Borrow Listen. Want to Read. Download for print-disabled. Check nearby libraries Library. Share this book Facebook. October 21, History. An edition of Lace Written in English — pages. Subjects Large type books. Not in Library. Libraries near you: WorldCat. Lace August 7, , Touchstone. Paperback in English - Reprint edition. Lace , Wheeler Pub. Lace November , Penguin Books.
Lace , Simon and Schuster. Lace: a novel , Simon and Schuster. Lace First published in Subjects Large type books. O L3 The Physical Object Pagination p. Community Reviews 0 Feedback? Favorite classics from LK Because if they didn't use that line I was not disappointed. And this is not the last time you will hear me say this! But back to Lace As a teenager I loved Lily! I wanted to BE Lily! She had been hard done by, she had a terrible upbringing, but she was not going to let that stop her being who she wanted to be and by God, she would make those accountable for her misfortunes pay!
And she always got what she wanted. Lace is a great story, about women, our fierce love and protective instincts for our children, our lovers, and our girlfriends as well as our abilities, our talents and our passions. Of the four possible mothers of Lily my bet was with Pagan. I identified with Pagan, like me, she was rebellious, questioning of the rules just because it's always been that way, doesn't mean it always should be and sometimes she got things terribly wrong. The characters in Lace are all like this, they have very realistic and human qualities, imperfections that endear them to us as we can see ourselves in there somewhere.
The four friends had made a pact many years ago to never reveal which one of them was actually pregnant. But Lily wanted to know, and she would stop at nothing to find out. So, was I right about Pagan? And did Lily find out who her mother was? Well, that would be telling. You'll have to read it to find out. And when you do View all 3 comments. Before you read my review, siddle up to your mother and ask her about the goldfish scene in Lace Watch her blush.
I doubt there is a woman alive who lived through the s without reading or watching Lace. The novel opens with one of its most famous scenes, the young actress, Lili, has gathered four women to a hotel room in New York.
The four women were childhood friends and have all made waves in their respective careers. A classic is born. I went into Lace well-aware of its infamy. The numerous sex scenes present in this novel gave way to a new genre, the bonkbuster. However, Lace is far more than just pages of erotica. I would genuinely call it a feminist classic. We then follow their lives as they all become highly successful and influential women.
This is where the underlying feminism becomes present. This is a novel about women owning their own lives. There is literally one prominent male character and he is an actual barbarian. I think it is obvious that I adored this novel. It has sold three million copies for a reason. However it is quite of its time. Sep 17, Fiona rated it really liked it Shelves: read-in , the-past , kindle-books.
Well, colour me surprised, but I loved this. I was told it was trash. I went into it expecting to be mildly entertained. True, there is a very definite target audience and as a general rule it has a vagina, but I had so much fun with this book.
Which one of you bitches is my mother? Thus does Lili, famous gorgeous actress, attempt to find out from four women which of them is her birth mother. One of th Well, colour me surprised, but I loved this. One of them got pregnant and had a baby, which got put up for fostering.
Lace follows the four potential mothers, and the daughter, as they grow up. They all do exciting things, and difficult things, and spend a lot of time hopping to and fro across the Atlantic, and all but one of them gets married at least once. There are a miscellany of men, who are pretty much all secondary characters, and some of them are awful and some of them are lovely. By the time it got to the end, I had narrowed down the potential mother to one of two, and of those two it was not the one I had expected.
I don't really read books for sex I swear! Woman stuff than anything else. I have three observations to make on that front: 1 there wasn't as much sex as I had been led to believe, 2 apparently it is quite easy to overuse the word 'erotic' as a descriptor, and 3 the goldfish scene is indelibly burnt into my memory and that is NOT HOT, GUYS.
Good grief. That aside, Lace is very much a product of its time, in terms of content as much as in terms of style. There's a very good article in the Guardian about how it's actually quite feminist , which basically sums up a lot of the reasons I enjoyed it. I really recommend the article, if you have ten minutes. I think I also enjoyed this book because I came to it at the right moment - right now, I've just finished my degree s , and I'm trying to work out what to do with my life.
I identify a lot with some aspects of all the characters, in terms of how they react to where they are in life, and what they want to do with it. I'm glad I read this now, because it was remarkably reassuring. I wonder, if I come back to it in a decade's time, whether I will think the same thing. It is, after all, quite a sheltered novel about very sheltered and privileged people - on which more in a second.
I also wonder how much more it will have dated in another decade, because it really has dated in the last 30 years. That didn't at all detract from how much I loved it, though - in fact, I think that escapism of being set in a different world to the world of made the bits I did identify with resonate more.
