Jacqueline Susann: Valley of the Dolls

THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS by Jacqueline Susann was a scandalous novel in 1966.

In a nutshell:

It's about the life of three girlfriends (and the death of one of them) from 1945 -1965:

Anne, the pretty New England lady, who works as a secretary for a theatrical lawyer and becomes the famous face for a cosmetic line - and whose love life has many letdowns.

Jennifer, the busty showgirl, who starts a career in films (rather nudies..) but finds her luck in a relationship - or doesn't she?

Neely, the impish girl with the magnificent voice, who becomes a famous singer and Hollywoodstar - but she has airs and graces -and a liability to dolls (which means pills.) and booze. But she is not the only of the three girls who is going to swallow these dolls...

This book hooked me immediately. It's kind of the classic read for trashy dames in Hollywood classics - and I love it. :") It's like a crossover between ALL ABOUT EVE, THE SNAKE PIT and PEYTON PLACE.

Here are some of the topics which are dealed with in this novel - in alphabetical order:

Abortion, addiction (to "dolls", booze and/or people - men, public, siblings, whatsoever..), breast cancer (so if you going on to do a breast cancer awareness challenge: this could be a book for you..), cosmetic sugery, mental illness, suicide attempts.. I could go on, you know.

• Living literally:
  Do Bust-exercises! - Yes, I do – and I use cacao-butter. My breasts are gorgeous. Just mentioning it. Someone should mention it – because I won’t post pictures. ;”)
  
• For Non-readers:
  There is a film from 1967 with Barabara Parkins as Anne, Patty Duke as Neely and Sharon Tate as Jennifer. The is somewhat different than the book. It's less cruel. There are not so lovely people in the book than they are in the film.. (-> read my film review here.)

This book fits in two of my challenges:

The LGBT Book Challenge, because one of the girls has a heavy lesbian affaire - and some of the mini-minor characters are gay. (They are mostly dubbed fags.)

The Forgotten Treasures Challenge, (See my progress here.) because this book was released in 1966.