- Unknown Binding
- ASIN: B000X7C5FS
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,216,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Dud Avocado (VMC Designer Collection)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Thanks to a generous donation from her Uncle young American actress Sally Jay Gorce is in Paris in the 1950's. She is affectionate, optimistic, feckless and given to falling in love with unsuitable men. Like her creator she rather brave and clear sighted. Sally Jay is delightfully funny and well aware of her own failings.
I am indebted to Rachel Cooke whose excellent article in the "Guardian" prompted me to re-read this novel. I can vouch for the sense of authenticity that it gives and though while in Paris around that time I never did meet anyone quite like Sally Jay the chaotic life of expatriate Montparnasse that she describes certainly rings true. The comments on the differences between Saint-Germain and Montparnasse reveal the author's eye for detail.
Never having read them I can make no comment on the more recent authors mentioned but I do suggest that Truman Capote's Holly Golightly, created at about the same time, is more a creature of male fantasy than of reality. Dundy's heroine in not particularly judgmental but there is an underlying self-doubt and insecurity about her that makes her far more than some icon for 'women's liberation'.
There have been a few distortions of the past on television recently and it would be a pity if any reader of this novel were to be weighed down by false assumptions. It was written to be enjoyed and is best read as such. There's a bit more too it than that, of course, and Dundy's autobiography "Life Itself" is revealing while "The Old Man and Me", another first person novel, is remarkably frank for its time.
I am indebted to Rachel Cooke whose excellent article in the "Guardian" prompted me to re-read this novel. I can vouch for the sense of authenticity that it gives and though while in Paris around that time I never did meet anyone quite like Sally Jay the chaotic life of expatriate Montparnasse that she describes certainly rings true. The comments on the differences between Saint-Germain and Montparnasse reveal the author's eye for detail.
Never having read them I can make no comment on the more recent authors mentioned but I do suggest that Truman Capote's Holly Golightly, created at about the same time, is more a creature of male fantasy than of reality. Dundy's heroine in not particularly judgmental but there is an underlying self-doubt and insecurity about her that makes her far more than some icon for 'women's liberation'.
There have been a few distortions of the past on television recently and it would be a pity if any reader of this novel were to be weighed down by false assumptions. It was written to be enjoyed and is best read as such. There's a bit more too it than that, of course, and Dundy's autobiography "Life Itself" is revealing while "The Old Man and Me", another first person novel, is remarkably frank for its time.
29 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Problem: You feel like reading something that's witty and light-hearted but not so embarrassingly girly that it makes you feel like you should be wearing fluffy pink slippers and call your beloved "snookums". You loved "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons and "In The Pursuit of Love" by Nancy Mitford. You have been known to dream of Parisian boulevards and bohemian attic flats in Montparnasse. The thought of strolling down Boule Mich in an evening gown makes you feel all warm inside.
Solution: The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, following the adventures and misadventures of Sally Jay Gorce. In the proud tradition of Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway, Sally Jay is an American in Paris, sardonic and enamoured at the same time, and determined to soak up everything the Moving Feast of Lights can offer. In contrast to Ernst or Gertrude, though, she is more busy flitting around cafes and pursuing a very modest stage career than devoting herself to High Art. She just wants to live, damn it! And that's exactly what she does, mixing with shady aristocrats, hustlers, painters and Southern belles from the Left Bank to Biarritz.
Sally Jay's streetsmart voice conveys a great sense of time and place. The fifties slang is really cute, and it's interesting to see the how the Home-makers of America moral values prevailed even in bohemian Paris. Even though some plotlines seem a bit weak (without giving too much away: how traumatic is it to lose a passport, for example?), the charm and exuberance of this book makes it seem churlish to complain. You could definitely do worse than party in Paris with Sally Jay.
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I fell head over heels in love with Sally Jay Gorce when I read this book. She is eccentic, intelligent, self aware, intelligent and witty
but succumbs to self doubt and lack of experience. Rarely do you encounter a character so real. This book is a joy from first sentence to last. I never wanted it to end. Perfect.
but succumbs to self doubt and lack of experience. Rarely do you encounter a character so real. This book is a joy from first sentence to last. I never wanted it to end. Perfect.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
"What's the use of remembering anything? If it was unpleasant it was...
Disappointing. The heroine Sally Jay was shallow and irritating. I liked the descriptions of Parisian life and many of the characters but around the halfway mark I started to... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Ethel the Unready
The Dud Avocado
Despite how long ago this book was first published, it is amazingly fresh and apposite. The humour has aged well and the characters are plausible.
Published 7 months ago by Neil Lieberman
Witty, silly and ahead of its time!
Really good fun jaunt with Sally! Fantasatic character who I genuinely fell in love with. Very silly and very trivial but that's backed up with brilliantly witty and intelligent... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Naffy
Rites of Passage Novel
Sally Jay Gorce is an American ingenue let loose in 1950's Paris. Given two years of independence in which to find herself by a rich uncle, she hot foots it to Paris to 'experience... Read more
Published on 30 April 2009 by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
Annoying character and story
The story is narrated by Sally Jay Groce, a young American girl on her own in Paris in the fifties, who falls in love constantly, has affairs without remorse, and is just too, too... Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2009 by Kona
Unexpectedly fresh and modern
Unexpectedly fresh and modern despite the fact that it's set in late 1950s Paris. Young American Sally Jay Gorce is spending her year abroad in Paris living life and getting into... Read more
Published on 2 Oct 2007 by Countess Olenska
One of my favourite books...
this was recommended by a friend while I was planning a trip to Paris. I fell in love with Sally Jay, and laughed and cried over her story. Read more
Published on 8 Aug 2000
A perfect read for the train
A story about an American girl in Paris sounds as if it'll make you sick with sentiment, especially when she's also an actress. Read more
Published on 26 July 1999
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