Is There Still Sex in the City?

by Candace Bushnell

Overview

Twenty years after her sharp, seminal first book Sex and the City reshaped the landscape of pop culture and dating with its fly on the wall look at the mating rituals of the Manhattan elite, the trailblazing Candace Bushnell delivers a new book on the wilds and lows of sex and dating after fifty.

Set between the Upper East Side of Manhattan and a country enclave known as The Village, Is There Still Sex in the City? follows a cohort of female friends—Sassy, Kitty, Queenie, Tilda Tia, Marilyn, and Candace—as they navigate the ever-modernizing phenomena of midlife dating and relationships. There’s “Cubbing,” in which a sensible older woman suddenly becomes the love interest of a much younger man, the “Mona Lisa” Treatment—a vaginal restorative surgery often recommended to middle aged women, and what it’s really like to go on Tinder dates as a fifty-something divorcee. From the high highs (My New Boyfriend or MNBs) to the low lows (Middle Age Madness, or MAM cycles), Bushnell illustrates with humor and acuity today’s relationship landscape and the types that roam it.

Drawing from her own experience, in Is There Still Sex in the City? Bushnell spins a smart, lively satirical story of love and life from all angles—marriage and children, divorce and bereavement, as well as the very real pressures on women to maintain their youth and have it all. This is an indispensable companion to one of the most revolutionary dating books of the twentieth century from one of our most important social commentators.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802148865
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	08/18/2020
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	142,007
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

CANDACE BUSHNELL is the critically acclaimed, internationally bestselling author of Sex and the City, Lipstick Jungle, The Carrie Diaries, One Fifth Avenue, Trading Up, Four Blondes, Summer and the City and Killing Monica. Sex and the City, published in 1996, was the basis for the HBO hit series and two subsequent blockbuster movies. Lipstick Jungle became a popular television series on NBC, as did The Carrie Diaries on the CW.

Read an Excerpt

Six months into my retreat, I got a call from Tina Brown. She had a story idea for me. Now that the appropriate time had passed since my divorce, I should throw myself back into the dating world and write about what it was like to be dating over fifty. I could do internet dating. I could hire a matchmaker. . .

I cut her off.

I don’t think so.

I wasn’t ready to start dating. But most of all, I didn’t want to. I’d been in relationships for nearly thirty-five years. I’d even experienced the full relationship cycle—fall in love, get married, and get divorced.

And now I was supposed to do it all over again? Was engaging in the relationship cycle the only thing I could do with my life? I thought about that good old definition of crazy: Doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result.

It was time to put an end to the cycle. And so I decided for the first time in thirty-four years, to be man-free.

This also meant being sex-free. At this point in my life, I’m not a casual sex person.

I didn’t talk about it, of course. The topic of sex, once the source of so much amusement, embarrassment, fear and joy, rarely came up. My single friends had been single forever and not dating and therefore not getting any, while my married friends were married and dealing with kids and also—I imagined—not getting any.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for IS THERE STILL SEX IN THE CITY?

A BEST BOOK OF THE SUMMER for US WEEKLY, ELLE, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, NEWSDAY, and POPSUGAR

“Perhaps no one has better excavated our kinky underpinnings than Candace Bushnell author of the original ‘Sex and the City’ columns and progenitor of the show that made Manolo a household name. Fifteen years after Carrie Bradshaw sighed her last ‘I couldn't help but wonder,’ Bushnell is back with Is There Still Sex in the City?. The protagonist, Candace, is a recently divorced writer who trades her Manhattan life for a cottage in the Hamptons...[the book is] brimming with the snappy rhetorical questions and taxonomic acronyms that became Bushnell's signature back in the stiletto days... While Carrie was a bright-eyed anthropologist, Candace and her friends are survivalists; even beyond the City, it's a jungle out there.”—LAUREN MECHLING, VOGUE

“What comes after cosmos and toxic bachelors? Fueled by chilled rosé, Sex and the City scribe Candace Bushnell is masterfully decoding a new era of single life.”—USA TODAY

“From Cosmos to rose, her current beverage of choice, Bushnell may drink pink. But she knows how to write dark.”—ASSOCIATED PRESS

“The book captures the buoyancy of the writer’s brand, but it also has a...mellow quality... As with the show, there’s a lot to relish. Bushnell’s portrayals of the women in her circle somehow feel both forgiving and clinical, with an anthropologist’s matter-of-factness...Bushnell wrestles smartly with the theme of aging, with how being a “fiftysomething” woman is different from being a “thirtysomething” woman....this Bushnell writes most gracefully about topics that are not sex and dating...This Bushnell has softer edges than the erstwhile Observer columnist... The city is big, Bushnell implies, but not endless. The sex never left it. But was sex ever really the point?”—Katy Waldman, NEW YORKER

