Book Reviews

Reviewed by Jay Scott Kanes

Maybe it's a curse! Any novel about age-30-plus single women seeking love in New York instantly draws unfavorable comparisons to Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell. Even bestselling author Lauren Weisberger plunges into this trap with her third novel, Chasing Harry Winston (2008, Harper, 280 pages).

This time, Weisberger, who hit the big time with a first book, The Devil Wears Prada, followed by Everyone Worth Knowing, tells a faintly amusing tale about three best friends. Emmy, a would-be restaurant executive, plans to rebound after her long-time boyfriend leaves with a young fitness trainer. Spendthrift beauty Andriana may end a varied sex-life for monogamy. And Leigh, a busy books-editor, reacts with surprise when her TV-star boyfriend proposes marriage.

These women share a sense of crisis. They crave changes, but struggle to decide what and when. Over drinks, they strike a deal calling for Emmy to find a lover on each continent and Adriana to secure an engagement ring from the prestigious Harry Winston store.

“ ‘Laugh if you must,’ Adriana said, feeling slightly irritated that, as usual, she wasn't being taken seriously. ‘But there's nothing funny about a five-plus-carat round stone in a micropave setting from Harry Winston. Nothing funny at all.’ ”

Distracted by pre-wedding dread, Leigh can't decide what to do. Then she scores a breakthrough with famous author Jesse Chapman.

These characters lead stressful big-city lives. “She tiptoed over to the door and looked through the peephole but saw only empty hallway. This was exactly how people ended up robbed and raped in New York City – getting duped by some criminal mastermind into opening their doors.”

An authority on human foibles, Weisberger also has the skills of a master wordsmith. Her description of nicotine's appeal could make readers gladly risk cancer: “Leigh loved inhaling. To pull with your lips on that filter and feel the smoke drift across your tongue, down your throat, and directly into your lungs was to be transported momentarily to nirvana. She remembered – every day – how it felt after the first inhale, just as the nicotine was hitting her bloodstream. A few seconds of both tranquility and alertness, together, in exactly the right amounts. Then the slow exhale – forceful enough so that the smoke didn't merely seep from your mouth but not so energetic that it disrupted the moment – would complete the blissful experience.”

Much of the humor isn't as funny as intended. Barbs aimed at men don't offend, but neither do they amuse. The funniest character isn't even human. It's Otis, a pet parrot. “ ‘Bor-ing!’ Otis cawed. ‘Big boring!’ He was perched on Adriana's blanketed ankle, staring at her as she stared at the TV.
‘Okay, okay, it was just a commercial. There, look. It's starting again now.’ Otis swiveled his head toward the television and proceeded to watch The Hills with rapt attention.”

Some characters and problems appear too predictable. “Emmy was sobbing so hard her tiny body trembled. Leigh ran through the possibilities of what could cause such pain, and came up with only three: a death in the family, a pending death in the family, or a man.”

Weisberger lives in New York too. Unlike these heroines, she has a husband.

For me, the giant flaw in Chasing Harry Winston had nothing to do with plot or character development. It was the small print in a paperback version straining my aging eyes. Publishers should make books easy to read, not the opposite.

Within two decades, middle-age and the related problems, like reading small print, may hamper Emmy, Adriana and Leigh too. Maybe then their author-creator will bring them back in a story about another of life's crisis times. Perhaps she'll call it Chasing Better Spectacles.

Approval rating: 70 per cent.