Book review: The Debutante Divorcee, by Plum Sykes
Rating: *** (out of 5)
Review by: Alexa Williamson
If you’re a fan of Sex In The City, then you’ll like fiction by British-born fashion writer and former staff member of Vogue magazine, Plum Sykes. This piece of work, like her stunning book Bergdorf Blondes captures the live-fast, die-young culture of Manhattan’s upper-crusty women with too much money and time on their hands, which results in them being pill-popping and sweetly vapid, trop materialistic fashionistas.
The Debutante Divorcee focusses mainly on Sophie (with the story told from her perspective), her flighty and too-rich friend Lauren Blount and their clique.
Sophie attempts to be a happily married wife, while Lauren can’t help but flaunt her ‘gay divorcee’ status as she gleefully ‘makes out’ with as many men as possible, wears diamonds and jets around the world at the drop of a hat.
Having two main plot threads throughtout the book, it’s enjoyable as we see Sophie struggle try and piece together whether her husband is having an affair with the stunning yet a-moral Sophia and, at the same time, Sophie’s husband, Hunter, has a fantastic fate lined up for Lauren.
Witty and refreshingly self-effacing, you’ll love the book, as like Sex in The City, it mocks Manhattan culture. However, if you’ve read Bergdorf Blondes, you’ll know that that book did it better. With the writing not as tight as Bergdorf, and more of the same type of jokes and observations – it’s like eating the same course twice at Le Cirque (but they’ve just swapped the coriander garnish for some fennel) - how gauche!
Further information:
Plum Sykes (Wikipedia)
Hi there! Great review, I just wanted to say that I’ve read the book, and the main character (the one married to hunter) is named Sylvie and not Sophia.
Sophia is the “maneater”