When I first heard that Candace Bushnell was writing "The Carrie Diaries," a young adult prequel to "Sex and the City," I had to wonder: Would this be the Carrie Bradshaw from Bushnell's 1994 best-seller or the HBO series and movies? And how much "SATC"-style frank sex talk can you have in a YA novel, anyway?
Actually, this is a very different Carrie, but one who you can definitely imagine turning into the savvy, independent, 30-something "journalist of some kind" in Bushnell's sex column-turned-book, or the slightly more romantic version Sarah Jessica Parker is about to bring back to the big screen. While reading about the high school adventures of the 17-year-old Connecticut girl whose friends call her Bradley, it's hard not to imagine a "Footloose"-era SJP. The key Carrie elements are all there: She's outspoken, fiercely devoted to her friends, dreams of becoming a writer and has an adventurous sense of fashion.
But this Carrie is also: a virgin, a romantic, a member of her high school swim team and a down-to-earth small-town girl. And before she joins the sisterhood of Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha, she's got an absent-minded, widowed father, two younger sisters and a hilarious group of friends. All of which makes her more relatable than ever. I love and aspire to be the 30-something Carrie, but I want this girl to be my best friend.
The story isn't earth-shattering to YA readers. It's 1979, senior year, and though Carrie should be concentrating on getting into Brown, she's got some distractions. The New School rejected her for a summer writing program in New York; all her friends seem to be losing their virginity before her; and the new kid in school, Sebastian Kydd, just happens to be the boy she crushed on back when she was 12. Her subsequent involvement with Sebastian — whose hot and cold behavior keeps Carrie guessing as much as Mr. Big in his heyday — leads her into battle with the popular girls, Donna LaDonna and the Jens. And then it comes between her and BFF Lali.
All that plot is great and keeps you glued to the page until the end, but what sticks with you later are Carrie's internal musings. On boys: "Boys' mouths are never what you think they're going to be anyway. Sometimes they're stiff and sharp with teeth, or like soft little caves filled with down pillows." Or even on calculus: "You never know when a rogue integer is going to show up and ruin your entire equation." She maintains this wit even as she struggles between holding strong to the feminism her late mother instilled in her or taking the much easier path of losing herself and doing whatever boys will like more.
But we know Carrie wouldn't let us, or herself, down like that. And not just because we can see her future.
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