Meet Carrie...

(Crest, TOI, May 22)

Almost like a Karan Johar film, or perhaps inspiring it, the high-fluff Sex and the City soon became SATC – not easier to say, but quicker to type in. And as the television show progressed into a movie and then another, a quick churn-out of books was inevitable. As were the questions that segued into a prequel: The Carrie Diaries, starring the character made iconic by a fashion forward Sarah Jessica Parker and her shoe closet.

Carrie Bradshaw, or Bradley, as her friends in high school called her, is from a small town called Castlebury. Life is all about attitude for the young woman, who craves, as do all teenagers – myself and my classmates included – to belong, but to still stand out by way of word, deed, personal style or, indeed, boyfriend. So for Carrie, making out with the boy that every other girl wants is paramount, though a future career as a writer comes a close second and losing her virginity follows fairly close behind.

And so her life proceeds. The handsome, desirable and hot Sebastian Kydd comes back into her life and – oh wow! – chooses her as his girl. For a while, anyway. For Sebastian, as it must be for any hormonally overcharged teen male, quantity and scoring with girls who matter rules over quality and any genuine emotional bond. But Carrie believes that she is the One and Only, and is shattered when she finds that her man finds horizontal bliss with her best friend.

Typically young adult American, with behaviour perhaps seen in a tiny select circle translatable into an Indian context, Carrie and her (former, by the end of the book) best friend Lali, Maggie, the bitchy Donna LaDonna, Mouse, Danny, Walt with his secret life, Peter, sisters Dorrit and Missy, George and a cast of other characters slowly build up to the next stage in Carrie’s life. She finally finds her way to Brown University, but first heads to New York City, still a virgin, for a course in creative writing. An occasional surprise pops out of the fluff and does work. And as the last page ends, Carrie starts making the friends so familiar to SATC watchers.

Does a book like this one deserve to be written? Perhaps, yes. After all, the readers, most fans of the show, craved more information, from how Carrie Bradshaw started her career as a writer to how the four women became so closely bonded, to…well…where those shoes came from. As a shoe aficionado, I can understand the last point, but for the rest - I just about managed to read the book.