Bergdorf Blondes: A Novel

Bergdorf Blondes: A Novel

book data

3383 ratings, 3.08 average rating, 518 reviews (more data...)

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published

April 7th 2004 by Miramax Books

binding

Hardcover, 312 pages

isbn

1401351964 (isbn13: 9781401351960)

description

If you think a Brazilian is a South American, that PJs are pajamas, and that Beyond is somewhere far away, then you obviously haven't met a Bergdorf B...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 3930)

All ratings | 5 stars (396) | 4 stars (756) | 3 stars (1244) | 2 stars (668) | 1 star (309) | avg 3.08

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Katie

Katie rated it:

11/09/08

To follow Keerthi's review: I also read this book thinking it would be as awesome as Plum Sykes' writing in Vogue, and was cruelly disappointed. In my defense, I was in high school, and therefore much more gullible.

What purports to be a 'peek into the elite' book - think Devil Wears Prada (which is, btws, an even more hateful book that should probably be burned and banned as it is an affront to even those of sub-human intelligence. Hell, single cell organisms probably wouldn't even be taken ...more

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Sari

Sari rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

01/24/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: nobody

i picked this book up at the library book sale yesterday for $0.50 and I have to say I'm sorry I wasted my money. This book is about NYC's "it" girls and their shallow, shallow lives. It's supposed to be an entertaining chicklit read, but I'm finding I'm just not impressed at all. It's juvenile, it's stupid, it's going to be unfinished - I can't even bear to waste any more time reading it, it's going straight to the thrift store donation pile.

The characters don't seem to have ...more

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Brittany

Brittany rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

08/25/08

bookshelves: girly-books

Read in November, 2004

recommended to Brittany by: Gillian
recommends it for: No one

How I Came To Own This Book: Gillian bought it due to the hype surrounding the novel.

The Plot: The unnamed character (who goes by Moi) is your typical, irritating, self-obsessed upper East Sider in NYC on the hunt for a husband and all the other trivialities that make up 'that' type of woman's life - shopping, being seen, and looking great while doing it. Basically a very very fluffy slice of life from a woman who has been there...

The Good & The Bad: This is one of my least favourite...more

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william

william added it (review of isbn 0670914339)

01/07/08

Read in April, 2004

Rather than a female narrator called, say, Plum, we have a narrator called “Moi,” which is that much more intimate. Moi is quick to point out that she is not blonde, that she has a career, as a fashion magazine writer no less, and that she happens to be a conduit for the lives of the rich and blonde around her.
The tone is curious, more Teen Vogue than proper Vogue. Still, it follows American magazine protocol in being chatty, toothlessly catty and less than fully informed. This suits th...more Rather than a female narrator called, say, Plum, we have a narrator called “Moi,” which is that much more intimate. Moi is quick to point out that she is not blonde, that she has a career, as a fashion magazine writer no less, and that she happens to be a conduit for the lives of the rich and blonde around her.
The tone is curious, more Teen Vogue than proper Vogue. Still, it follows American magazine protocol in being chatty, toothlessly catty and less than fully informed. This suits the narrative which follows a traditional arc of girl meets boy, loses boy, meets boy, meets boy, meets really rich boy and swoons. There is a similarity to the television show Sex in the City, in that all men who wander across the pages are either appalling or unutterably wonderful. As Moi sums up her love life: “I had somehow contrived to date one brute, one congenital liar and a professional lothario.”
Early on Moi offers a short list of reasons why it is better to live in New York than in London. After Mummy, Toffs (“ew!”) and Daddy comes the Brazilian, as in the bikini wax favored by thong-wearing women whose nether regions tend to be their most interesting asset. Could the narrator and author be unaware of the fact that such a treatment is available in London? Should Vogue be alerted to the existence of a little place called Bliss?
This display of ignorance becomes less startling as Bergdorf Blondes stumbles on, and it allows for a cloying motif. Because of this amazing new waxing thing that has never been heard of outside of New York, sex is referred to throughout as variations on the word Brazil. This is not unlike Jay McInerney referring to cocaine in “Bright Lights Big City” as Bolivian Marching Powder. Moi, then, goes to Brazil, she goes to the Amazon, she goes to Rio (the clitoris), and, most dismayingly to Impanema. For the sake of context, Moi informs “ . . . . you know me, when faced with a choice between another glass of Pimms or a trip to Brazil, I’ll always take the Brazil.” Of course sex is relative in a world where “Michael Kors understands the inside of a womans’ thigh like no other man I know.”
Oh yes, fashion. There is barely a designer’s name that doesn’t happen to be one of the major advertisers in the first zillion pages of Vogue. The careful politics of acceptable product placement are adhered to but when something as safely acceptable as Alexander McQueen isn’t being exalted the author loses her footing. The lovely designs of Marni for instance, which could be described as shabby chic, are here rendered as having the look of a “street urchin” which is spectacularly incorrect. Personal taste is questionable in the extreme, most especially when we come to a $325 pair of Chloe Jeans which apparently “do something amazing for my ass.”
For a deep inside look at New York fashionista wit, which is slightly too stupid to be offensive: “The hottest sample sales in New York are so fraught with danger they make the Gaza Strip look peaceful.”
Throughout advance copies of the book I was honored to see the author’s mind at work in mid-composition -- pen held aloft as she searched for the mot juste, as moi wouldn’t say. At one point it is written “J’ sais pas [sic:] (ck. French),” which is very sweet given that the narrator expresses excitement with liberal use of the word “trés.” Elsewhere comes the need to describe small items inspiring “chahtchkis [sic:] (ck sp/ Jewish word).” Indeed.
Despite Moi’s objection to England, the whole inside-New York fairy tale grinds to a halt in the English countryside and everyone lives happily ever after, but not before our heroine gets mud on her Jimmy Choos. The ending brings the proceedings firmly into the realm of Barbara Cartland -- the moral of the story is to marry well, which I suppose is the ultimate beauty tip.

