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Summary: Very good book, very pertinent for our time
Review: I bought this book because it was on sale, and I figured as an avid reader I should probably read the best selling novel of all time. I could not put this novel down! It really made me aware of emotional dependency, and how little we have changed since the mid 1940's as women in this area. This book is completely on target and although it takes place in a flashy atmosphere, it will hit home for you more than 50 years later. You owe it to yourself and your friends to read this book.
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Summary: Pop a doll and read this book!
Review: How could anyone not be intrigued by sex, drugs & fame??? This novel has it all! The story, of course you probably know by now circles around 3 women trying to basically climb Mount Everest, so to say. I found myself staying up till all hours of the night to read this book, what a thrilling ride! the 500 page novel took me less than 2 days to read, and my head was spinning, i was even dizzy! I just couldn't help myself the novel had such intrigue to it! Its definetly one of the trashest novels of all time, but a favorite of mine and to others :)
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Summary: So trashy, so sad, yet so much fun to read
Review: This is the perfect summer book. I finally picked it up upon numerous recommendations from friends, and I loved every minute of it. Without Jacqueline Susann, there would be no Danielle Steele and her type. Yet somehow, Susann's work seems more important, more something than Danielle Steele. It's just an immensely fun read, and well worth the time.
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Summary: like a SOAP OPERA... only better
Review: 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.
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Summary: Most entertaining book EVER!
Review: Reading "Valley of the Dolls" made me see what it's like to want to read a book over, and over, and over again. Once you pick it up, you can't put it down, and once you're finished you want more! As it says on the cover of the book, Valley of the Dolls is a Pop Culture classic, and shouldn't be missed. I couldn't believe that Ann, Neely and Jennifer weren't real people- though Ann is based on Jacqueline Susann's own experiences. If you want to find out the dirt behind the movie stars and entertainers of the 50's, or you just want to read a damn good book, Valley of the Dolls is for you!
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Summary: FANTASTIC, EX CITING, COZY, HEARTBREAKING
Review: This is the best book I ever read. It has everything in it, and I just couldn't put it down. The book still holds up in the Y2000, and it is probably the only book I would read AGAIN!!!
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Summary: Classic trashy novel that is just spellbinding
Review: This is my favorite Jacqueline Susann. I first read all of her books back in the 70's, when their shock value was much greater than today. I picked up all three again when they were re-released and have thoroughly enjoyed them all over again. Susann is the bottom of the junk-trash novel and yet her stories are compelling and interesting. Maybe just for the lack of character all of her characters have.Dolls starts in New York, where Anne, Neely, and Jennifer have all arrived to climb the ladder of fame and fortune. Anne takes a job with a theatrical attorney, and meets both Neely and Jennifer through her job. They become friends, and so begins their story. From New York to California to Paris, they all become successes and all have to deal with their own deamons. With Neely, it's her drive for success and her addition to drugs. With Jennifer, it's her greedy family and her conviction that her body is the only asset that she has. With Anne, it's her cold, sheltered childhood and her obsession with a self-centered egotistical man. The other character I must mention is Helen, the Broadway star, who is professional and revered on-stage and a sniping, childlike, phony off-stage. She pulls Anne into her web briefly, but her hard edged tactics soon push Anne away. They reach amazing highs, fall into abyssmal lows, and all crash hard. Yet this book remains an amazing read, you can't put it down though your mouth is gaping open at the excessivness of it all. Plus, it is more enjoyable to this generation, I think, because of the very real environment of the area it was written in. Definately worth price, and don't feel guilty for enjoying it!!
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Summary: This book is one of the best books I have ever read!
Review: It is about three young women with Hollywood dreams, which mires them into the world of alcohol, sex, and drugs. Valley of the Dolls, tells the story of three remarkable young women that want fame. Their lives are transformed because of show-business celebrities. Neely a young model that has made a successful life for herself relizes that at the top of fame is a lonely life and therefore turns to drugs. Anne a young girl from the country fiends for fame. And when she gets a break one day she ends up on every billboard all over New York. But the fame for her was too much competition so she turns to drugs and alcohol. And last Jenn wants to live the life of a star but can only make the average movie roles. And while she has to support her demanding mother she also turns to sex and drugs. All the girls realize that the fame in life is not always the best road in life to take. This book helps you realize that wanting the best is not always the best. It is always nice to become famous and get a break in life, but the downsides are the things that you have to do to your body. I loved this book because it helps me keep my life in check. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to be famous at any cost.
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Summary: Couln not put it down!!
Review: I was too young in the 60's to have read the book at that time and I vaguely remember seeing Valley of the Dolls on television probably sometime during the 70's, but the vague memory I had was intrigued when the movie "Isn't She Great" came out. I ordered it months ago but barely sat down to read it this past weekend. It loved it and I thought very well written for Susann's first novel. The characters are well developed and considerable emotion is evoked by their losses and triumph's. This is definately a "chick" book. I highly recommend it, that is if anyone dares to enter the "Valley of the Dolls".
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Summary: effortless.. beautiful and fascinating
Review: For some reason, I thought this book was about three rock chicks who formed a band and had lots of drugs and sex. It wasn't. It's about three women's purposeful, and not so purposeful climb for love and fame. It's not. It's so much better? Although it is often held up as a book about debauchery and drug use of 50-60s New York and LA, compared to what we can read and watch today it is rather tame. What this book is about is three friends Anne -a young naïve girl with dreams of independence who fled to New York, seeking herself. Neely -an undereducated, semi-orphan with very little hope for her talent and how her friendship with Anne accidentally allowed her fame and success and the consequences of that and Jennifer -a girl whose dreams and wants were deceptively simple, but how her beauty and her need for security were hindered her in many ways. All these every day dilemmas, hopes and dreams set in the glamorous time of Broadway, Studios and the advent of TV. It is also a book with female antagonists living their lives, there women are fully fledge characters who are in and sometimes no so in control of their lives, unlike the paper thin portrayal in many other books on this subject. They are not groupies, they are living breathing human beings who search for love, fame and acceptance. It is the men who are supporting characters. These women are the center of their own and each other's universe. You feel for them, you laugh with them, and you cry with them in ways chick flicks don't because the characters are presented with hard choices and they do what they do for THEMSELVES. It's surprising feminist without the rhetoric that feminist authors put into their books. It's a feminist novel because it is written in from the perspective of women and talk about issues of Lesbianism, money, success, love, aging, and even a short topic of breast cancer and how the disfigurement of a mastectomy affected one of the characters. The beauty of this book is how these "issues?are incorporated as part of these women's lives and not taken out discussed, dissected, and hammered into a story because of an agenda. It was effortless in showing how these things affected one life, without the rhetoric, without the "moral?that feminist authors then to try and place into their work. This is a piece of art with a pulp feel, perfect for easy reading, without the bad writing, the clich? and general rubbish you have to skip past when buying the general pulp novel. The synopses? Well written, mixed with enough spice to keep you fascinated, and in the end leaving an indelible mark on your psyche and leaving no doubt on your mind that as much as these women are victims of a world, they are those who made the choices. Read...
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