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| View Larger Image | Valley of the Dolls
by Jacqueline Susann
| | List Price: | $14.00 | | Price: | $11.20 | | You Save: | $2.80 (20%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 29273 | | Studio: | Grove Press | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 448 | | Publication Date: | September 22, 1997 | | Publisher: | Grove Press |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
New York Magazine, Mim Udovitch
Its three protagonists--Anne Welles, the uptight-but-full-of-a-strange-yearning New England beauty; Neely O'Hara, the Judy Garland á clef; and Jennifer North, who is sort of the Marilyn Monroe á clef and also sort of the Brigitte Bardot á clef but mainly sort of the least realized character in the book--all spend most of the novel with what they want excruciatingly just out of reach, and all are ultimately not only defeated but self-defeating ... I should say, first of all, that I have absolutely no criticisms to make of this book. It is perfect, and I'm not just saying that because I practically memorized it at the age of 13 and it was one of my primary illicit sources of sexual information in the gap between information and experience, and I therefore view it with fond nostalgia.... However melodramatic its plot may be, Valley of the Dolls is simply old-fashioned riveting. |
Amazon.com
Sex and drugs and shlock and more--Jacqueline Susann's addictively entertaining trash classic about three showbiz girls clawing their way to the top and hitting bottom in New York City has it all. Though it's inspired by Susann's experience as a mid-century Broadway starlet who came heartbreakingly close to making it, but did not, and despite its reputation as THE roman á clef of the go-go 1960s, the novel turned out to be weirdly predictive of 1990s post-punk, post-feminist, post "riot grrrl" culture. Jackie Susann may not be a writer for the ages, but--alas!--she's still a writer for our times. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 136 reviews)
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A Glamorous Classic of Feminist Proportions 
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.
August 04, 2008 | |
Eeeeeehhhh... 
Not overly impressed - disgusted by the way the women allowed men to use them - all I can say is eeeeeehhh...
September 17, 2007 | |
Simply hideous! Colossal waste of time! 
To encounter this book in 2007 is to be reminded why women needed a feminist movement to self-actualize and appreciate that they did not need a man to fulfill their destinies or validate their worth. The book is...tres yucky on other levels, as well. The writing has an adolescent twang that is grating and inescapable; the author's inability to render the characters with any depth results in cardboard facsimiles of characters that are not believable and impossible to care about; the circumstances the characters find themselves in are so utterly cliche as to be ridiculous. Enough already with the pills! This is even worse than "The Nanny Diaries" or "The Devil Wears Prada" - my first and last forays into contemporary chick lit. What a bore! Campy? Creepy! Not even ironic. Moronic, perhaps. Back to the Goodwill bookshelf from whence you came, dolls.
September 04, 2007 | |
An absolute classic! 
This was one of those books where I wanted to go back and re-read it immediately. However, I don't re-read books back-to-back, so alas, I'm going to have to wait to do that. Needless to say, I loved this book.
Valley of the dolls follows three women--Anne, Neely, and Jennifer--over the course of twenty years, as they rise through the ranks of the entertainment industry, eventually becoming addicted to "dolls"--sleeping pills, you name it, they take it. The result is heartbreaking and tragic.
Ultimately about female friendship and love for a city (New York), Valley of the Dolls is the kind of book that stays with you for a long, long time after you read it. I recommend this book to anyone who's a fan of Sex And The City--so much of that show's premise is based around the same kind of themes as this book. Valley of the Dolls has been called chick lit, but its so much that that.
September 01, 2007 | |
Rambling, operatic and much more than "Chick Lit"
On the back of the book, there is a quote by a reviewer who spouts that most tired of cliches "I literally couldn't put it down" or something liked that. For once, I'd have to agree wholeheartedly - 450 pages and never a dull moment. The prose is lively, sensitive and articulate. The story itself - the trials and tribulations of three women in the entertainment industry over a 20 year period - captivating and engaging. Also dug the way Susann rejects explicit sex scenes and places sexual/personal politics in its place. Makes the whole thing far more believable and realistic (plus her ability to write 'romantic' scenes is more cheesy than sexual as the few ill-advised attempts here seem to confirm).
Actually, Valley Of The Dolls (the book, not the film) reminded me of Goodfellas in a way which may sound like a bizarre comparison but it has that same quasi-documentary feel, a whirlwind tour of 20 years in the lives of a small microcosm of people. Like the Scorsese masterpiece, significant events occur, are pondered briefly and then swiftly forgotten in a heady rush to get to the end of the gals' glamorous/sordid lives.
If there are drawbacks, it's to do with inconsistent characterisations. People's personas suddenly change totally at various points in the book and at times you feel as though you're dealing with a totally different person. Also, Susann doesn't seem to like her characters equally, or she starts with a concept about them (Jennifer) and gets bored midway through and ceases to bother developing them after a while. Of the three main characters, it's clearly Neely who seems to interest Susann most and she gets quite deeply into her. But I think it's at the expense of the other characters and does weaken the novel if we were to look at it from a technical standpoint (which I don't). On the plus side, super-tuff ending! Why don't we ever get stuff like this in the movies!?! Very dark and downbeat, again giving it a more realistic tinge.
Finally, don't dismiss this as chick lit or proto-feminism etc or whatever crass marketing terms are currently in vogue to describe writing by women. This is a great novel in its own right and just cos its written by a girl doesn't necessarily mean its FOR girls. Women may be the central characters in this tale of the ups and downs of the post-war showbiz world, but ultimately, it's a book about people.
So read it, everyone!
August 03, 2007 | |
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