“As she did in her bestselling Sex in the City, Bushnell examines her own and her friends’ experiences with dry wit, delivering sharp social observations about the trials and piquant pleasures of looking for love at a certain age.”—PEOPLE

“While [Bushnell] doesn’t bring back Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte or Samantha, it feels a bit like we’re at brunch with middle-aged versions of those archetypes, and they’re still talking about love and sex because, well, of course. The book, part memoir, part fiction, is a guide to the Ides of 50...Much like in the original SATC, Bushnell and her friends experience every romantic possibility so we don’t have to...Bushnell also touches on poignant aspects of what she calls “middle-aged madness”: the death of a parent, the isolation of divorce, the ache of realizing that even the most gorgeous among us will eventually become invisible.”— Susanna Schrobsdorff, TIME MAGAZINE

“Before Carrie Bradshaw was written into existence, there was a sexy blonde scribe pounding Manhattan’s pavement in search of love—or its lustiest approximation—armed with nothing but a Cosmo, a computer and couture. We are of course talking about Candace Bushnell, the original Carrie, whose New York Observer column-turned-book Sex and the City became arguably one of the most era- defining television series in history. Over twenty years later, Candace’s new book, Is There Still Sex in the City? (also in development as a TV series) delivers a new set of hilarious and heartbreaking truths to its audience—this time about divorce and dating after fifty in a Tinder- hindered world. You won’t get Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha 2.0 in this version (sorry, diehards), but with Bushnell’s Botox-needle-sharp observations and an equally engaging crew of girlfriends, you’ll be too glued to your Kindle to care.”—GREENWICH MAGAZINE

“Sometimes it can be fun to wonder what became of our fictional heroines... what of Carrie Bradshaw? After she bagged her Mr. Big, did she list her $40,000 shoe collection on eBay, move to the suburbs, have a bunch of kids and grow old gracefully? Or did Carrie find herself in her 50s child-free, single again and wondering how to get back in the game, only to have her gynecologist recommend a Mona Lisa laser treatment because ‘your vagina is not flexible enough’? Ugh. Such are the humiliations awaiting the female in middle age. That you-gotta-laugh-or-you-cry place is where Candace Bushnell, with her usual sparkling candor, begins Is There Still Sex in the City?.”—Allison Pearson, NEW YORK TIMES

“For legions of fans still under Carrie Bradshaw’s spell, the release of Candace Bushnell’s latest novel is worthy of celebration. The catch: The posse of older—and seemingly wiser—heroines has moved forward unresolved about the ebb and flow of that thing called “sex and love”... this social commentator is less keen to judge and more inclined to explore difficult questions. The jury may be out on whether there is still sex in the city, but this much is true: Bushnell’s literary penchant for what keeps us intrigued never disappoints.”—HAMPTONS MAGAZINE

“Bushnell’s voice is as knowing and sharp as ever... As with SATC’s ‘toxic bachelors’ and ‘modelizers,’ there’s a new taxonomy: ‘Cubbing,’ the pursuit of older women by younger men; or ‘MAM,’ for middle-aged madness, a late-onset midlife crisis for women. She also updates a chapter on ‘bicycle boys’ — then, the charmingly rumpled literary types on vintage bikes, now wealthy guys in Lycra.”—Jancee Dun, WASHINGTON POST

“Calling all Carrie Bradshaw fans: Bushnell returns two decades after Sex and the City with a new book about sex and dating after 50.”—US WEEKLY, “Hot Reads”

“Is there still sex in the city? Obviously. But you don't want any dummy telling you about it. Candace Bushnell only. The original!”—ELLE MAGAZINE, “Best Books to read this summer”

“It’s hard out there for a cougar. But for Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell, it’s exactly the age when women need her the most. Her latest book addresses ...women in their 50s and 60s who suddenly find themselves dating again. As with its predecessor [Sex and the City] there is no shortage of catchphrase-worthy sentiments.”—ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, “summer’s hottest reads”

“This book is not quite what it seems. And that turns out to be a pleasant surprise. It’s Candace Bushnell’s meditation on what happens when life takes a wrong turn for her and her group of girlfriends. It’s bittersweet, amusing and well observed. It starts out being about sex and dating but really it’s about disappointment, regret and self-acceptance.... I found this side to Bushnell refreshing and compelling.... This is a book about whether we can accept who we are when things don’t turn out how we wanted them to.”—Viv Groskop, GUARDIAN (U.K.)

