By: Caitlin Northup
I read Valley of the Dolls on a bus ride from Pittsburgh to New York. If you’ve never done that you’re lucky. However if you have done that (or something similar) you probably know how important it is to have the perfect reading material. Look no further: Valley of the Dolls is for you!
Honestly, I picked this book up due to the cover and the mere fact that I’d heard of it. If a book is pink, I’m typically interested. I had no idea what I was in for.
Valley of the Dolls is as relevant today as it was in 1966. Jacqueline Susann’s scandalous and sexy novel is rumored to be based on several stage and screen legends (a simple google will tell you who!) but the story and characters are able to draw you in throughout their own stories. Sex, drugs, fame, and fortune are the catalysts that plummet the main characters into their inevitable futures.
The novel follows the lives of three girls: Jennifer, Anne, and Neely. All are beautiful and talented in their own way. The story follows the girls for more than 15 years, going through the 50’s and 60’s as they grow up and make it big in New York and Los Angeles. It tells the story of friendship – the ups and downs as well as the morality involved in putting your needs ahead of someone elses’s. It’s also a love story and addressed themes that we, as twenty-somethings, have to deal with daily.
What would you do to make it big? What would you sacrifice? What happens when you love the wrong guy? Each girl in the story makes choices and those choices play out and affect the rest of their lives. Everyday we’re faced with decisions. This book cautions the reader to think of how things will inevitably play out.
In a world before “chick lit”, Valley of the Dolls paved the way for female writers to come. Without Jacqueline Susann, the world may not have been ready for some more scandalous novels, movies, writers – even bloggers to come.
Why did Rory Gilmore read this? Because every girl slightly interested in American culture should. This tells the story of any American woman’s fame and success. What we do to get there, what sacrifices we make once we’re there. It’s also an example of a woman opening doors for other women to come. I think you’ll be surprised at how invested you become in the characters. Also, aside from a few vintage words, you’ll forget how long ago this was written.
Plus, it’s a juicy, juicy read.
Guitly pleasure classic.
I read Valley of the Dolls on a bus ride from Pittsburgh to New York. If you’ve never done that you’re lucky. However if you have done that (or something similar) you probably know how important it is to have the perfect reading material. Look no further: Valley of the Dolls is for you!
Honestly, I picked this book up due to the cover and the mere fact that I’d heard of it. If a book is pink, I’m typically interested. I had no idea what I was in for.
Valley of the Dolls is as relevant today as it was in 1966. Jacqueline Susann’s scandalous and sexy novel is rumored to be based on several stage and screen legends (a simple google will tell you who!) but the story and characters are able to draw you in throughout their own stories. Sex, drugs, fame, and fortune are the catalysts that plummet the main characters into their inevitable futures.
The novel follows the lives of three girls: Jennifer, Anne, and Neely. All are beautiful and talented in their own way. The story follows the girls for more than 15 years, going through the 50’s and 60’s as they grow up and make it big in New York and Los Angeles. It tells the story of friendship – the ups and downs as well as the morality involved in putting your needs ahead of someone elses’s. It’s also a love story and addressed themes that we, as twenty-somethings, have to deal with daily.
What would you do to make it big? What would you sacrifice? What happens when you love the wrong guy? Each girl in the story makes choices and those choices play out and affect the rest of their lives. Everyday we’re faced with decisions. This book cautions the reader to think of how things will inevitably play out.
In a world before “chick lit”, Valley of the Dolls paved the way for female writers to come. Without Jacqueline Susann, the world may not have been ready for some more scandalous novels, movies, writers – even bloggers to come.
Why did Rory Gilmore read this? Because every girl slightly interested in American culture should. This tells the story of any American woman’s fame and success. What we do to get there, what sacrifices we make once we’re there. It’s also an example of a woman opening doors for other women to come. I think you’ll be surprised at how invested you become in the characters. Also, aside from a few vintage words, you’ll forget how long ago this was written.
Plus, it’s a juicy, juicy read.
Guitly pleasure classic.