Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Valley of the Dolls
Book Review: A Classic!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
While VOTD is hardly a piece of american literature that we would've read or learned about in high school, it definitely has it's place in the history of fiction. Jackie Susann was a writer that wrote with great guts and integrity, and she had a great style. The Dialogue just flows so well! and the characters all spring to life. Even those characters we don't necessarily like are just as intriguing to read as say, Anne Welles. Anne is a small town girl who moves to the big city, New York to be exact. She is kind, bright, and sweet, maybe too sweet and kind for her own good. She wants a better and more exciting life.
Down the path to that life, she meets Neely O'Hara, a struggling actress/singer/dancer who wants to make it on Broadway and will stop at nothing to reach success. This character is hard to sympathize with, whereas Anne is totally easy to like and feel sorry for.
Enter Jennifer North, She is an actress that meets up with Neely and Anne as they all learn about and see the lights go up on Broadway. Jennifer is more like Anne's personality, but has a very tough time between her family, the man she loves, Tony Polar, and his family.
They all become friends, and all shall i say? creep around in the valley of the dolls. "Dolls" being sleeping pills, pep pills, pills to help them relax... Read and see what these dolls do to their lives and the lives of those around them.
This is a MUST READ book. I can't say enough good things about it, it is captivating, easy to follow, it has great dialogue.
If you like stories about women friendships and stories about show business, this should interest you.
I have read this twice in the past six years, and I love it just as much now as I did when I was 26 yrs. old. It's a timeless read.
Book Review: A Cosmo-type read that's actually intriguing
Summary: 4 Stars
If you're like me, you never read romance novels, never watch soap operas, and shun editorial trash like Cosmopolitan. But in this age of girl-power books (i.e. Bridget Jones, et al), "Valley Of The Dolls" has become popular once again, and a whole new crowd (the twentysomething female market)is now exposed to this cult classic. And you know what? It's intriguing. It's captivating. Set back in the 50s, you heark back to the days of glamour girls, Hollywood pictures, and dapper leading men. In each chapter, Susann fleshes out the character portraits of 3 girls who made it big, rags-to-riches style: Anne--a model, Jennifer--a starlet, and Neely--a singer. I hate to admit it, but I was entranced by their stories of sex, scandal, and downward spiral into prescription drug addiction. It's drama about drama queens. I would ordinarily dismiss this book as trashy romance genre--but like others, i can't. Why? well, Susann wrote this book as a groundbreaker--It was written almost 50 years ago but the tales are so incredibly modern you'd think Susann was writing about modern-day life. She paved the way for the tell-all expose, the behind-the-scenes scandals, the agony and ecstasy, the poor problems of the rich and famous. It was "Dynasty" before "Dynasty" was even invented. It was a shocker, and it's tragic. You're not going to find much humor in this novel at all, especially being that the "Dolls" that the book revolves around are drugs. An added benefit of reading "Valley of the Dolls" is that it transports the reader back into the yesteryear; I feel like I'm in a black-and-white movie with Garbo and Monroe--Susann's detail for creating ambience are very much appreciated.
If you think this book is flimsy beach reading--it's not. It really gave way to a whole new genre. Sure, it's no Shakespeare--but make this the one exception. Although it may be G-rated compared to today's fiction fare, Susann's subtle flair for storytelling is surprisingly solid, with twists and turns to keep you on your feet.
Book Review: A Glamorous Classic of Feminist Proportions
Summary: 4 Stars
Given her background--a television starlet, who didn't quite make it to the top--it was impossible that Jacqueline Susann had written a novel. It was even more impossible that she had written anything worth reading. However, as it figures out, Jacqueline Susann didn't care about logic, and instead of the smutty predecessor of the modern chick lit novel, we get a socially conscious, audaciously feminist literary novel underneath the veil of a roman á clef in the now infamous and classic 1966 Valley of the Dolls. Chronicling the lives of three friends in a twenty year period, from 1945 to 1965, as they strive to reach the top in the social world of men, Susann's novel is stirring and beckons the reader to turn the page--again and again. Yet most striking, and what makes its readers continue, are her characters: Anne, the plainly beautiful protagonist who just wants to make a life of her own; Neely, a small but powerful lady with a voice to match; and Jennifer, the gorgeous lady who wields her power with her youthful body, all of whom are drawn out so completely, in their flaws, perfections, and most of all their power and claim to it, that readers have not choice but to believe and most importantly care. Simply put, Susann is a masterful storyteller. Running through the plot are themes of woman empowerment, the ability to choose, and the disdainful society treat women who have mastered these concepts. Sadly, this is lost in Susann's legacy of shock and scandal and perhaps at her sometimes (very) unskillful and clumsy writing, or as Truman Capote phrased it "typing." However, in the same vain that Jennifer Weiner claimed that chick lit was an elitist term, perhaps holding and labeling Susann's novel as merely romance (which is it not for many reasons) and popular literature of no use for serious readers is an elitist practice that bars us from socially active literature such as this 400-page volume of a story.Book Review: A Groovy, Campy Blast From The Past
Summary: 5 Stars
OK, I knew going in that this was not going to be great literature, but who would pick this up thinking it was? I remember seeing this on my aunt's bookshelf when I was little and being told "that's not for little girls..." -- no kidding! The matter of fact depictions of sex, drugs, booze, abortion, adultery, gold-digging and betrayal are rather tame by today's standards, but I can imagine this was pretty provocative stuff in it's day. Still, even as I laughed at the melodramatic, stilted writing (the dialogue is unbelievable) I was hooked and finished the book in about 3 days. If you have a taste for a soapy, trashy, slightly dated "classic", I recommend this highly.Book Review: A Guilty Pleasure
Summary: 4 Stars
I picked this book up in the dusty half-price basement of a campus bookstore. The bright pink paperback cover initially repulsed me: I usually try to avoid pastel covered books--such covers almost invariably conceal insipid romances, the sort that I usually refuse to read. What drew me back was the familiarity of the title. I recalled vague references to the movie-version that I had read in magazines, references linked to discussions about drug and alcohol abuse--not the typical subject matter of a romance. I decided to fork over the three dollars for the book, and I set to reading it that night.
I enjoyed the book more than I might have expected to. Many of the characters proved compelling, particularly Anne Welles (the reserved New England lady). The other two main characters (Neely and Jennifer)I had more trouble believing in; any time either character appeared in the book I fought the impulse to cross out the name printed and write in "Judy" or "Marilyn" (the parallels with Garland and Monroe were far too obvious and ill-concealed).
What I found most intersting and valuable about the book was the picture that it painted of the evolving entertainment industry during the 1940's and 1950's. What I read in Valley of the Dolls resonates with documentaries that I have seen about the period. While I consider Valley of the Dolls more than a little sensational in its depiction of the period, I think that the book makes a point about the demands of the entertainment industry that could not have been made by making polite references to hard truths.
I should not neglect to mention that I consider Valley of the Dolls a legitimate guilty pleasure for reasons that I will not elaborate. Try it and see for yourself.