Let's talk briefly about how sheltered and privileged the characters in this book - and the book itself - are. And that is, very. They do well, when they want for money it is not on a desperate level, and they make up for it with luck, and influence. I don't even care how privileged it is, it's escapism. The world that Conran writes is clearly one she has grown up in. She's been to a Swiss finishing school.
She can spot vulgarity at sixty paces. She describes the outfits of every character with a relish unparalleled in the sex scenes, and it's marvellous. Surprisingly, that doesn't grate with me at all - there's some quality to the book that just feels really observed. I am a bit of a snob about my describers of old money - it's very difficult to pretend, and Conran's rich set sounds right, in some indefinable way.
I liked it. When I picked up Lace , I expected it to be the sort of thing I'd file under 'guilty pleasure,' or 'books I like but would never be seen reading. But I did enjoy it, very much indeed, and I can think of several friends to whom I will almost certainly be recommending it.
Interestingly, at least two of those are people I met as a teenager at school. Four stars. I thought I posted a review on this years ago. Obviously I did not. Which is where because I remember this book aver 27 years.
I was but a wee child of 12 when I read this book. One of the girls I knew, her older sister was reading it one day at a picnic. So I read a few pages and was like, huh. Then she gave me a few looks into where Lily is with the Arabic man and being sexually used.
There were several erotic scenes in here that as a 12 year old really intrigued me due to my predisposition to I thought I posted a review on this years ago.
There were several erotic scenes in here that as a 12 year old really intrigued me due to my predisposition towards kinky sex. Some may say that this is inappropriate, it may have been.
But I read it and enjoyed it anyway. What I remember most is the submission in this story. Forget that is is Lily demanding to know which of the 4 women is her mother Not that I would ever want to have sex with my dad. But to have relations with a male who had sex with your mother is wrong yet exciting. I also remember some of the kinky scenes in here back when this was very rarely written.
I read parts over and over again. For me, this is a pivotal book in my youth which gave me an idea that I was a bit different than others when it came to physical interaction. There are three other books which had similar impacts. I read these at age 11, 13 and 14 respectively. For those who have similar kinky desires, you will know exactly which parts that attracted me.
I remember when I read this book if I was sick or something was wrong with me. I wish I had someone to talk to who could have explained it to me. I wish the internet was around so I could look up information. As it was, I fumbled around as a child. Still, I survived. This book holds a special place in my mind because of its influence. If I went back to read it now, I probably wouldn't think much of it.
View 1 comment. I liked the characters, I liked the plot; the storyline drew me in, and some of the set-piece situations are nothing short of brilliant. Now I need to read Lace 2. View all 4 comments. Jul 17, Hellen Riebold rated it did not like it.
This book was full of every cliche possible, it had no overarching story seeming rather to be a collection of as many sexual situations the author could think of, and these were not well written. Having finished the book it seemed to me that the first and final parts were connected but that almost the entirety of the rest of the book could easily have been skipped without detracting from the reveal at the end.
This book is very long and not worth the investment it demands. All the women in this book have experiences which involve quivering: whether he quivers, she quivers or they both quiver at the same time, after a while I shook my head every time the word was mentioned. It must appear every two to three pages. For a book supposedly about strong, intelligent women they sure go from one man to the next, their whole lives seem dominated by relationships. It has such an unbelievable ending, I thought I was reading a spoof parody.
The book seemed to go Quivering The book seemed to go on and on and I ended up scanning it rushing to the end. Thankfully I only paid 99p for it. If this book was the book that defined a generation, according to the cover, thank goodness I wasn't born during it and influenced by it! Feb 15, Freda Malone rated it liked it. Ok, so I watched the movie many years ago and decided to read the book.
I'm glad I watched the movie first. Once in a while I'm into the chic lit drama that seems to attack my inner child and give in to the juicy, bad mouthed, mystery of 4 women whom one had birthed a child in secret. The book was written very well and held my attention as flashes of the movie came into play. It was long until the pages were becoming a blur as I was able to follow each scene, saying to myself "Oh, yes. I remembe Ok, so I watched the movie many years ago and decided to read the book.
I remember that part". However, I think I outgrew the chic lit drama scene in my 30's so it wasn't as enjoyable the new phase of crime mysteries I read. Still a good book. Had I read this in my 20's I'd have rated it higher, I'm sure. Awesome novel! Very well written and kept me surprised and very interested. I would recommend it to anyone. There is a second novel called Lace 2 how original, right? I'm telling you, do not google it and ruin the plot event for yourself.
Turns out it was a television series back in the day. I was only half way Awesome novel! I was only half way through the book and my world shattered! Do me a favor, don't ruin it for yourself! Lace centres around the lives of four best friends depicting their lives from the forties to the late seventies.
One of the close group has a teenage pregnancy and this mystery of who the father is lies at the heart of the story. I also liked that Conran based "Which one of you bitches is my mother? I also liked that Conran based the characters' lives and experiences on aspects of her own life.
