Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell

What a disappointment.
Maybe because I like the show, or maybe because New York magazine describes it as "pop feminism" (whatever that means) I thought that this would be a really good book, with strong female characters. I thought it would be a fun, and kind of dirty, read.
Well, I was completely let down.
The book is well written, the descriptions are clever and imaginative at times. And, in theory, any strong woman would like the characters.
Based in NYC, it describes the lives of 3 women who are at the top of their fields. There is Wendy Healy, president of Parador Pictures, and mother of three. The second girl is Victory Ford, self made woman, and fashion designer, and last there is Nico Reilly, Editor in Chief of Bonfire magazine.
But no matter how you look at it the characters are weak in the most pathetic way: when it comes to men. Don't get me wrong, we all get weak when it comes to our attractions every now and then, but all three characters throughout the whole 435 pages?
Let's begin with Wendy. She is smart, strong, clever and a workaholic. She is married to a man named Shane. Shane is a good for nothing assho*e . Why is Wendy married to a man that hasn't worked in the last 12 years and that treats her like she's a doormat? It seems that it is because she can't fathom the idea of being alone. Even after he leaves her without an explanation she takes him back over a month later, because she doesn't know what she would do without him.
Finally, he does leave her for good. Less than a month later she finds herself in love and pregnant again
Then there is Victory. Her career begins staggering because instead of following the beaten track she chooses to do something new, and the public doesn't seem to understand it. She seems like a very interesting person, but most of the book is centered around her relationship with Lyne Bennet, an eccentric (aren't they all?) billionaire who is very interested in her. Slowly Victory takes care of her career, and picks it back up, but although she is self made, - she comes from a small town to NY, and becomes her childhood dream - she can't seem to either let go of Lyne, who drives her absolutely bonkers, or to hold onto him and make the relationship work.
Nico is another story. Portrayed as cold and driven, she is married to Seymour, a professor at Columbia University. Seymour is a good man, but also very cold. After a series of encounters Nico decides to have an affair with a male model named Kirby Atwood, who makes her feel like she has never felt before. Although she wanted the affair to be a one time thing she lets carry on for over a year, until, afraid that the New York Post has gotten a whiff of the affair she breaks it off.
Throughout this whole process the women win Oscars, get promoted, and sign multimillion dollar deals. It seems, looking at the book from thousands of feet in the air, that the women grow towards the end of the book. But once you get closer you realize that the truth is that they don't, and I'm sorry, but 435 pages are not worth stagnation, regardless of how "fabulous" the characters might be.