The Dud Avocado
by Elaine Dundy
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
World travellers and Bon Vivants
The introduction to this book talks about how it's caught in a cycle of being forgotten and then rediscovered. I can see why. Sally Jay Gorce is a terrifically charming narrator: carefree and alive, but also naive, silly, and shallow. How else could she possibly get away with crying out "The world is wide, wide, wide, and I am young, young, young, and we're all going to live forever!" I spent a significant chunk of the book trying to decide if I wanted to kiss her or shake her.
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Read in January, 2008
This was on the "staff recommendations" at the library so I gave it a whirl. Sally Jay Gorce (love the name) makes a deal with her rich uncle when she's 13 or so: she'll stop trying to run away from home, and he'll foot the bill for two years of "total freedom" after she graduates from college. Of course she goes to Paris, has an affair with a diplomat who already has a wife and mistress, hangs out in avant-garde nightclubs, loses her passport, poses nude, becomes a very temp...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
people who want to read smarty & funny books featuring lovely madcap heroines
Started this book a year ago around ALA and then got distracted by other things -- just picked it up again over vacation and was charmed and captivated by Sally Jay Gorce's crazy European adventures. The flippant and sophisticated banter Ms. Gorces tosses off with her friends, acquaintances, and paramours brought to mind the voice of Cassandra Edwards (from Dorothy Baker's Cassandra at the Wedding), one of my all-time favorite literary heroines. I wasn't so enamored of the whole "white slav...more
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Read in September, 2008
i really enjoyed this book. Dundy is an extremely talented writer - the style and descriptions feel fresh even though the book was written in the 50's and some of the scenarios feel a bit dated.
while sally jay may is arguably a very self-centered character her story is thoroughly enjoyable. i particularly liked the point blank insights into her own character and those surrounding her. as an internal dialogue it's brutally honest - and i find it refreshing to read of a young woman who is doi...more
while sally jay may is arguably a very self-centered character her story is thoroughly enjoyable. i particularly liked the point blank insights into her own character and those surrounding her. as an internal dialogue it's brutally honest - and i find it refreshing to read of a young woman who is doi...more
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Read in July, 2008
I have no recollection of why I purchased this book, but I'm glad I did. The Dud Avocado is the story of Sally Jay Gorce, a young American in 1950s Paris. She is a charming party girl type, and her observations of the people around her are terrific, even though her eye for reading people doesn't necessarily keep her out of trouble.
This book just read effortlessly. The vibrant portraits of Sally Jay and her various companions kept me engaged and interested, from the moment the book opens w...more
This book just read effortlessly. The vibrant portraits of Sally Jay and her various companions kept me engaged and interested, from the moment the book opens w...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Eleanor by:
Kahlilrecommends it for: American Francophiles
A temporary Art Handler with a degree in literature from Brown recommended this book to me. I picked it up because of the allure of the "American girl in Paris" narrative. While some credit this author with beginning "chick lit," the writer's voice is so strong and focused, it's not just witty for witticism sake. There's lines that continue to stick in my head, like her handbag landing "butter side down" and the contents spilling everywhere. Whenever I think abo...more
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I discovered this reissued novel on a swap rack at a hotel in Mexico City last summer...and I was delighted that I did. I've since passed it on to a friend, Heather, whom I met in Mexico is now on GR. It seems like that kind of book: one you should pass on to a friend or stranger. The first person narrator, a young American on her own in Paris, is beguiling. Her adventures and misadventures with men are charmingly recounted in a delightfully understated way. I think it's easy to forget that s...more
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Read in January, 2006
The Dud Avocado follows the adventures of one Sally Jay Gorce, an aspiring young American actress as she tries her best to live in the Paris of the late 1950s. In some ways, it's a shockingly modern book for those of us who are used to thinking of the 50s as being a very repressed and conservative decade, while in others it is most definitely antiquated. The dialogue in particular seems particularly odd; the idiosyncracies of American speech at that time are so unusual that it, at times, ...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommended to Sue by:
Lori recommends it for: fun-loving women
This book was a gift from my sister who usually has very good taste, and it did not disappoint. It was a really fun read, and I laughed out loud at more than one point. The protagonist is a young American woman who longs for adventure and whose wealthy uncle agrees to send her to Paris. She is somewhat of a precursor to a Bridget Jones-type character who gets into silly mishaps and chooses the wrong man, but Sally Jay is much more confident and has a healthier body image. What surprised me th...more
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Read in August, 2007
I picked this one up per Terry Teachout's recommendation - he's the drama critic for the Wall Street Journal, and also wrote an excellent biography of H.L. Mencken. This is a favorite of his, and I certainly wasn't disappointed - you'd be hard pressed to find a better light reading experience. It's an innocent abroad story - Sally Jay Gorce travels to Paris, pursues acting, loses her virginity, and does all the funny things you'd expect an inexperience girl to do in a foreign city. It's laugh...more
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Read in June, 2007
This is about an American girl in the 50s who is traveling in Paris. She's an aspiring actress. But it's sarcastic and smart enough that you don't feel like you are reading total chic-lit. The plot follows some of her love affairs, and I was definitely shocked, because this book is a little bit more racy than I would have thought. It was originally published in the late 1950s, so I guess I just expected it be more conservative. However, the way it reads is a little antiquated, I guess it's m...more
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Read in April, 2008
Reading despite (2002) promise not to read any more books about Americans in France. This one is self-conscious and hysterical. That, and, it's better than breaking my injunction against reading male authors.
