The Dud Avocado (Virago Modern Classics)

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Reviewing Reviewing (on the first issue of the New York Review of Books), The Spectator, 7 June 1963 a b Hoare, Philip (May 10, 2008). "Elaine Dundy: Author of 'The Dud Avocado' who first took up writing as a response to life as 'poor little Mrs Tynan' ". The Independent . Retrieved May 14, 2021.

The Dud Avocado gained instant cult status on first publication and remains a timeless portrait of a woman hellbent on living. Elaine Dundy’s semi-autobiographical novel The Dud Avocado, which follows the romantic escapades of Sally Jay Gorce–an irrepressible young woman seeking adventure in ’50s Paris–contains a lot of what makes fiction fun: charm, wit, and devastatingly sharp insights.”–Very Short List She was born Elaine Rita Brimberg in New York City. Her Polish Jewish immigrant father, Samuel Brimberg, was an office furniture manufacturer and a violent bully. [1] Her mother was of Latvian Jewish descent; she was the daughter of a multimillionaire manufacturer and inventor. Dundy was one of three sisters; a sibling was Shirley Clarke, the independent filmmaker. [2] Dundy grew up in a Park Avenue home where she was educated by a governess, though she eventually attended high school, where her boyfriend Terry was the son of playwright Maxwell Anderson. Later, they met again and almost married. [1] Elaine Dundy knows how to capture a scene. The parts of the book where something is actually happening work like gangbusters. The dialogue is clever but realistic. The details are pertinent but also hilarious. Most of the first chapter is a really long scene between the narrator and her new crush as they chat at a Paris café. If you are anything like me, this scene will pull you in. And you’ll assume that the rest of the book will continue in this fashion. But the book has other plans. One of the funniest books I've ever read; it should be subtitled Daisy Miller's Revenge." --Gore Vidal

If someone were to describe this book to me I would definitely find it appealing: 1950s Parisian setting; a young American girl experiencing freedom for the first time, falling in and out of love, arms wide open to adventure. The cover is great; the title is funny and memorable; it has a 'classic' but slightly hipster provenance; it all added up to high reading hopes. Sadly, it just didn't deliver.

What you can’t stand is the whole new young adventurous population with either just a little money or no money at all, no jobs, nothing, just a desire maybe to see the world awhile. Then all the jealousy and envy in your mournful little unfulfilled life rises up inside you and you have to invent all sorts of dark sinister motives for everyone. (212)

McDougal, Holt (December 31, 1980). "Finch, Bloody Finch: A Life of Peter Finch". Archived from the original on July 18, 2022. The Dud Avocado follows a charming, if blundering, 21-year-old Missouri native, Sally Jay Gorce, who spends two postcollege years sipping Pernod on "la plus belle avenue du monde," the Champs-Élysées; staging William Saroyan and Tennessee Williams with an American theater troupe, and fumbling terribly at love." -- The New York Sun What is so pleasing about this voice is its bare-faced honesty. Sally Jay has dreams of luxury but most of her plans turn out rather differently. What at first seems like a sophisticated local boyfriend turns out to be a rather officious and salacious old bore. Her trip to “the south of France” in May suffers several weeks of unending rain. Her hair, dyed blonde for more pop, turns greenish in the sun. Her “big break” in the movies does turn out to be so—but only for another of her party. American goes to some big city with dreams of conquest, hilarity ensues. Dundy’s 1958 novel (which had a huge fan in Groucho Marx) is pretty much the best and funniest example of that whole genre." —Jason Diamond, Flavorwire