day 2.280

want to get carried away?

it's summer and that means books. a lot of books (well, at least for me). the first book i've knocked out this summer is candace bushnell's sex and the city prequel the carrie diaries. the carrie diaries tells the story of sex and the city protagonist carrie bradshaw's senior year of high school in suburban connecticut in the 1980s. it's all about carrie finding her passion for writing and experiencing love for the first time. ironically, all the "sex" carries experiences is vicarious: she still holds her v-card at this point, a far cry from the carrie we've all gotten to know. but that's because this isn't the carrie bradshaw you know. aka this isn't sarah jessica parker. carrie bradshaw started out as candace bushnell's alter ego; the name was used in candace bushnell's auto-biographical weekly sex and love column that was compiled into the book sex and the city, which in turn inspired the tv series and movie franchise. like any adaptation, liberties were taken with the characters when they were thrown on screen. even though hbo's carrie was very similar to candace bushnell in the beginning, as the show progressed she developed into a completely separate person. i don't think the path carrie went down on screen is the same path bushnell would write for her. the carrie of the carrie diaries screams "i'm really candace bushnell." anyway, back to the review. the carrie diaries is pure fluff. it's a good summer/beach read, but is horribly predictable. i should keep in mind that diaries was written for the teen set and that might explain why it's so simple. the whole novel seems like a set-up for already-in-progress sequel. the best part of the book is the last line, which *spoiler alert* sets up carrie's first adventure in new york with none other than samantha jones (fyi: in the literary world, jones isn't a publicist, but in advertising). if you're a fan of the tv series, feel free to pick up the book, but don't think it's a have-to. diaries is carrie's coming of age story, but it could be anyone's. the writing of the book and style of the show are very different, which leads to very different experiences with carrie. the teen-prequel series will no doubt be made into a movie, so maybe just wait to see that. it seems like bushnell knows herself, but not carrie. at least not anymore.