Candace Bushnell brought television – and movie – audiences a fun group of New York City women filled with fashion sense and a love of life. However, before they were the toast of the town, they were young women starting out on their life journeys. In The Carrie Diaries, high school senior ,Carrie Bradshaw, wove her way through her last year of school living in a small Connecticut town. She experienced all the drama of most high school students. Now, in Summer and the City, Carrie embarks on a two month sojourn to the big apple by herself. She is there for a special writing program and to take a bite out of life.
Carrie and the City
Carrie Bradshaw is naive yet filled with a lust for life. She is unique with her own sense of style. Having met Samantha Jones via Samantha’s cousin who was a high school friend of Carrie’s, the young wanna-be writer finds herself adrift in NYC. Through a set of circumstances, Carrie and Samantha become roommates. So, while Carrie is undertaking all that her writing class has to offer, she is also learning a lot about life and the big city.
This is not the Samantha Jones viewers of the TV show have come to know. This Samantha is less confident and less independent. And Miranda Hobbes comes into the picture as a radical young feminist who mistrusts men.
Carrie is determined to soak in everything New York has to offer. Oh yes, and also to learn from her writing class. Yet that seems to take a backseat to everything else. She is immediately enveloped in the New York social scene and becomes a somewhat cocky young woman who is overly confident at times. This often alienates some of her friends and at the same time endears her to some of the artsy people.
Young Adult Readers and Carrie Bradshaw
These books are written for young adults. Even though the television series and the feature films focused on more adult themes, these books concentrate on the young characters, as they try to get a handle on life and their own desires.
Carrie Bradshaw is more than unique. How many people do you know who would paint their name on a precious handbag? The Carrie Bradshaw TV viewers know, is a connoisseur of fashion and shoes, but the young Carrie cannot afford Manolo Blahnik shoes or Gucci handbags. She shops in the thrift stores and vintage clothing stores. After all, she is not even eighteen-years-old.
As Carrie approaches her eighteenth birthday, she has set some interesting goals. She intends on losing her virginity with an older writer and she is planning on having a spectacular reading of her first play. Well, the best laid plans, etc.
Young readers will enjoy following Carrie during her two months in New York as she learns about being independent, about being a good friend, about learning to take the hard knocks, and about reinventing herself. You have to give it to this young woman - she takes a lot of hard knocks yet she continues to get up in the morning and face the world with the intention of making it big in the big apple. And she has a way of looking at life that is, well, pure Carrie.
Even though the books are intended for young adults, they are definitely not only for younger readers. Those of us who feel we know the characters well will find their meager beginnings intriguing. And younger readers will most likely identify with a lot of what these young women experience. Honestly, the stories are engrossing and a lot of fun. You’ll find you won’t want to put them down. They are wonderful for summer - or fall or winter or spring reading!
At this time, there is no word if Candace Bushnell will write a third book in the series.
Source:
- Summer and the City – A Carrie Diaries Novel by Candace Bushnell
- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Balzer + Bray (An imprint of HarperCollins)
- ISBN-13: 978-0061728938
