Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann
If you need a sleazy beach read but think you’re too cool for Jackie Collins, you need to check out Jacqueline Susann’s trash masterpiece. The term ‘cult classic’ is horribly abused, but the novel is so deliciously sordid that it fully deserves being categorised in that way.
Anne, Neely and Jennifer are three girls in New York who are desperate for stardom. Their stories overlap and intertwine but all involve huge amounts of bitchiness, lesbian sex, deception, manipulation, failed marriages and drugs galore.
The titular Dolls are not, as I had thought, a reference to the perfectionist standards of sixties Hollywood, but a slang term for the uppers and downers imbibed, inhaled and ingested by the girls as they attempt to claw their way to the top and stay there.
Susann captures and contrasts the energy of New York with the languid drowsiness of California, and has an excellent sense of both the comic and the tragic. The concept of feminism is conspicuous by its absence, as the story is essentially about strong, beautiful women being manipulated and destroyed by men, but Jennifer’s need for love is heart wrenching, and Neely’s drunken lurch from man to man is hilarious.
As a holiday accessory this goes with acid candy coloured wedges, enormous sunglasses and a Kir Royale.
£7.99
Virago
simon
I 1st read Valley of the Dolls in my teens. I was drawn to it by a Guinness Book of Records reference it was then (at 30million copies) the bestselling novel of all time (this was before the Da Vinci Code). I had an original 1960s copy with the pills scattered all over the cover. I have to say I think you’re a little bit cynnical in your analysis of Neely. Valley of the Dolls is about the essential emptiness and meaningless anyone can feel no matter how glitzy, successful, glamorous, etc life appears to be on the outside. There’s a brilliant biography about the author, Jacqueline Susann titled Lovely Me - well worth a look for anyone impressed by her novels.