book about a clique of neurotic, messy abusers of substances and one
another, centered around one Carrie Bradshaw, the worst of the lot. It
was a scathing satire of fin de siècle life in the world’s most
important, and most self-important, city, and Bradshaw’s pathologies,
though understandable, were far from cute. The HBO adaptation began,
too, as a pretty biting satire, but Parker’s winsome portrayal ended up
turning Bradshaw into the sort of heroine that can inhabit the center
of a profitable movie franchise and become something of a Zeitgeist