Lace is not as trashy as most people believe. There are, in fact, feminist overtones to it with strong female characters who are all successful career women.
Plus, the miscellany of men involved are secondary characters and serve mostly as lovers ranging from a king to a transvestite husband. There is far less sex than I was led to believe too. I also liked the detailed descriptions of the glamorous clothes through the eras. I thoroughly enjoyed the glittering, melodramatic and fun ride that Shirley Conran took me on. Looking forward to watching the Lace mini-series and also continuing the characters lives in Lace 2.
Just one more thing I will never look at a goldfish in the same way again! Read this book at least 3 time or so and this was a 5 star book for me back in the days. Still have the Dutch hardback and my daughter wanted something to read. Gave her Lace and she loved it.
Wanted to read the sequel as well. Great book if you want to read something light. Aug 18, Ane Margaux rated it liked it. That line took the story. Jul 10, M. Fredrick rated it it was amazing. Read repeatedly when I was a teenager! I didn't had a clue how much would possible happen in this book's pages. This was one chunky book but there was five main characters so there was indeed a lot to tell about them.
This was far way shocking than I thought beforehand and I think it has been even more shocking when it has been freshly published. I found myself really enjoying this one even though the beginning was a bit slow.
Four elegant, successful, sophisticated women in their forties have been called to New York to meet Lili, the world-famous movie actress. Already a legend despite her youth, Lili is beautiful, passionate, notoriously temperamental Each of the four has a reason to hate Lili.
And each of them is astonished to see the others; for they are old friends who first met in school, old friends who share a guilty secret - old friends whose lives are changed when Lili suddenly confronts them and asks, "Wh Four elegant, successful, sophisticated women in their forties have been called to New York to meet Lili, the world-famous movie actress.
And each of them is astonished to see the others; for they are old friends who first met in school, old friends who share a guilty secret - old friends whose lives are changed when Lili suddenly confronts them and asks, "Which one of you bitches is my mother?
As the reader travels from an elegant Swiss finishing school in Gstaad to the glittering places where the rich and successful congregate, the book traces not only the life of Lili herself - abandoned, seduced, exploited, but at last rising to triumph as a star - but the lives of the four women, one of whom is her mother. The blurb actually goes on for several more paragraphs, and I was tempted to include them, because I wanted to point out a few things in there that make me wonder if whoever wrote the blurb actually read the book, but anyway.
I don't actually have all that much to say about the book, although I enjoyed it. It fits a formula, that of 3 or four women who meet in school and become close friends.
They're all wealthy, except one, who either marries into wealth by the end or creates her own. One of the wealthy ones has been raised to feel perpetually inadequate.
One of them's foreign. There's bound to be some exotic royalty sometimes one of the women, sometimes someone else. And there's some sort of secret scandal, usually involving somebody's pregnancy. It's good light chick reading, although not as light as, say, the Shopaholic series. This particular incarnation of that formula was actually quite good. Well-developed, believable characters, in well-written situations.
I was starting to think Conran had issues with men, but all the girls eventually found love, and I guess we all go through a few Mr. Wrongs before we find Mr. One thing I did think was really kind of neat about this book was the way she depicted female friendship. In fiction, female friendships are almost always torn apart somehow when they feature so prominently in a story.
The deeper the friendship is portrayed in the beginning, the more likely it is to fall apart by the end. This one didn't. The four women went their separate ways after school, but remained close friends who stayed in contact, visited often, and were always there for each other if one of them needed help.
There was one blip between two of them, but as soon as they figured out that it was engineered by th guy involved, they immediately picked up where they left off, with no lingering feelings of resentment or suspicion. Right to the end, they protect each other.
After Lili finds out which one is her mother, and wants to know who her father is, the mother hides the truth to avoid hurting both Lili and one of the other three even though it was ancient history , and all three know she's lying, for various reasons, but instead of suspecting the worst, they believe that she has good reasons, and not one of them calls her on it.
It's nice to see female friendship portrayed like that, because that really is how the really good ones are. I've learned that there's a sequel, in which Lili goes looking for her father the stated father is dead, so I guess she learns that that wasn't true after all? The Goldfish was a very unwelcome surprise, and the cellar scene was a bit much. The book is very outdated in certain ways, but it was advanced for its time in others. There were a lot of controversial topics in the book, and the opening chapter was a rough one.
There was a big part in the middle involving Lily which was hard to read too and I think a lot of the group may have skimmed through that bit. Most of the men in the story are awful, but the book throws quite a surprise at you towards the end. But there were good themes too, of strong women, beautiful friendships, and a lot of love. We all loved the friendship between the girls, they were always there for each other, fling across countries to help each other.
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