Valley of the Dolls

This book was entertaining from the first few pages... it's long, but it doesn't seem tooooo long and doesn't drag on. It tracks the lives of three girls... and has ups and downs that the reader feels and experiences. Incredibly well written with not a slow moment. It seems timeless to me... of course, show business has changed, and drugs are easier to come by and more common.... this book appeals to people of all generations. ENJOY it over and over.

If I tell you that this book changed my life, will you read it? You should. I first read Valley of the Dolls when I was a teenager, and it introduced me to the hypnotic pleasures of "junk fiction." I learned what it meant to read for pure, unadulterated pleasure, and what a thrill it was to read a book many times. Susann's depiction of three career women struggling to the top is a bicoastal orgy of pharmeceutical and artistic profligacy. Neely, Jennifer and Anne all succumb to the booze, dolls and hedonism of their showbiz lifestyles, and their spiralling declines are delicately laced in a book whose vulgarity belies Susann's rather superb craftmanship.Susann's quirky bildungsroman borrows broadly from her own life, (documented in Seaman's wonderful biography, Lovely Me), hints unsubtley at insider knowledge of celebrity hi-jinks of the postwar period, and circles around questions of morality with an exhilirating verve hardly visible now in the kind of bestsellers that emulate this classic. Its success on publication is legendary: Susann and her husband were shameless promoters of the book (it was sold in butchers' shops)and about as colorful as the fiction they were hawking. Truman Capote famously said of Susann that she looked like a truck driver in drag. His insult neatly captues the somewhat prosaic, yet always enjoyable prose of this novel as well as any reviewer could. For added pleasure, watch the movie. It's hard to see Neely O'Hara as anyone but Patty Duke after her extravagant performance in Mark Robson's quite faithful film translation, and Sharon Tate as the alluring Jennifer adds a poignant screen presence. But please, do not deny yourself the sublime camp pleasure of the novel.

As wonderful and satisfying as the film version of "Valley of the Dolls" is, nothing can compare to the dizzying rise and utter destruction of Susann's three heroines found in this, the original source material. Here are all the delicious cat-fights, the bleary eyed, drug-induced bitchiness we have grown to love and expect from Jacki's novels. Here, too, is MORE MORE MORE of the tough-as-nails Helen Lawson, a portrait only glimpsed at in the cimematic version. When Helen gives the demure Anne a tour of her penthouse pad uttering the imortal line, "See that bed? It's eight feet wide," Suzann knows she's hooked us for the long haul.A classic and necessary primer for all lovers of pure camp! Politically Correct? Suzann never heard the phrase in her life. Thank God.

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS is more addictive than the pills that its heroines take. Sure, its trashy, but trash is by far the most entertaining form of literature. The story of three women's fame and descent into a miserable state of drug use and alchohol is entertaining all the way through. You learn to get to know the characters. You also get to love them, hate them, sympathize for them...its completely spellbinding. I looked forward to picking it up every night, and each night it was practically impossible to put it down ("COME ON..stop reading! You have to go to school tomorrow!") But I got to sleep easily, because each night after I reluctantly put the book down I would fondly recall what I had read. Its just fantastic...maybe I'll read it again. If you're a fan of the movie, I reccomend it even more. Its MUCH better than the film (which I LOVE). Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy, NOW!!!