Everyone dreams of living the high-life. Having the money, the house, the lover, the career. But have you ever questioned why we want this, after watching young stars such as Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Michael Jackson have their lives spiral out of control under the limelight? ‘Valley of the Dolls’ supplies us with the answers to the questions of the rise and fall of stardom that intrigue us so much.
We follow Anne, Jennifer and Neely through their roller-coaster lives of fame and destruction. The personal touch to all three protagonists is drawn from Susann’s experiences and observations as a struggling actress in Hollywood in the early forties, which makes the novel decades ahead of it’s time, highlighting the struggles and downfalls of celebrity status through the constant gazing eyes of the public that we see especially today. Each chapter is titled by one of the character’s names, which suggests it would be a first person narrative, which is what I would have personally preferred. I feel first person narrative would have made more sense given the depth in which the omniscient narrator delves into their subconscious. But instead, it appears Susann is doing this to make a universal point about these women and their dependence on the ‘Dolls’ (the slang term for their sleeping pills), making them seem like 3 elements of one woman.
I particularly enjoyed the use of the term ‘Dolls’, as I felt it opened up suggestions to a childlike nature about the women, which is only supported by the terrible relationships all characters have with their Mothers. It is clear that a key message from the novel is that the lack of attention they have experienced from a young age makes all the women so determined that they are unable to open up to anything or anyone. Their guarded nature in their relationships means that all their marriages are failures until they have a moment of realization, which unfortunately falls in the tragedy of Jennifers suicide. This is the peripeteia of the novel which changes both Anne and Neely’s behavior towards their lovers and the ‘Dolls’, ultimately turning their lives around.
I have to admit, the character of Neely deeply frustrated me, which I think is a technique Susann intended to use, as the character seems to dig deeper and deeper into her own destruction. But, in Susann implying this, the reader is forced to question whether all three female protagonists are also the cause of their own downfall, making the novel (as a personal journey) backwards and exasperating. The Novel opens a variety of interpretations associated around feminism, stardom as well as the American Dream, but the resounding moral that overrides has to be ‘Be careful what you wish for’: having it ‘all’ doesn’t result in happiness. The reader watches all characters fall from lack of self-control - caused by the Dolls, their Mothers, or their male partners - into the Valley of the Dolls.
By Verity Phillips
Some interesting things here, Verity. I'll confess I tend to think of Valley of the Dolls as a period piece; but perhaps you're right that it retains contemporary relevance. You could usefully have explored some of these critical points in a little more detail -- particularly the infantalisation of celebrity and hedonism you touch on with the 'dolls' point -- and I'm allergic to cliché ('their roller-coaster lives of fame'; ' careful what you wish for’, 'having it all’) and would try and find different ways of expressing those points. And I'm not sure I understand what you're arguing about the first-person narration. But an engaged reading of the novel.
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