Beyond the Sex and the City

Killing Monica' is the latest book by Candace Bushnell, the author of the famous anthology, 'Sex and the City’, which was later remade into popular TV and movie series

The popularity of Candace Bushnell’s ‘Sex and the City’ obviously creates a certain image of her latest book ‘Killing Monica’. Before the entire hullabaloo around the anthology started, and there were fashion shows, merchandise and what not based on 'Sex and The City', and Sarah Jessica Parker wooed the audience in her designer wear and shoes as the New York-based columnist Carrie Bradshaw, were the very popular columns in the New York Observer.

Candace Bushnell, the struggling writer then, started writing the column on people she saw around her and met in the city, and slowly the column started sounding more autobiographical told through the voice of the central character Carrie. The author never confirmed if the column is based on her own life, yet, she never vehemently denied either.

Especially, when after the books, came the television series and later the movies, where Carrie Bradshaw too is a columnist whose writings are usually based on her experiences with people and men, one cannot help but wonder if Candace is Carrie, after all. Nevertheless, Carrie and her friends appealed to women of the day, who aspired to be as independent, confident, enterprising, successful, fashionable and fun-loving and above all who knew what they wanted and went for it hammer and tongs.

Obviously when one reads 'Killing Monica', where the famous author, PJ Wallis, who has created this happy, confident New York girl called Monica through her books and is surrounded by the aura and the popularity that the character enjoys, and eventually is overwhelmed and unable to come out of the shadow of her own creation, and feels trapped – one is drawn back to the original doubt – is this an extension of Candace too, and this time, is Monica – the Carrie Bradshaw that she created.

May be Candace wants it that way and leaves the readers perennially wondering. Back to the story line of ‘Killing Monica’ - when it is time to make the most popular girl from the 'Monica: A Girl's Guide of Being a Girl' a part of a movie series, PJ Wallis (Pandy) succeeds in choosing the right girl to play the lead – Sondra Beth.

Everyone loves the Monica of the movies and before she or her new found actor and friend Sondra Beth realise, Monica has taken over their lives. While Pandy is still the author of the book and retains the rights over her creation, Monica – the character has grown to be a brand and an entity over which, the author and eventually Sondra Beth who plays the character, lose control.

It is the producer of the show who partly controls Monica, Pandy and Beth, who incidentally become the best of friends painting the town red with their wild parties, girlfriends and pool clubs. When Pandy decides to write a fiction, a new book, which is rejected just because it has no Monica in it, she is dejected. As her personal life too is in a mess, she realises the only way to sort her life out is ‘Kill Monica’.

While, the story starts off well, one is stuck by the pace and is bogged down by the comparisons to 'Sex and the City' series, which is inevitable. Like her author PJ Wallis, Candace can never come out of the shadow of her popular creation – Carrie Bradshaw. 'Killing Monica' is an interesting read, but for a whole lot of drama that unfolds near the end – leaving the book somewhere between a thriller and a semi-biography, or shall we say autobiography.

By:Rajeshwari Kalyanam