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Michelle

Michelle rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

04/08/08

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: Idiots

I'm not sure why I even read this in the first place. I think it may have been because my sister lent it to me when I asked her if I could borrow a book on my trip to Milwaukee last summer. She specifically warned me in advance that it was really stupid, but secretly a fun read in a guilty pleasure sort of way. Most people would probably say at this point, "What were you expecting, Camus?" I don't know, I don't care, I HATED this book. It was basically like Sex and the City but 10,000 ...more

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Melissa

Melissa rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

08/21/08

Read in August, 2007

Fourth book read in my "gal about town" novels in NYC.

I'm fascinated at how people with such wealth and seemingly sophisticated lives could be, in reality, such trash. Oh sorry, when you reach a certain income level, you are "notorious" or "eccentric." The narrator, referring to herself as "moi" was as irritating as the little girl euphamisms given for such acts as "going to Brazil."

Worse yet, I saw the ending coming from a private jet ...more

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Poppy

Poppy rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

08/07/08

bookshelves: chicklit, drivel, humor

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: vapid rich women, chick-lit fans

This book came in the mail today and I don't know why. Did I order it from half.com? Or maybe one of Amazon.com's used book sellers? Did I win it in a Bloggy Giveaway? Is it a present? I have no idea.

However, I checked it for drugs, and it came out clean. So I figured what the hell, I'll read it.

However. I'm only a couple of pages into it, and something about rich, vapid women in "good buildings" on Park Avenue seems eerily familiar.

So I'm wondering: has Chick-lit become s...more

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Anne

Anne rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

08/27/08

bookshelves: chick-lit

Read in August, 2007

I'm not against chick lit. In fact, I indulge in them a lot of times --but this book was as stupid as stupid gets. It was predictable and not even funny in the smallest bit. The writing style is less than mediocre and it was a total waste of the 3 hours (that seemed more like an eternity) that i spent reading it.

If I didn't have the obsessive compulsive NEED to finish books I've started, I would never have finished this one. don't waste your time on this book. There are much more books out ...more

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Stephanie

Stephanie rated it:

(review of isbn 0670914339)

03/07/07

Read in February, 2006

This book was nearly offensive in its wanton display of greed, vanity and superficiality. It's almost embarrassing to even admit I read it, but as a follower of Sykes' Vogue pieces, I felt I owed her a bit of literary loyalty. Big mistake.
This book, sadly, confirms all those horror stories you hear about "Park Avenue Princesses," and doesn't even have the decency to laugh at itself at any point. Sykes is a clever wordsmith, but the meat of this book leaves much to be desired.......more

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Jenn

Jenn rated it:

11/30/08

Read in June, 2004

this is like a cotton candy book.. totally something easy to read and engaging, and really funny in a social-commentary-on-the-rich kind of way. i flew through most of the book when i was keeping a bedridden noah company yesterday night, and then finished it off this morning when i took a coffee break at a starbucks near my office. i was totally in the mood for something fun and light, and this was the perfect meringue of a book for the occasion...

