Plum Sykes 2007. Some have seen Sykes' books as lying in natural succession to "Sex and the City", Candace Bushnell's column in the "New York Observer", which was the inspiration for a highly successful television series (HBO 1998–2004). Others remarked that the story was no less than the kind of offensive vapid claptrap you would expect from a dead-eyed rich girl. However, despite their satire, others have regarded them as too rooted in Sykes' own Park Avenue "set" to be reflective more generally of women's lives in post-9/11 Manhattan. Anita Loos' "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1925) is perhaps a closer, if incomparable, antecedent.
Anita Loos Mizner. When they returned to New York in the spring of 1930, Emerson expressed his unhappiness at her inattention, and the guilt-ridden Loos would spend much more time alone. Emerson had also unwisely invested "their" money, which was lost in the stock market crash, and suggested she return to work. Loos was not unhappy with this, and within a few months had produced a stage adaptation of "But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes" and a comedy "Cherries are Ripe". With their income reduced, the couple moved to a residential hotel and did less traveling in 1931. Not long after, Loos came upon