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Sex and Shopping: Confessions of a Nice Jewish Girl

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Anyone who ever read one of Judith Krantz's novels and wondered exactly where she finds her fascinating ideas will have that mystery resolved by SEX AND SHOPPING. Trite though it may be to say, Mrs. Krantz has led a life more amazing than most fiction.

Maybe it just has been luck, or maybe she really was born under a lucky star, but her life has been filled with magic. She was born to two successful European Jewish immigrants to New York who gave her every advantage educationally and materially--except perhaps mother love. Barbara Walters set her up with her husband, even provided the dress she would wear when they met. (Admittedly, they had not yet grown up to be Great Dames; they still just were a couple of eager girls.) Her brother married Shari Lewis. She and her husband sold their co-op on Central Park West to David and Helen Gurley Brown. By her own report, the entire ride's gone that way.

Immediately following World War II, right after Judy had graduated from college (Seven Sisters, it goes without saying), her father placed her for a year with an impoverished aristocrat in Paris. At the time, Judy barely understood French. By the end of the year, she spoke a perfect, fluent, Parisian-accented version, in which she can converse to this day. Anybody who read SCRUPLES, her first blockbuster, will remember that this is a history that her heroine shared. Oh, yes, and Judy also finally lost her virginity in the City of Love.

She writes bluntly about the sexual conventions of her generation, strange by contemporary standards. In those pre-birth control days, she ended up needing an abortion. And she had the abortion the day before she had her first date with her husband. Yet the date must have gone well, since they are married over forty years, with children and grandchildren.

This is a woman who would have had a lovely and interesting life, even if she never had written a word. The most serious problems she admits to having encountered were the polite anti-Semitism of post-war Paris and some overt anti-Semitism when she was on a book tour in Germany in the 1970's.

Professionally, Judith Krantz has specialized in writing the kind of popular novel which often is referred to by a more vulgar phrase than "sex," always combined with shopping. She certainly did not invent this genre, but she formalized it and designed the format which has had to have been followed by any author emulating SCRUPLES.

With sex and shopping to keep her busy along the way, Judith Krantz has led a fascinating life.

I wasn't going to write this review, but this book was so bad I just had to.

I couldn't wait to get this book home and dig into it -- I love adventurous women! But what a disappointment -- it was horrible; I couldn't even finish the last third of it.

Let me sum up Ms. Krantz's opinion of herself in three words: "I am AMAZING." She takes narcisissm to an all-time high. Yes, it is an autobiography, but her constant sounding off about how great she is at everything she does made me nauseous. By the way, she actually had that "amazing" quote above in the book, as an excerpt from her journal (actually, her word was SUBLIME, all caps, but you get the picture). Her books set all kinds of records, she landscapes better than professionals, she handles herself wonderfully on television, she's run just about every department at Good Housekeeping magazine, and she's a damn fine friend. Oh yeah -- did I mention she was so wonderful at gymnastics, including the trapeze, that her instructor told her to take it easy when new students attended class because she was so good the instructor didn't want the new students "discouraged"? Yep, it's all there in the book.

I won't even go into her popularity with men -- of course every man she dated asked her to marry him. That's because she's so cute. I know because she told me. In the book.

She also fails to realize what an American princess she is. Her lamenting of having to go out to the deli on a dark, stormy night to get chicken soup for her sick husband because it was the housekeeper's night off will really make your heart bleed. To this day, she is still traumatized by that night (yes, she actually said this). And once she had to endure being on her feet for THREE HOURS without food or a bathroom break at a book-signing party. Can you believe the suffering she had to endure?

She has always had servants in the form of housekeepers, laundresses, nannies for her children, etc. She has lived a privileged life from the very beginning, which isn't bad in itself, but somehow I think she's never realized it. She thinks her problems are, well, real problems.

The paper-thin depth of character exhibited by this woman is truly astonishing.

And oh yes -- the book certainly needs editing. Krantz tells about a long-time friend of hers who becomes ill. Out of the blue, she says, "The CIA took over his illness." Now what the hell does that *mean*?? Turns out her friend had been an operative for the CIA all along, but I'm not sure how an organization can "take over" a person's illness. Does this mean the CIA made him even sicker? Actually, I *think* what she meant was the CIA paid for his medical expenses -- but I'm still not sure.

The book is replete with sentences in this vein -- it really got annoying to try to figure out what she meant.

Don't buy it -- it's a waste of money and time.

This autobiography was actually more enjoyable than Judith Krantz's latest book "The Jewels of Tessa Kent." I had no idea she was brought up in such a wealth family. Unfortunately, the wealth did not bring happiness. Her mother, whom she was constantly trying to please, was cold and aloof and her father, who Ms. Krantz adored, was more interested in his many mistresses than he was his children.

The book is written in a friendly, almost chatty way. I felt that I got to know a little bit about the author - the good parts of her life anyway - she left out anything bad happening and even put a somewhat sunny glow on alcoholism and abortion. The only time I got the impression that her life was not going as expected was when she discussed her first boyfriend (a total jerk) who sexually molested her at the age of 15.

