Is There Still Sex in the City?

In this novel, bestselling author Bushnell (Sex and the City) offers an up-close look at the sometimes steamy, sometimes sedentary sex lives of eligible older women navigating the dating market. Divorced and contentedly living alone, narrator Candace receives a call from famed magazine editor Tina Brown, who suggests she get back to dating­, and writing about it. Candace reluctantly agrees (sex—like “cleaning out the gutters”—has been neglected of late). With characteristic wit and piquant humor, Candace travels between her Upper East Side apartment and a small house in the Long Island Hamptons, where she is joined by a set of aging single girlfriends who are also scouting for sex and/or romance. Candace devotes a spicy chapter to “cubbing” (50-plus women dating men in their 20s), but she doesn’t pursue this approach, warning that “cubs” may just be seeking free rent. She does, however, go out with a 31-year-old musician she finds on the dating app Tinder, and dines with a 75-year-old “senior-age player” (SAP), an older single man of means. Many middle-aged men, she observes, prefer dating much younger women, and finding an “age-appropriate” partner isn’t simple (though not, she proves, impossible). Though it may take some effort both online and IRL, many older women, Bushnell’s self-named character asserts, can date and mate with gusto. With its exploration of familiar themes of female friendship and the conundrums of male/female relationships, Bushnell’s clever new work will be adored by fans of Sex and the City and its HBO and film spin-offs. [em](Aug.) [/em]