i often find it so much easier to sink into a...more this is like a cotton candy book.. totally something easy to read and engaging, and really funny in a social-commentary-on-the-rich kind of way. i flew through most of the book when i was keeping a bedridden noah company yesterday night, and then finished it off this morning when i took a coffee break at a starbucks near my office. i was totally in the mood for something fun and light, and this was the perfect meringue of a book for the occasion...

i often find it so much easier to sink into a book when i like the characters that i meet within it. like, i really liked "moi" (as the first-person protagonist referred to herself), a self described "champagne bubble of a girl about town" who was sweet and funny, smart and observant, and in general, a very likeable guide into a glamorous world so unlike my own...

not that this was a completely fluffy book though! it was actually kind of DARK in some respects, and made me think a lot about how well we really know the PHs (prospective husbands, according to the lingo of the park avenue princesses) in our lives. it's super easy to be so smitten with someone that you imagine them to be everything you've ever dreamed of, to read deep significance into their every comment/action, and to essentially *deceive* yourself like the protagonist of this novel did time and again. now at the end of the book, i really DID want to believe that charlie was different from the other guys, but while he definitely demonstrated some positive characteristics, i had to feel like we simply didn't know enough about him yet to really make a good decision! i also sensed an unstated premise (which i fundamentally disagree with) that the girls could not be happy or liberated from their socially confining state without finding true love. because i believe there is merit to being a complete and content person in and of yourself, without seeking validation or worth in the (potentially fickle) affections and attentions of another.

although, that being said, even i cannot deny the truly magical nature of being in love! how could i NOT just meeeeelt when charlie says at the end of the book, "sometimes i think you were made especially for me"? :)

[review originally written June 2004:]...less

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Carrie

Carrie rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

11/25/08

Read in April, 2004

recommends it for: chick-lit fans

If you like the girly books, you'll like this. It's about a group of NYC socialites and their life. They are all pretty air-headed, but they don't pretend to not be, so they are pretty entertaining. They are all on the search for their PH (potential husband) and the book is from the POV of one in particular. There are some pretty predictable plot points - I knew how the book would end as soon as a particular character was introduced, but it was still very entertaining to get to the end. Plum Syk...more

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Annicka

Annicka rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

09/10/08

I thought it was a lot of pointless, designer name dropping. The storyline was hard to follow and I found the characters to be pathetic, shallow, and hard to relate to.

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Mary Jane

Mary Jane rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

09/21/07

bookshelves: favorites

If you love Sex and the City, you'll love this book!

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

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treehugger

treehugger rated it:

(review of isbn 140138420X)

12/30/07

bookshelves: audiobooks, chicklit

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: someone looking for a VERY light romantic, materialistic read

Ok, I'm sort of embarrassed about this, but....I actually LIKED this book. I rolled my eyes an LARGE number of times (sometimes at frightfully inconvenient times, as I listened to the entire book while I was driving around town..), and a lot of the subject matter was super-, almost surreally superficial. The fashion stuff and "New York Park Avenue Princesses" I could care less about.

It was a cute story, a very easy read (listen), and while I didn't like how some really important ...more

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Ferina

Ferina rated it:

(review of isbn 014101394X)

07/13/07

bookshelves: chicklit

Read in July, 2005

Buku ini menurutku sih, lumayan lucu. Yup, another chick-lit. Cerita tentang kehidupan kaum ‘jet-set’ di Manhattan. Di awal buku ini, disebutkan, “Bergdorf Blondes are a things, you know, a New York craze. Absolutely everyone wants to be one, but it’s actually trés difficult. You wouldn’t believe the dedication it takes tp be a gorgeous, flaxen-haired, dermatologically perfect New York girl wit a life that’s fabulous beyond beliefe. Honestly, it all requires a level of commitment co...more Buku ini menurutku sih, lumayan lucu. Yup, another chick-lit. Cerita tentang kehidupan kaum ‘jet-set’ di Manhattan. Di awal buku ini, disebutkan, “Bergdorf Blondes are a things, you know, a New York craze. Absolutely everyone wants to be one, but it’s actually trés difficult. You wouldn’t believe the dedication it takes tp be a gorgeous, flaxen-haired, dermatologically perfect New York girl wit a life that’s fabulous beyond beliefe. Honestly, it all requires a level of commitment comparable to, say, learning Hebrew or quitting cigarettes. (page 1).

