partner, suddenly finds that sex is what she actually lusts after.
Even as the three women try to work out their blues, they continue to be a source of solace to each other. Candace Bushnell, best known for the book Sex and The City, once again writes with gritty and wry humour about women on the top.
Wish You Were Here, Granta, £9.99.
GEOFF DYER with his startling work, "White Sands", touches a deep chord as he moves through the story of a couple who give a hitchhiker a ride. "The Falcon" by Gilad Evon is aggression at its best. When Mooly, known for his exemplary service, presence of mind and devotion to his soldiers and their welfare, enters a Palestinian village, he expects it to go like everything else, smoothly. For a while it seems so, till Mooly gets besotted with the giant Falcon that lives in the house that Mooly and his soldiers now occupy. But it becomes a mess when Mooly insists on buying off the falcon. "The Visiting Child" by Kate Bender and "Wish You Were Here" by Simon Gray demand a read. Granta has once again put together an admirable collection.
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, Alexander McCall Smith, Abacus, £2.50.
ISABEL DALHOUSIE is a formidable woman. A woman of modestly comfortable means, independent and the editor of a journal. She also has an unerring instinct for getting involved in situations that many would simply ignore. She has a fondness for music and philosophy and chocolate, which she often shares with the handsome young Jamie — a musician besotted with Dalhousie's niece. Dalhousie finds herself attracted towards Jamie. In between all this she has a chance encounter with a man who has recently had a heart transplant. He confides in her that he has started having extreme visions and is uncomfortable with the thought that his dead donor is trying to send a message. For Isabel this is irresistible once again.
There is a growing feeling of disappointment, a sense of déjà vu persists. You are left wondering if you've been there and read that.
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