The Dud Avocado (Virago Modern Classics)

Product Information

Once upon a time, Sally Jay Gorce kept running away from home. Trouble usually followed, without any consequences or remorse. She has a rich-as-Midas uncle who tells her if she goes to college, really goes to college, and finishes, she can go to France for two years. He will bankroll her. She can do whatever she wants. No rules. He doesn't even want to hear from her for two years. And so we meet her, with pink hair and a hangover, drifting down the boulevard St. Michel. Will we like her? Well, no...and, yes. Wolcott, James (December 6, 2001). "Critical condition: Kenneth Tynan's diaries". The Guardian . Retrieved May 14, 2021. Reprinted from Wolcott, James (December 3, 2001). "Skating Charm". London Review of Books. Vol.23, no.24 . Retrieved May 14, 2001. Tynan disapproved of Dundy's writing vocation despite having forecast success, [6] because it distracted attention from himself; Dundy, however, had seen it as a means to save their marriage. Around this time, Tynan started to insist on flagellating his wife, with the threat of his own suicide if she refused. [1] [7] Drugs, alcohol, and extramarital affairs by both parties resulted in the marriage becoming fraught, and it was dissolved in 1964. In 1962, she was a writer for the BBC's satirical That Was the Week That Was. Dundy attempted to cure herself of addictions from 1968 to 1976, [3] though according to her daughter, she struggled with drugs and alcohol for half a century. Dundy lived mainly in New York after her divorce. [7] In addition to novels and short stories, Dundy wrote for The New York Times. She wrote books on the actor Peter Finch, [8] the city of Ferriday, Louisiana, [9] and Elvis Presley. [10] The Dud Avocadofollows the romantic and comedic adventures of a young American who heads overseas to conquer Paris in the late 1950s. Edith Wharton and Henry James wrote about the American girl abroad, but it was Elaine Dundy’s Sally Jay Gorce who told us what she was really thinking. Charming, sexy, and hilarious, The Dud Avocadogained instant cult status when it was first published and it remains a timeless portrait of a woman hell-bent on living.

T]he question actors most often get asked is how they can bear saying the same things over and over again night after night, but God knows the answer to that is, don’t we all anyway; might as well get paid for it.” I only did it,' I said, 'now this is going to be the truth, Teddy, I only did it because it seemed to be the glamorous thing to do at the time. It was my ideal of glamour.” In the Guardianin August 2011, Rachel Cooke sees the Sally Jay’s life as ‘a complicated hoot’. She is not too bothered by the amoral aspects of the story. She rightly points out that no one reads this novel for the plot and enjoys the details of the heroine’s chaotic life. You can find her observations here. Think Breakfast at Tiffany’s if it was written by a beat author. The Dud Avocado is going to take you on a journey without a road map; you won’t know if you’ll ever get to the final destination but you’ll get somewhere. Like I said before, I don’t want to spoil the journey, I think something really interesting has been done here and it is worth looking into. Take one zippy, curious, 21-year-old American named Sally Jay, just out of college. Drop her in the middle of Paris' Left Bank. Add an Italian diplomat, an American theatrical director , a couple of painters and a white slave trader. Mix until all bubbles. The result: a delightful few hours of sparkling reading entertainment. Summing up: Froth and frolic." --NewsweekWhen The Dud Avocado was first published, it was a smash. Ernest Hemingway told Dundy: "I liked your book. I liked the way your characters all speak differently ... My characters all sound the same because I never listen." Groucho Marx sent her a letter: "I had to tell someone (and it might as well be you since you're the author) how much I enjoyed The Dud Avocado," he wrote. "If this was actually your life, I don't see how the hell you ever got through it."

I find myself reminded a little of A Sport and a Pastime in parts but mainly when I think of France, the lust and passion. After that it is more similar to a beat novel with a female protagonist travelling around Paris looking for love and passion. She is smart, sexy, hilarious and frivolous; Sally Jay is sure to charm every man in the City.

Ifirstread thisin 1961, perhaps the very copy I still have in my possession. At the time I thought it was risqué, funny, modern, definitely the voice of youth.Nowwith a rereadit feels dated,and I have to admit that I was a little bored at times. Too many evenings in the bars and nightclubs, pursued by men, following her dream of becoming an actress and hooking up with Larry Keevil.(Really, the name should have been the clue.) Only reason it’s not a 4 is because there were a few sections I felt dragged a little but on the whole I loved the setting, I LOVED the protagonist and how messy she was, and I really enjoyed the plot