Tokoh utamanya, seorang cewek yang gak disebutin namanya, cuma dia selalu menyebut Moi. Si Moi ini punya sahabat namanya Julie Bergdorf, cewek blonde yang tajir banget, dia selalu bisa ‘membeli’ apa aja yang dia mau. Kakeknya Julie ini pemilik department store Bergdorf. Tapi, anehnya, meskipun dia bisa beli segalanya yang dia mau, Julie punya penyakit ‘klepto’ di ‘toko’nya sendiri.

Moi sendiri, sebelum ke Manhattan, dia tinggal di Inggris bareng ortunya. Ayahnya orang Inggris, tapi Ibunya, perempuan Amerika yang pengen banget dibilang orang Inggris. Ibunya pengen banget ngejodohin Moi sama tetangga sebelah rumah mereka yang sering disebut-sebut ‘Little Earl’.

Cerita dimulai, waktu si Moi cerita ke Julie kalau ada salah satu teman mereka yang baru aja tunangan dan saling memamerkan cincin pertunangan mereka. Langsung aja Julie bilang, “E-mail me the whole things, lie everyone but me having a fiancé. It’s so unfair.” (page 16). Sepertinya Julie gak mau ketinggalan ‘trend’ tunangan di antara teman-temannya, dia bilang, “Fiancés are so glam!” (page 18)

Di buku ini ‘bertebaran’ merk-merk terkenal. Julie bisa dibilang ‘berteman dekat’ sama Emanuel Ungaro, Vera Wang – bahkan Vera Wang ini, waktu Julie mau tunangan, katanya bakalan ‘resign’ kalau Julie gak pakai gaun pengantin rancangannya. Kekonyolan juga ada, misalnya, waktu Julie mau ngadain ‘book club’, tujuannya biar teman-temannya gak hanya tau tentang fashion tapi juga tentang dunia sastra.

Kalau ngebayangin tokoh Julie, yang muncul adalah Paris Hilton, cocok banget kaya’nya sama sosok seorang Julie yang blonde, keturunan keluarga kaya’, rada manja dan centil.
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Katie

Katie rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

03/16/08

Ok so there are two parts to almost every teenage girl. The first part is the work oriented ambitious nerdy part. The second part is the girly girl gossiping side. This book is more for the second part of all us teenage girls. Bergdorf Blondes is a typical girl book. It’s one of my guilty reads. The main character is a selfish and snobby but at the same time witty and to the point. Although this book is for a mature audience I think that it’s still a darn good read. Anyone who is into fashio...more

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Lauren

Lauren rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

03/06/08

Read in January, 2008

I thought this book was a good read. It kept me entertained, but I can only seeing people who are interested in such a life these characters read would find it as fun as I did. Not that I am a New York socialite, hell I live 2000 miles from the city. It just paints a scene that you know someone somewhere is living. Its almost every little girls fantasy to be able to dress up everyday like these Park Avenue Princess’s do. While the plot may not have been as intellectual as some readers hoped, I...more

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Ellen

Ellen rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

10/27/07

recommends it for: beach readers

Personally, I love fashion, I love spas, I wish I could go shopping everyday. I read this book in one day and was simultaneously fascinated and repulsed. But I can only give it two stars because it wasn't much of a stretch for the author to write. If you've ever read one of Sykes editorials or reviews in Vogue you will realize that this book is basically her lifestyle with a few plot lines thrown in. She was born of privledge in England and moved to NYC to become an "it girl" and an of...more

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Damecatoe

Damecatoe rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

08/01/07

bookshelves: chicklit

Read in May, 2007

This is something I picked up at the Book Corner to take to the beach. The aqua cover sang "beach read" to me. I read 11 pages poolside before I had to carry Ben back up to the room to feed him. C'est la vie.

So I finished it this week while he was napping. Motherhood=over a month to finish a "beach read."

There's a bit of a twist at the end that I really should have seen coming. As it is, I was only paragraphs ahead before I wondered "Oh, hey, is he..." Yeah,...more

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Stefanie

Stefanie rated it:

(review of isbn 1401359604)

11/29/08

bookshelves: crap-and-more-crap

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in November, 2008

recommends it for: no one

Actually, I shouldn't have even given this book one star....it was materialistic and really didn't go anywhere...not even sure why I bought it. To be honest, I didn't even make it halfway through this book. I think I'm just getting fed up with 'chick lit' books that focus more on dropping names of designers than developing a storyline. It's sad, really.

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