The Dud Avocado (Virago Modern Classics)

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Think Daisy Miller with a dash of Fear of Flying; My Sister Eileen with a soupçon of Sex and the City; Anita Loos crossed with Allen Ginsberg.”— The Philadelphia Inquirer I’m a little surprised this was set in the late 1950’s, this sort of sexual freedom normally goes hand and hand with the 1970’s. But then again this is France and they have a stereotypical reputation for being progressive. I don’t know enough about social behaviours of the time, especially in Paris but I can’t help but think this novel pretty accurate. The Dud Avocado did have a very authentic feel to it. It’s an unusual novel but it was well worth the experience. I always expect people to behave much better than I do. When they actually behave worse, I am frankly incredulous. a b c d "Elaine Dundy: The Times obituary". The Times. May 9, 2008 . Retrieved May 14, 2021. (subscription required)

Oh Sally Jay Gorce, despite wanting to fall in love with 'The Dud Avocado's heroine I found her intolerably obnoxious and silly. Best of all, the New York Review Books (nyrb) 2007 edition has an Afterword by Elaine Dundy all these years later which explains to some extent the origins of the character of Sally Jay Gorce and the public's reaction to her over the years. Originally published in 1958, it has gone through countless reprints and still sells successfully today. It is a pleasure to hear how natural it was for Dundy to create the character. It was not a tortured creation scene, and it is not a tortured read. Treat yourself. However, half-way through the book, I grew tired of Sally (which is fatal in a book like this where everything depends on the reader's relationship with the narrator; in this case, I think, meant to be a friendly one). I was tired of her use of dull slang, her constant putting down of herself, her adventures, repetitive in their nature, and of the cynical world in which she is living. In the first half, I was thrilled to be in Paris with her but by the second half I was as tired of it as she became. There were many moments which I enjoyed, especially in the last few sections but there was a long patch in the middle where I kept wanting to just stop reading. In October 1993, seven years after Private Eye had pointed out the similarities, Jilly Cooper admitted that sections of her first two novels, Emily and Bella, were plagiarised from The Dud Avocado, but said that it was not deliberate. [3] Summary [ edit ] It's not always the case, but Americans are feeling pretty good about the French these days. Look at this year's Academy Awards: Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, his top-grossing movie of all time, was nominated in four categories. More telling: This year's Best Picture statue went to a French film, The Artist, for the very first time.

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One of the funniest books I’ve ever read; it should be subtitled Daisy Miller’s Revenge.”–Gore Vidal urn:lcp:dudavocado00dund:epub:6d96ab62-2a11-4cf2-b999-39f44feac201 Extramarc Columbia University Libraries Foldoutcount 0 Identifier dudavocado00dund Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t8sb83g23 Invoice 1213 Isbn 9781590172322 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 Sally Jay’s adventures are based on the author’s own. “When people ask me how autobiographical the book is,” Dundy writes in her afterword, “I say, all the impulsive, outrageous things my heroine does, I did. All the sensible things she did, I made up.” (p. 260)

I chose this book for a reading prompt (a book your best friend would like) hoping to reminisce on our (mis)adventures in Paris and was not disappointed. 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. 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. She decides to ditch the Italian diplomat with whom she has been having an affair. She wanted to lose her virginity and she thought it was rather dashing to have an affair with a man who already had both a wife and mistress. She moves on through many casual encounters, and a relationship with Paul, an American painter. He is serious, but she leaves him to spend the summer in a villa near Biarritz. This has been organised by Larry, who has brought along a hunky Canadian who is keen to take up with Sally Jay and a girl he wants to seduce. Sally Jay’s main objective is to secure Larry for herself. But he becomes very elusive. She acts in his theatre company, spends the summer in his, but never gets into his bed. It's amazing how right you can be about a person you don't know; it's only the people you do know who confuse you.”

I had to tell someone how much I enjoyed The Dud Avocado. It made me laugh, scream, and guffaw (which, incidentally, is a great name for a law firm).” —Groucho Marx

Boy, this really wasn't one of his days. He just couldn't put a foot right. It was a situation all too familiar to me, this business of setting off on the wrong foot and doggedly remaining there. Only I'd never watched it from the outside before. It was fascinating.” Let's see: An American girl on her own in Paris during the 1950s. Sounds pretty cut-and-dried, doesn't it? Except, in this case, it isn't. Elaine Dundy and her character, Sally Jay Gorce, are originals. It's far too easy to write one of those la-la here we are in Paris books, but more difficult to recognize that wherever you go, there you are. Getting to that "you" is like trying to figure out how to eat an avocado if you've never seen one before. Just bite into it through the skin, and it's ptui! Bite down too hard, and you might lose a tooth on the hard pit.

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I had to tell someone how much I enjoyed The Dud Avocado. It made me laugh, scream, and guffaw (which, incidentally, is a great name for a law firm).” –Groucho Marx 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.