If you think my running commentary on people is hilarious: you should read this book.
If you think my running commentary on people is mean or tiring: you should not read this book and should reevaluate our friendship.
Excerpt:
"'Anyhoo-- at this particular meeting the...more
If you think my running commentary on people is hilarious: you should read this book.
If you think my running commentary on people is mean or tiring: you should not read this book and should reevaluate our friendship.
Excerpt:
"'Anyhoo-- at this particular meeting the...more
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Read in September, 2008
i'm glad i read this at 25 and not 15. the heroine is the type of quirky wanderer over whom as a teenager, i'd have swooned. based on the author's own experiences as an american in paris, the book rambles at times but is so chock full of terrific slang and observations that manage to be wide eyed with just a soupcon of cynicism--dundy writes as a self-conscious ingenue, and thinking back to my own years abroad, i appreciated the perspective. it's a super quick read, engrossing and rambunctiou...more
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Read in May, 2008
I wanted to love this book because it's about a young woman in the 50s who flouts convention by going off to Paris and having a string of love affairs and mishaps. It sounded charming and fun.
But, I just couldn't stand the main character, Sally Jay Gorce. First, she's a huge drama queen: anything that happens to her - even something as simple as losing a passport - becomes A Really Big Deal. Second, it's really hard to buy woman-of-the-world cynicism from a girl barely out of high school wh...more
But, I just couldn't stand the main character, Sally Jay Gorce. First, she's a huge drama queen: anything that happens to her - even something as simple as losing a passport - becomes A Really Big Deal. Second, it's really hard to buy woman-of-the-world cynicism from a girl barely out of high school wh...more
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Read in January, 2008
This book should be required reading for any American youngster heading off to Europe to 'find themselves'. It's funny, it rings true, it's silly, and the heroine is exasperating but sooo real. The situations she gets herself into are wild, but believable. And the language and themes are so refreshing - it feels so very modern, even if it was written in the 50s. Some of the expressions made me want to run to wikipedia to look them up, but otherwise it's just so timeless. It was a bestseller when...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommended to Sara by:
NPRrecommends it for: Im not sure, but there are definitely a lot of people who would enjoy it, just not me.
I read half of this book and decided I didnt like it enough to finish. I couldnt get into the protagonista, Sally Jay. It was recommended on NPR and I really thought I'd love this story of a 20 something living it up in Paris, but it wasnt funny enough, or sweet enough, or Francophille enough, or inspiring, informative, educational, insightful enough to make me want to finish. Basically, I wasn't invested in the characters and I didnt feel like I was getting anything out of it. If this sounds li...more
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Read in October, 2007
I hesitate to use the word "charming" but then again that just sums this baby up. Who doesn't want to read about a neurotic young wanna-be-actress living it up in Paris? Written in the late 1950s, Sally Jay Gorce manages to feel contemporary thanks to her I'll-sleep-with-whomever-I-want-thank-you-very-much-and-yes-I-prefer-to-spend-the-majority-of-my-life-getting-drunk-and-living-with-a-hangover. She'd be a personal hero if she wasn't so naive and sometimes painfully self-concious a...more
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Read in August, 2007
I was prepared to give this a slightly lower rating (goodreads has got me thinking in stars) until the last forty or so pages, which are fabulous, probably perfect. How often can you say that? There's a description of a martini I had to write down. Well, okay, here it is: "We had dry martinis; great wing-shaped glasses of perfumed fire, tangy as the early morning air." Maybe I'm an alcoholic, but doesn't that sound great? Plus it's set off in its own paragraph. This story of a fun-lovi...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommended to Teri by:
bas bleu
I think Elaine Dundy is a brilliant writer. That being said, I don't know if I can recommend this book to anyone. It took me about 50 pages to decide I did indeed like it, even with the great writing. The story is strange to me at times. I liked it more as I continued on. Still I don't know if it will appeal to any of my friends. It was written in 1958 and I am sure a very wild book for the time. Groucho Marx and Laurence Olivier were fans of this book. If that says anything.
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Read in August, 2007
I tried really hard to like this book, but I found the main character really annoying. She's frivolous with money, plays hard to get in a really unproductive way, is totally self-absorbed, and desperately tries (and fails) to fit into the young artsy paris scene. I couldn't finish the book. I tried to do it, but months dragged on, and I finally resigned myself to the fact that it wasn't going to happen.
I never made it to the part that explains what a dud avocado actually is, so if you have t...more
I never made it to the part that explains what a dud avocado actually is, so if you have t...more
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