With such modern language and unabashed discussion of taboo themes, no wonder this book was a phenomenon of its age! The style is practically the same as used by contemporary writers and, as other reviewers pointed out, the stories are not too different from what is portrayed in novels about women living in New York, such as Sex & the City.
From politics to sex to finances to psychology, all sorts of themes are tackled by the author unapologetically and without unecessary frills.
On the downside, I felt that some of the characters were left unexplored, which is not surprising considering there are 8 main characters. I must confess, at some point I could not remember much about some of them. It is hard to keep track, as their families and their partners and friends are also introduced. So I feel that the real object of this book was not the characters but what they represented and the themes eack of them explored in the book.
Overall, I really enjoyed it, it was entertaining. My favourite characters were Polly and her father Mr. Andrews. Polly was perhaps one of the easiest characters to relate to, at least from our modern standards.
A footnote for the Penguin edition I have and didn't make the book easy to read at all. By trying to make this a pocketbook, the lettering is tiny and there are practically no paragraphs, making it quite tiresome to read.