Far from it and that’s what I like about it. This book features Hollywood drama off the big screen, and during a time when everyone is stepping over each other clamoring to the top, these women are desperately searching for friendships and connections that are real.ĭon’t think this book is all friendship and roses, though. There are men who are threatened by the idea of a successful woman, who don’t know how or can’t handle their wives making more than they do. A secretary who has no desire to be famous but she has the “face for modeling” – and wealthy suitors to match.

There are movie actresses when a time that television was threatening the big screen. Sleeping pills, energy pills, red pills, green pills, yellow pills … they all play their part.īut the true story revolves around 3 women who are trying to make it big time during a “Mad Men” era.

More like a temperature check: as the plot heats up, the pills at least warrant a mention or two. Well, in reality, the pills do play a role in a running subplot throughout the narrative, but they are hardly a defining role. Cue an “Intervention” episode or something. The synopsis on the back cover (also above) also doesn’t help this book’s case - it focuses on 3 women who take pills all the time to cope with life and its troubles. I’m glad Jenny Arnold gave me this book - if she hadn’t, I never would have bought it and that would have been a shame. A quite famous movie, apparently, but I’m in the dark. I was totally off base: it’s not a TV show, it’s a movie.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it did make me wonder why the book didn’t merit a cover that was, well, more book-like. It was a photograph that looked like it belonged as a press image for a TV show. The light pink cover and 1950s font wasn’t a problem, nor were the cutouts of the capsules (the pills lovingly referred to as “dolls”.) What made me almost put it down was the image beneath the cutout of the 3 women. So when I first picked up Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann, I have to admit I was a little wary. It probably doesn’t hurt that I’m a book cover designer by trade. These three women become best friends when they are young and struggling in New York City and then climb to the top of the entertainment industry-only to find that there is no place left to go but down-into the Valley of the Dolls. From Goodreads: Dolls: red or black capsules or tablets washed down with vodka or swallowed straight-for Anne, Neely, and Jennifer, it doesn’t matter, as long as the pill bottle is within easy reach.

Valley of the dolls paperback