Yet, the book is very enjoyable. I would recommend it.

As a jewish girl I have lived with many of the same experiences as Judith. I enjoy shopping as well as sex, and these are just some of the things I as well as other readers can relate to. If you want an interesting read with real life experiences this is the book for you. For those of you who want to read a book that can keep you interested, but not one that takes for days to finish ,this book took me about 3 and I am not a fast reader.

When I checked out this book, I was not quite sure what to expect. However, after reading the first few pages, I knew this was going to be a very good read. Judith Krantz is a wonderful storyteller (there is not one dry or boring moment) and she has led a fascinating life! (Many of her experiences you will recognize from her 10 books.) I definitely recommend that any fan read this book; I was sorry to finish it!

I've loved Judith's work over the years. Her last two novels haven't been the greatest and one wonders what's she's doing now. Because I was mildy disappointed in her last two novels, The Jewels of Tessa Kent and Models (?...really the worst one, but much better than any other fiction I try to read), I wasn't as hopeful. But, it really was Judith at her best! I couldn't put it down and I had to read it until 5 a.m. (Just like the old days:-) I hope we have more coming.

... I didn't find Judith being self-serving. If you write about yourself, which must be very difficult for anyone; what are you going to say? Hopefully you will try to be objective and say some positives and negatives. I found that she dicussed both the good and not-so-good in this book.

Heard the taped version of SEX AND SHOPPING: CONFESSIONS
OF A NICE JEWISH GIRL by Judith Krantz . . . I must admit to
having never read any of her novels, though I did see SCRUPLES
when it was on TV . . . so I did not know too much about her, but I now feel that she is almost a friend after listening to this interesting autobiography . . . from what I've since discovered, many of the tales contained herein have since appeared in her various novels . . . if you're a Krantz fan or interested in the life of a novelist, then get hold of this book . . . an added "plus" for me was the fact that she also served as the narrator.

Judith Krantz writes well. She knows how to make a sentence, a paragraph, a chapter a joy to read, just for the way she puts words on paper.

In this autobiography, she has clearly a balancing act to do: How can she tell about her life and not hurt, humiliate or even just reveal anything possibly embarassing about those people she likes or admires? She ruthlessly comes down on the side of friendship and loyalty, not of plot. On the one hand, I admire this, she obviously makes a very good friend, on the other, she could have written a much better book if she did tell a bit more about her sons, her friends, the problems and challenges she had to surmount - and do not tell me there weren't any, even a fairly rich, fairly smooth life has its problems!

Still, I enjoyed the good writing, I enjoyed reading a bit about where her books came from (could have been more, for my taste), and, like I said, I admire her as a friend, who did not grab the spotlight, sacrificing friends. But as a reader, I was not really satisfied, there is obviously so much more left out, at least from the point of her marriage on, than is IN that biography.

Fans of Judith Krantz won't be disappointed by her autobiography. The story of her life reads very much like one of her heroines. In fact, at times I almost thought I was reading fiction because her style is pretty much identical to the writing in her novels. It also has plenty of the hyperbole she uses in her bestsellers. As a child, Krantz describes herself and her siblings as "famously delicious looking." Her parents are fabulously wealthy and creative people, who happen to have a large circle of powerful and important friends. Judith herself scores first in New York City's reading comprehension tests. When she gets to Wellesley, she is besieged with young Jewish men who are constantly proposing marriage. And on, and on, and on, until she writes her novels, sparks a bidding war and, naturally, becomes the highest paid author of her time. She reveals her insecurities too, talks at length about her psychoanalysis, and shares a few bad experiences along the way --- an abortion, a disappointing sitting with photographer Francesco Scavullo, a sublettor who manages to make her lose her lease on a 12 room Central Park West apartment, but, well, there's not a whole lot of struggling going on. Still, storyteller extraordinaire that she is, Krantz kept my attention until the very last page.

Judith Krantz has written a terrifically entertaining memoir... fresh, funny and real. She doesn't take her life, her affairs (pre-marital, I might add), or her work too seriously, which makes her name-dropping and stunning successes fun to read about, rather than insufferable as in so many other books of this nature. She is her own best heroine.

Much of this book is very moving and insightful...her often-strained but always respectful relationship with her mother, the absolute worship she had for her father, her candid but loving observations on her husband and marriage plus much more.

It was worth the price of the book to read that indeed Pamela Harriman WAS the inspiration for one my favorite Krantz characters of all, Anabel of "Princess Daisy," as I'd long suspected.

Judy Krantz and that other "wild again" woman of a similar vintage, Helen Gurley Brown, are living proof that one doesn't lose one's passions as one gets to be a woman of a certain age. These ladies live life to the hilt with gusto that would put a twenty-something to shame!

Great job, Judy. What a treat to read about the geniune article that created such memorable, glamorous, unforgettable stories.