Once Is Not Enough

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as Susann's other novels
Review: I first read Jacqueline Susann back in the 70's, and am glad these books have been re-released. This is my least favorite of Susann's "Trash Trilogy" of books, probably because it has the most tragic ending, but it is still worth the read for the shocking behavior of her characters. Especially when you take into consideration the era they were written in.

Once Is Not Enough is about January Wayne, a very spoiled girl who has an unnatural attraction to her own father. A self-centered man who was not around enough as January grew up in boarding schools. January really does suffer, she is in a horrible accident and spends three years recovering. She joins her father and his new rich wife in New York, and wonders what to do with her life since she cannot have her father. She goes to work with an annoying schoolmate at a magazine, and her life on her own begins.

She is courted a good looking man who is in love with another woman, and then meets Tom Colt when she is assigned to interview him for the magazine. Tom Colt replaces Daddy for her, and she falls hard for this older, rude, hard drinking, and married man. I had to snicker at Tom's "little problem", I think every woman did.

Karla is kind of an enigma, and definately the most interesting character in the book. Everyone is unhappy, and just when Mike, Dee, Karla, and January seem to be on the brink of getting it together and doing someting to make themselves happy, tragedy strikes. A plane crashes, and like dominos, the lives that are left slowly crash also.

Of all Susann's novels, drugs are never portrayed in a positive way, and Once Is Not Enough probably brings the worst into play, because January is more innocent that Susann's other drugged heroines. So of course, she falls quicker and harder when she finds them. Good campy trash, fun to read, and well written as usual in wonderful Susann style.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as Susann's other novels
Review: I first read Jacqueline Susann back in the 70's, and am glad these books have been re-released. This is my least favorite of Susann's "Trash Trilogy" of books, probably because it has the most tragic ending, but it is still worth the read for the shocking behavior of her characters. Especially when you take into consideration the era they were written in.

Once Is Not Enough is about January Wayne, a very spoiled girl who has an unnatural attraction to her own father. A self-centered man who was not around enough as January grew up in boarding schools. January really does suffer, she is in a horrible accident and spends three years recovering. She joins her father and his new rich wife in New York, and wonders what to do with her life since she cannot have her father. She goes to work with an annoying schoolmate at a magazine, and her life on her own begins.

She is courted a good looking man who is in love with another woman, and then meets Tom Colt when she is assigned to interview him for the magazine. Tom Colt replaces Daddy for her, and she falls hard for this older, rude, hard drinking, and married man. I had to snicker at Tom's "little problem", I think every woman did.

Karla is kind of an enigma, and definately the most interesting character in the book. Everyone is unhappy, and just when Mike, Dee, Karla, and January seem to be on the brink of getting it together and doing someting to make themselves happy, tragedy strikes. A plane crashes, and like dominos, the lives that are left slowly crash also.

Of all Susann's novels, drugs are never portrayed in a positive way, and Once Is Not Enough probably brings the worst into play, because January is more innocent that Susann's other drugged heroines. So of course, she falls quicker and harder when she finds them. Good campy trash, fun to read, and well written as usual in wonderful Susann style.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as Susann's other novels
Review: I first read Jacqueline Susann back in the 70's, and am glad these books have been re-released. This is my least favorite of Susann's "Trash Trilogy" of books, probably because it has the most tragic ending, but it is still worth the read for the shocking behavior of her characters. Especially when you take into consideration the era they were written in.

Once Is Not Enough is about January Wayne, a very spoiled girl who has an unnatural attraction to her own father. A self-centered man who was not around enough as January grew up in boarding schools. January really does suffer, she is in a horrible accident and spends three years recovering. She joins her father and his new rich wife in New York, and wonders what to do with her life since she cannot have her father. She goes to work with an annoying schoolmate at a magazine, and her life on her own begins.

She is courted a good looking man who is in love with another woman, and then meets Tom Colt when she is assigned to interview him for the magazine. Tom Colt replaces Daddy for her, and she falls hard for this older, rude, hard drinking, and married man. I had to snicker at Tom's "little problem", I think every woman did.

Karla is kind of an enigma, and definately the most interesting character in the book. Everyone is unhappy, and just when Mike, Dee, Karla, and January seem to be on the brink of getting it together and doing someting to make themselves happy, tragedy strikes. A plane crashes, and like dominos, the lives that are left slowly crash also.

