Scan barcode
A review by kivt
The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
5.0
I loved this book a lot, for all that it made me relive a lot of my idiot moments in my early 20s. I loved it in spite of that and specifically because of that. There's not a good way of explaining it without cliches or terms so appropriated they're pointless. A lot of men try to write about this time in a woman's life, or rather, write about women who are at this time of life. They get the experience so wrong that it puts me off any book blurb that includes the phrase "exploring her sexuality." Men who write about women like Sally Jay are often either transparently re-purposing a Dear Penthouse letter or indulging an excuse for some virulent misogyny.
The Dud Avocado is the book about a dirtbag artist curiously sleeping her way to discovering her identity that I always wanted to read when I was doing that exact thing. "I thought of sex and sin; of my body and all the men in the world who would never sleep with it. I felt a vague, melancholy sensation running through me, not at all unpleasant." And later, "Before, I would have eagerly sought them [comparative strangers] out for the pleasure and curiosity of meeting more and more people on my own hook." These sentences would be part of a moralistic lesson on how you just can't trust DUMB, FAST WOMEN who are out to steal your CREATIVE ESSENCE if written by a man. In The Dud Avocado, Dundy transported me back to when I was driven primarily by those sensations and knew it: "The vehemence of my moral indignation surprised me. Was I beginning to have standards and principles, and, oh dear, scruples? What were they, and what would I do with them, and how much were they going to get in my way?"
Sally Jay tries on a lot of people and a lot of lives. She's constantly furious about her naïvety and pushing at the limits of her own inexperience. She's too smart and funny for her own good, but also spectacularly dumb. Who wasn't like that at that age, and who doesn't miss it at least a little? Even if, as Sally Jay finds, that time in your life is exhausting and eventually it's a relief to give it up? There are other pleasures in life, but nothing can erase the thrill of the sheer stupidity of your wild 20s.
I will note that the middle third of the book dragged, but otherwise this was a fabulous read and nearly flawless. Highly recommended.
The Dud Avocado is the book about a dirtbag artist curiously sleeping her way to discovering her identity that I always wanted to read when I was doing that exact thing. "I thought of sex and sin; of my body and all the men in the world who would never sleep with it. I felt a vague, melancholy sensation running through me, not at all unpleasant." And later, "Before, I would have eagerly sought them [comparative strangers] out for the pleasure and curiosity of meeting more and more people on my own hook." These sentences would be part of a moralistic lesson on how you just can't trust DUMB, FAST WOMEN who are out to steal your CREATIVE ESSENCE if written by a man. In The Dud Avocado, Dundy transported me back to when I was driven primarily by those sensations and knew it: "The vehemence of my moral indignation surprised me. Was I beginning to have standards and principles, and, oh dear, scruples? What were they, and what would I do with them, and how much were they going to get in my way?"
Sally Jay tries on a lot of people and a lot of lives. She's constantly furious about her naïvety and pushing at the limits of her own inexperience. She's too smart and funny for her own good, but also spectacularly dumb. Who wasn't like that at that age, and who doesn't miss it at least a little? Even if, as Sally Jay finds, that time in your life is exhausting and eventually it's a relief to give it up? There are other pleasures in life, but nothing can erase the thrill of the sheer stupidity of your wild 20s.
I will note that the middle third of the book dragged, but otherwise this was a fabulous read and nearly flawless. Highly recommended.