“Like its predecessor, it’s a dishy report on the friendships and sex lives of New Yorkers, now inescapably middle-aged.”—NEWSDAY, “best summer books”

“You know the title. You watched the show. Maybe you even saw the movies. Candace Bushnell is back doing what she knows best: chronicling the lives of women and how they find love. This time, she turns her lens on middle-aged men and women, and the result is pure magic. At turns wistful and sad, thoughtful and funny, Is There Still Sex In The City? is even better than the original.”—POPSUGAR, "best new books to put in your beach bag"

“A collection of commentaries and recounted hijinks (and lojinks)… Sometimes funny, sometimes silly, sometimes quite sad—i.e., an accurate portrait of life in one's 50s.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS

“The effervescent Bushnell still has the ability to make readers laugh with her casually dry one-liners.”—BOOKPAGE

From the Publisher

08/26/2019

In this novel, bestselling author Bushnell (Sex and the City) offers an up-close look at the sometimes steamy, sometimes sedentary sex lives of eligible older women navigating the dating market. Divorced and contentedly living alone, narrator Candace receives a call from famed magazine editor Tina Brown, who suggests she get back to dating­, and writing about it. Candace reluctantly agrees (sex—like “cleaning out the gutters”—has been neglected of late). With characteristic wit and piquant humor, Candace travels between her Upper East Side apartment and a small house in the Long Island Hamptons, where she is joined by a set of aging single girlfriends who are also scouting for sex and/or romance. Candace devotes a spicy chapter to “cubbing” (50-plus women dating men in their 20s), but she doesn’t pursue this approach, warning that “cubs” may just be seeking free rent. She does, however, go out with a 31-year-old musician she finds on the dating app Tinder, and dines with a 75-year-old “senior-age player” (SAP), an older single man of means. Many middle-aged men, she observes, prefer dating much younger women, and finding an “age-appropriate” partner isn’t simple (though not, she proves, impossible). Though it may take some effort both online and IRL, many older women, Bushnell’s self-named character asserts, can date and mate with gusto. With its exploration of familiar themes of female friendship and the conundrums of male/female relationships, Bushnell’s clever new work will be adored by fans of Sex and the City and its HBO and film spin-offs. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Julia Whelan’s excellent narration of this chronicle of middle-aged dating stands alone as an engaging, easy-to-hear, even captivating performance—a pleasing six hours of getting to know the voice of this appealing and accomplished narrator. But with her mature voice register, confidence, and audible self-awareness, Whelan has also created an audiobook that is authentically connected to this particular book and author. Candace Bushnell, a wry and witty writer, is the creator of the hit TV show “Sex in the City,” an addictive series that emerged from the author’s autobiographical writing on urban sex in the midlife years. This latest iteration of Bushnell’s experiences and views is at once immensely entertaining and full of useful insights for women of a certain age who are still “in the game.” T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2019 - AudioFile

2019-04-28
The further adventures of Candace and her man-eating friends.

Bushnell (Killing Monica, 2015, etc.) has been mining the vein of gold she hit with Sex and the City (1996) in both adult and YA novels. The current volume, billed as fiction but calling its heroine Candace rather than Carrie, is a collection of commentaries and recounted hijinks (and lojinks) close in spirit to the original. The author tries Tinder on assignment for a magazine, explores "cubbing" (dating men in their 20s who prefer older women), investigates the "Mona Lisa" treatment (a laser makeover for the vagina), and documents the ravages of Middle Aged Madness (MAM, the female version of the midlife crisis) on her clique of friends, a couple of whom come to blows at a spa retreat. One of the problems of living in Madison World, as she calls her neighborhood in the city, is trying to stay out of the clutches of a group of Russians who are dead-set on selling her skin cream that costs $15,000. Another is that one inevitably becomes a schlepper, carrying one's entire life around in "handbags the size of burlap sacks and worn department store shopping bags and plastic grocery sacks....Your back ached and your feet hurt, but you just kept on schlepping, hoping for the day when something magical would happen and you wouldn't have to schlep no more." She finds some of that magic by living part-time in a country place she calls the Village (clearly the Hamptons), where several of her old group have retreated. There, in addition to cubs, they find SAPs, Senior Age Players, who are potential candidates for MNB, My New Boyfriend. Will Candace get one?

Sometimes funny, sometimes silly, sometimes quite sad—i.e., an accurate portrait of life in one's 50s.

Kirkus Reviews