Of all Susann's novels, drugs are never portrayed in a positive way, and Once Is Not Enough probably brings the worst into play, because January is more innocent that Susann's other drugged heroines. So of course, she falls quicker and harder when she finds them. Good campy trash, fun to read, and well written as usual in wonderful Susann style.

Rating:
Summary: By far the greatest novel written in English.
Review: I have been moved, changed, turned upside down by this amazing piece of work. I have seen the light, Jackie! Very few people know that Jackie was really a man! But I do, I knew him well. Way to Jackie, hey-hoo!

Rating:
Summary: This is the best book I've ever read
Review: I loved the book "Once is not enough". It is a well written book,realistic and tragic. Jaqueline Sussan gets you deeply involved, it makes you feel what she is saying, the pain, the emotion, the happiness. It is an incredible book, a masterpiece. I finished reading this book in about 4 days, I just couldn't put it down, I cried, this book it's just beautifull. It shows you life as it is, not as a fairytale where everything ends happy. You have to read it.

Rating:
Summary: Soap Opera Heaven!
Review: I read valley of the Dolls for a Popular Culture class I was taking. So I picked up Once is not Enough cause I like V of D. IT was a RIOT! I am not a soap opera fan but this book is a kick. YOU HAVE to read this book. You want it it is in there. However if you are wanting some serious literature this is not it. But if you just need something to lighten your spirits this is your book. I don't believe Ms. Susann meant her book to be funny, but I laughed MANY times. MUST read!

Rating:
Summary: A book true to its writer
Review: I'm about 20 pages away from finishing the book, and I think it is a very 1970s book. Jacqueline Susann's attention to the language, behaviour, and fashion of the time is very apparent in her prose. I first got interested in Jackie Susann after reading "Lovely Me," the bio written about her. Also, my roommate had a lot to say about Jackie, so I had to read one of her books. Overall, from what I've read, I understand that Jackie's books were heavily edited. However, from reading this one book, I still think whatever all editing was done, it did not water down what it was that Jackie Susann wanted her readers to experience. I highly recommend this book, and I've sort of been putting off finishing the book for a week now, which I do with really good books. Alas, I'm about to start on Rona Jaffe's newest book, so I've got another good one lined up afterwards.

Rating:
Summary: A book true to its writer
Review: I'm about 20 pages away from finishing the book, and I think it is a very 1970s book. Jacqueline Susann's attention to the language, behaviour, and fashion of the time is very apparent in her prose. I first got interested in Jackie Susann after reading "Lovely Me," the bio written about her. Also, my roommate had a lot to say about Jackie, so I had to read one of her books. Overall, from what I've read, I understand that Jackie's books were heavily edited. However, from reading this one book, I still think whatever all editing was done, it did not water down what it was that Jackie Susann wanted her readers to experience. I highly recommend this book, and I've sort of been putting off finishing the book for a week now, which I do with really good books. Alas, I'm about to start on Rona Jaffe's newest book, so I've got another good one lined up afterwards.

Rating:
Summary: Her best & perhaps the greatest America novel ever written.
Review: In reply to Jhood - Capote described Jackie as a "truck driver in drag" - then apolized to all the truck drivers. He simply was livid with envy. This novel transends anything every written in the English language before. Written from the heart, it is a combination of soap and science fiction, (Her original ending was to include a sex scene with a space alien. I suggest you read her novel - 'Yargo'.) This was her last completed novel. She first found out she had breast cancer soon after 'Valley' was published. She had hope thru 'Love Machine' (hense the ankh symbol - symbol of life) but by this novel I believe she knew wouldn't survive. What does it mean to be loved? To be a human in an inhuman world? To try to make sense of senselessness? I believe more than all the male writers before her - she came closest to answering these questions (and having a ball at the same time!). 'Once is not Enought' is about trying to live one's life in only one lifetime.

Rating:
Summary: has once ever been enough?
Review: Incest, orgies, rape, UFOs, betrayal, drugs, dark secrets and hidden children. Yes, this book has it all. And it did keep me reading, as did Valley of the Dolls. It is not good literature, but who reads Jackie for good literature? It is a terribly fun read, though. I just picked up The Love Machine and will give it a read probably later this month, if I can hold off that long. I'm only giving it three stars because I feel it could have used some editing, and she could have rearanged some of the story a bit. I don't think the nun rape scene should be so far from the Karla scenes that happen later in the book. For a while I had an odd feeling that that was the end of Karla. Then she came back and all was well again. She could have varied her sentence structure a little, too. But don't let these little quibbles keep you away.