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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
The main character is likeable and interesting and sympathetic enough but I can't say the same for anyone else in the book; and while staggering from bar to bar all night falling in with all sorts of eccentric and shady characters before finally winding up in a police station at 5am might be wildly fun to experience, it's not particularly fun to read about.
Chick-Lit 1950s style. There was a random twist at the end of this book that I just didn't track with.
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What's good enough for Ernest Hemingway and Groucho Marx is good enough for me. First of all, this book is laugh out loud funny and since I read a lot of it on my commute, I became the crazy woman laughing to herself on the El. Second of all, it's really nice to read about a young woman trying to find herself in the 1950s and to constantly be on the search for freedom. It doesn't surprise me that Hemingway liked this book because in some ways it reminded me a lot of The Sun Also Rises. Young Americans are roaming around Europe trying to find/lose themselves and have some fun but become disillusioned with it all along the way. More people should know about and read this book. It's such a gem!
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Wodehouse knockoff. She didn’t plan to very well so the plot is all weird and inconsistent and so is the pacing and Sally’s voice gets old … but decent and funny at points
The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy is the story of Sally Jay Gorce and her time spent in Paris in her early 20's. From a well-to-do family, she started running away in her early teens, intent on seeing the world and experiencing all there is to experience. One day her super rich uncle takes her aside and promises her if she quits running away and graduates college he will pay for her to travel the world for two whole years. So Sally quits running away, graduates college and heads over to France.
Sally begins by telling us all about how she is this forgetful, clumsy, dreamy girl. She's much too quirky and deep for anyone else to fully comprehend. Did you just roll your eyes? But she also leads this really exciting, wild life. Sally is so into experiencing the world that she solely hangs out with rich American ex-pats posing as starving artists. Did you roll your eyes again? And she is so spontaneous, she just picks up and travels down to the south of France on a whim! Which is exactly what she should have been doing all along if she wants to experience life in a mere two years.
The beginning of the book led me to believe that this was a coming of age novel, and that soon she would become a much more relatable figure, so I read on... waiting... and waiting. But the transformation never happened. I think to fit into the 'coming of age' category some sort of lesson has to be learned to catapult you from the self-absorbed young adult stage to the more worldly, aware adult stage. That doesn't happen in this story. Sally starts out as an insipid, ego-centric rich girl and ends the story the exact same way. Had I not been aware that this was a semi-autobiographical account, I maybe could have mildly enjoyed it as satire.
After the novel was published Dundy said, "All the impulsive, outrageous things my heroine does, I did. All the sensible things she did, I made up." Perhaps at the time her life did seem wild and crazy for a huge lame-o. I'm sure each of us has tried to relate a hilarious story to a friend and quickly realized it's not so amusing in the retelling. Realizing this we stop and say, "I can't explain. You just had to be there." That's pretty much what this book consisted of, but instead of having the good sense to shut up and stop the story she takes it a step further and publishes her worthless, lack-luster memories.
To try and understand why this novel was such a success at the time I decided to do a little research and found her Wikipedia page, where I found this quote "Around this time Tynan (her husband) started to insist on flagellating his wife..." Now I don't want it to sound like I'm in any way supporting spousal abuse because I absolutely do not, but after I read that I knew exactly where this guy was coming from. Upon finishing the book there's nothing more I'd like to do than flagellate her myself, cleansing her of the sins she committed for wasting my time with this rubbish.
Perhaps you are thinking that I am just as empty brained as that Sally Jay. After all, anyone with a lick of sense should know to stay away from a novel with the word 'dud' explicitly featured in its title.
www.harperreview.com
Sally begins by telling us all about how she is this forgetful, clumsy, dreamy girl. She's much too quirky and deep for anyone else to fully comprehend. Did you just roll your eyes? But she also leads this really exciting, wild life. Sally is so into experiencing the world that she solely hangs out with rich American ex-pats posing as starving artists. Did you roll your eyes again? And she is so spontaneous, she just picks up and travels down to the south of France on a whim! Which is exactly what she should have been doing all along if she wants to experience life in a mere two years.
The beginning of the book led me to believe that this was a coming of age novel, and that soon she would become a much more relatable figure, so I read on... waiting... and waiting. But the transformation never happened. I think to fit into the 'coming of age' category some sort of lesson has to be learned to catapult you from the self-absorbed young adult stage to the more worldly, aware adult stage. That doesn't happen in this story. Sally starts out as an insipid, ego-centric rich girl and ends the story the exact same way. Had I not been aware that this was a semi-autobiographical account, I maybe could have mildly enjoyed it as satire.
After the novel was published Dundy said, "All the impulsive, outrageous things my heroine does, I did. All the sensible things she did, I made up." Perhaps at the time her life did seem wild and crazy for a huge lame-o. I'm sure each of us has tried to relate a hilarious story to a friend and quickly realized it's not so amusing in the retelling. Realizing this we stop and say, "I can't explain. You just had to be there." That's pretty much what this book consisted of, but instead of having the good sense to shut up and stop the story she takes it a step further and publishes her worthless, lack-luster memories.
To try and understand why this novel was such a success at the time I decided to do a little research and found her Wikipedia page, where I found this quote "Around this time Tynan (her husband) started to insist on flagellating his wife..." Now I don't want it to sound like I'm in any way supporting spousal abuse because I absolutely do not, but after I read that I knew exactly where this guy was coming from. Upon finishing the book there's nothing more I'd like to do than flagellate her myself, cleansing her of the sins she committed for wasting my time with this rubbish.
Perhaps you are thinking that I am just as empty brained as that Sally Jay. After all, anyone with a lick of sense should know to stay away from a novel with the word 'dud' explicitly featured in its title.
www.harperreview.com