I've decided to branch out a little bit: I'm going to start blogging here about anything book related that catches my fancy. And since there's no time like the present, here we are to talk about the recently announced new Sex and the City books.
HarperCollins announced last week (what can I say, I'm behind) that they have signed SATC novelist to write two young adult novels called The Carrie Diaries, for a 2010 release. I've pasted the press release below, although it doesn't say much, except that the books will take us back to Carrie's high school years.
I'm appalled, and also shocked that I haven't heard cries of horror from any other source. Why am I shocked and appalled? Because Candace Bushnell didn't create the Sex and the City that we know; Darren Star and a team of writers, including Greg Berendt and Cindy Chupack, did. Personally, I think Bushnell is a bad writer; I tried to read both Sex and the City and 4 Blondes, and couldn't stomach either of them. I think Bushnell writes to shock (rather than, say, enlighten, or produce great work) and her style is not my cup of tea.
But personal opinions aside, Candace Bushnell DID NOT create the Sex and the City phenomenon. Her book is a collection of newspaper columns she penned about her life; she didn't really create any of the storylines that people so loved about the show. (See The Guardian link below for more on that.) For the most part, the show stuck to the present-day, but there were hints about Carrie's past - most memorably, the return of her high school boyfriend Jeremy (played by David Duchovny) who was in NYC for out-patient looney-bin treatment. So does Bushnell use that storyline that she didn't create because fans know it? For that matter, does she use Carrie-the-TV-character's characteristics, even though that's not the woman in her original book? I don't know who proposed The Carrie Diaries to whom, but I do know that Candace Bushnell was the wrong choice to pen these novels. What, was Cindy Chupack not available?
Here's The Guardian to enlighten us further:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2008/may/29/candacebushnellismoreimpor
Press release:
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1842013,00.html
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