Valley of the Dolls

Its three protagonists–Anne Welles, the uptight-but-full-of-a-strange-yearning New England beauty; Neely OHara, the Judy Garland ? clef; and Jennifer North, who is sort of the Marilyn Monroe ? clef and also sort of the Brigitte Bardot ? clef but mainly sort of the least realized character in the book–all spend most of the novel with what they want excruciatingly just out of reach, and all are ultimately not only defeated but self-defeating … I should say, first of all, that I have absolutely no criticisms to make of this book. It is perfect, and Im not just saying that because I practically memorized it at the age of 13 and it was one of my primary illicit sources of sexual information in the gap between information and experience, and I therefore view it with fond nostalgia…. However melodramatic its plot may be, Valley of the Dolls is simply old-fashioned riveting.