The Goodwill Series: One Fifth Avenue

By Kristin Bivens

I’ve been trying to cut down on the amount of money I spend on books because I can get a little out of control. Books have been my money blowing weakness for a while now. So, in an effort to quell my constant need to buy a new book every time I hit up Barnes and Noble, I’ve taken up shopping at the local Goodwill Store.

Books at our Goodwill here in the South West corner of Michigan, are two dollars for a hard cover book and seventy five cents for a paper back. On half off days, the savings gives you the warm and tinglies.

After finishing my David Sedaris book, I started up on a book that had been sitting on my shelf for some time. I had tried to start it before but couldn’t dedicate myself to it and started another one, knowing someday I’d come back. Well, I did.

So, I’ve been reading One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell. I’ve never read a Candace Bushnell book before, and probably won’t again. Mostly because it reads a lot like a soap opera and the women kind of bother me. But, I’m still reading it and it is holding my attention. I guess, I’d have to say, I’ve gotten slightly drawn into it.

I picked up the book initially because of the New York setting. After my road trip this past May and my visit to NYC, I’ve been really interested in reading books set in New York, simply because I can recognize the territory a little better than I could before.

One Fifth Avenue is focused on a group of characters, all rich and living in one of the icons of NYC life. I can’t relate to them because their homes are worth millions of dollars. But that’s okay, that part doesn’t bother me. What really gets me about this book is the four main female characters: Schiffer Diamond, Mindy Gooch, Lola Fabrikant, and Annalisa Rice.

Schiffer Diamond is probably the least annoying out of the four them. She is an actress who moves back into One Fifth Avenue and focuses on Phillip Oakland, who lives in the building and once upon a time was her boyfriend. She’s the unreachable trophy, but seems to hold her own. The problem with her is her name, honestly. She’s an object. She is a woman that is mostly in the book to be the trophy for the guy, but could have some more depth to her. She’s really the only woman in the book I’d like to see more depth in.

Mindy Gooch is just…She’s a mess. She’s completely jaded by her less than a millionaire lifestyle, and so far, all she’s done is complain incessantly about it. She’s mad that her husband hasn’t become the successful writer he wanted to be, though she gets jealous when finally, he does get his big break. She hates being married, she hates her job, she hates the people that live in her building. She hates everything. She is the stereotypical, sexless wench. And it drives me insane. Then, of course, there is her husband that is obviously emasculated by such a woman. The whole situation just reeks of stereotypes.

Lola Fabrikant is the complete opposite of Mindy Gooch, but no better of a woman. In fact, I think she is the one I despise the most. Lola is a gold digger, who latches on to Phillip Oakland, some twenty years her senior. She’s a ditz, she’s not very smart but, of course, she’s got the beauty and the body. Once again, we have another object. She’s spoiled, used to her money and there’s no person behind her to back it up. It drives me absolutely crazy how she continues to trick the men in the book into staying with her, or doing what she wants them to do, by taking all her clothes off and making them go weak at the knees. Let’s try something new, why don’t we?

Annalisa Rice isn’t completely unlikeable. She comes from simple means, she just got lucky and married an emerging billionaire. She used to be a lawyer, an admirable career woman, which I like. But now she’s just the typical billionaire wife, trying to climb the social ladder and buying ridiculously expensive art. She knows her husband is no good, his money might not be completely legit, but she just keeps her mouth shut and goes on pretending she actually enjoys being married to this guy. Because, why rock the boat?

So, basically, we have all these women and each one of them has something about them that bothers me. Does the woman that is a bit of a bitch have to have the weak husband? Does the working woman have to be the one that is a bitch? Why doesn’t the lawyer go back to work? Why does the young, pretty girl have to be the gold digger and not have much of a brain? One Fifth Avenue, you baffle me.

Women in stories mean a lot to me, but I also want them to be represented in a way that shows real life, not this stereotypical idea of how a woman should be. Let’s get it together here, people. It is 2014.