For the new year, I wanted to begin with a personal favorite of mine. I must admit, though, this favoritism is largely fueled by the fact that the reviews for this book are about as entertaining as the book itself, if not more. Valley of the Dolls, the debut novel of Jacqueline Susann and number-one New York Times Best Seller for twenty-eight weeks, is as addicting as the cigarettes the characters are frequently portrayed as smoking. Need more proof? It was also made into a movie only one year after its publication, featuring Sharon Tate, as well as Barbara Parkins and Patty Duke.
What makes the novel so captivating, though, (besides the Goodreads reviews) is its elaboration on humanity’s obsession with wealth, power, fame, “dolls,” and the effect all of these things have on us. The first three themes are the cause for all strains in relationships throughout Susann’s novel, with the “dolls” coming into play as a source of temporary relief in response to such strains. What are these “dolls,” then? To put it bluntly; drugs. That’s right, Valley of the Dolls is about a bunch of pill-popping, washed-up has-beens who cannot manage to get their careers, nor their social lives, under control. With that being said, they are the most captivating, realistic, and relatable characters you will ever read.
Valley of the Dolls follows the lives of three women; Anne, Jennifer, and Neely; over the course of twenty years. In this time, they go from up-and-coming talent to the peak of stardom, to being overweight, talentless, hopeless, and loveless. They engage in love triangles, affairs, deceit, and competition with one another. The women stab each other in the backs almost as often as they prop each other up. The men of the novel are crazy, manipulative womanizers, and if they’re not, then the women simply do not love them (because that would be too simple). Valley of the Dolls is filled with every cliché of fame, yet you would never think that while you’re tearing through its pages.
The reason it is not cliché, you see, is because these are struggles everybody deals with. I will admit that I have seen success, downfalls, weight gain, and weight loss. I have broken up relationships and I have been the one crying after my own relationship did not work out. I have been stabbed in the back and I have done the stabbing myself. I have even found myself in search of a way to numb the pain as well, although maybe not with the same “dolls” as Anne, Jennifer, and Neely. Valley of the Dolls was such an immediate success, as well as an ongoing favorite over time because we love to see other people dealing with the same things that we do. We love it even more, though, when it is happening to someone who we believed to be an untouchable; a celebrity.
That’s why resources like E! News, People Magazine, and Page Six are so popular. We have an insatiable craving to gain the knowledge of what goes on behind closed doors to the very people we see in our favorite movies or who sing our favorite songs. We want to bring them back to our level, to that of a normal human being. Valley of the Dolls not only does that, but it also shows its three female protagonists at the lowest points of their lives. Therefore, it humanizes celebrities and leads us to then empathize with them as well. We forget for a moment that they are who they are and we feel sorry for them in the same way that we feel sorry for a friend who is going through hardship.
Valley of the Dolls is entertaining, to say the least, and exposes the cruel world of stardom, but it also brings to light the deepest and darkest secrets of all. It turns out that humanity is not lost, no matter how messed up the world has become, because a book like this can leave you feeling sorry for even the most hateful of people and rethinking what the important things in your life are. At first glance, Valley of the Dolls is a juicy tale of drama. When you take a second look at it, you realize it is a catalyst for the empathy that is oftentimes lacking, though not entirely obsolete, in modern society.
Note: I highly recommend watching the Valley of the Dolls movie as well, if for no other reason than to see Sharon Tate in the context of what we should remember her as. Instead of only thinking of her in regard to her murder, let us celebrate the talent and hard work that characterized her acting career, which seemed to be on the verge of finally taking off at the time her life was cut short.