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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It was rather boring. Kept waiting for the plot to start. Something I could have read in January.
Favourite quotes:
Favourite quotes:
- “Don’t you like me?”
“I love you. If you hadn’t existed I would have had to invent you.” - I told myself that this must be part of some pathetic fallacy, whereby if you fall in love with one man, all men instantly become desirable, whether they actually are or not.
- A rowdy bunch on the whole, they were most of them so violently individualistic as to be practically interchangeable.
- I had a sinister premonition of how embarrassing an homme fatal could be when his charms are no longer fatal to you.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
medium-paced
Sally Jay Gorce is an American Girl Abroad (Emily in Paris, who?). She’s a 22 year old just out of university and she’s desperate to LIVE. She wants to experience absolutely everything, and she absolutely does. She is flighty, forgetful, and frivolous. She does things for the ~glamour~ of it all. Her judgement is poor and she never seems to wear the right thing to the right place.
And so we follow along on her misadventures through Paris! She wants to be an actress, she wants to be in love, she wants to do it all, but she’s quick to run from good things if they threaten to hold her back. For her, experience trumps everything.
The Dud Avocado was just the right Mood for January. I’ve been in need of some fun, jaunty reads—frivolous with a side of chaos. I love to read a book about a woman having fun, and maybe making a mess of her life in the mean time.
Elaine Dundy gave voice to such an energetic, witty, impulsive character. In the afterword, Dundy mentions that the character of Sally came about quite organically; when she told her own stories about her time abroad, she seemed to unintentionally take on this new voice. And this other version of herself eventually gave way to Sally Jay Gorce.
This is a fun read! I recommend it to any restless young women who are desperate to experience as much as possible (and can’t stand the idea of a boring life).
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I just didn't care about the main character and found her too annoying to read.
Wasn’t as funny as I’d hoped and seemed to have no real plot. It’s just a series of parties and bar hopping scenes with 20 somethings rambling about nothing. In 1950’s lingo. Bleh.
The narrator in this book was so annoying, at one point I found myself staring intently at the pages thinking, “How can I get in there and slap this idiot?” The quirky first-person narration/gibbering from main character Sally Jay Gorce, a rich, spoilt American in Paris is headache-inducing, at some points it’s so difficult to read, it reminded me of Wilfair by Alysia Gray Painter, another novel crippled by its own quirk.
The events described in the book aren’t much better than the language. This woman barges around Paris, usually tailed by an entourage of wacky douchebags and enveloped in the fog of her extreme sense of entitlement. Sally Jay has pink hair. She always wears the wrong thing! Shouting at the police because she’s Sally Jay! Screaming at embassy employees because she’s lost her passport and it couldn’t POSSIBLY be her fault! Oh no Sally Jay, you’ve run out of money before the end of the month? Again?! YOU’RE SO CUTE! There are a few long scenes describing Sally Jay’s various nights out that are very tiring. I just want her to grow up and behave herself and be held accountable for her actions.
What an absolute nightmare.
At least the Virago hardback looks good on the shelf, surrounded by the other beauties in the collection. I’m as shallow and vain as Sally Jay herself when it comes to my shelves.
The events described in the book aren’t much better than the language. This woman barges around Paris, usually tailed by an entourage of wacky douchebags and enveloped in the fog of her extreme sense of entitlement. Sally Jay has pink hair. She always wears the wrong thing! Shouting at the police because she’s Sally Jay! Screaming at embassy employees because she’s lost her passport and it couldn’t POSSIBLY be her fault! Oh no Sally Jay, you’ve run out of money before the end of the month? Again?! YOU’RE SO CUTE! There are a few long scenes describing Sally Jay’s various nights out that are very tiring. I just want her to grow up and behave herself and be held accountable for her actions.
What an absolute nightmare.
At least the Virago hardback looks good on the shelf, surrounded by the other beauties in the collection. I’m as shallow and vain as Sally Jay herself when it comes to my shelves.
I don't know...I feel like I'm supposed to think Sally Jay Gorce is this amazing person I should want to hang out with, like a female Holden Caulfield. In reality I doubt I could put up with her for more than a couple of drinks. Her navel-gazing histrionics wear thin after the first 20 pages. The writing is witty and the book is just entertaining enough not to put down (how's that for damning with faint praise?), but I fail to appreciate why this is a cult classic.
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
very fun and immersive.
adventurous
funny
slow-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
It had its funny moments but damn they were many times I would get lost I really loved sally tho.