Book Review: "Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Susann

Okay, so imagine that I'm sitting here eating cheese, drinking coffee and listening to a cortisol-reduction sound therapy session on my phone. Now imagine that whilst this is happening, I'm reading Valley of the Dolls and I have a stomach ache. I would like to say that therefore, I have reached a peak of girlhood that has been rarely heard of and with that, you should probably start laughing. Valley of the Dolls has often been called a 'cult' novel - and you all know how much I hate that term. It's like calling Pulp Fiction a 'cult' film because people who like it don't want to seem 'mainstream'. What's wrong with liking things that are popular and liking them because they are so popular and so many people therefore love them? Anyways, let's get into the book...

We start with three characters and each have their own 'sections' of the story: Anne, Neely and Jennifer. Anne has left New England to join a theatrical talent agency though she is still quite a reserved girl. Neely is a teenage vaudeville performer who seeks stardom and recognition. And finally, there's Jennifer who is a gorgeous showgirl who longs for emotional security and attachment though is only appreciated and loved for her appearance. These are the three tropes of womanhood we are presented with, the author carefully crafting: beauty, talent and class and what they present of the way women were seen in mid-20th century America. The whole book then works on dismantling them in horrifying ways so that we as readers understand that there is a price to pay for not treating women as full and complete people. A lesson many men could stand to learn from today. Honestly, this book sets up tragedy almost perfectly.

Anne becomes a successful model and media figure, though she longs for something deeper, more emotional and more stable. She falls in love with Lyon Burke, an ambitious yet emotionally inconsistent writer. Their relationship teeters around and presents the tensions of career and love to the reader. It's clear that Lyon only values her if she is pleasing him - a comment on the fact that some men only like women who have men as their main interest. It is a horrific commentary but one that still remains hovering around today as a main point of conversation as to why women are no longer choosing men, but choosing themselves.

Neely O’Hara’s meteoric rise to fame is fuelled by talent and yet undermined by insecurity. Neely is discovered for her astonishing voice and comic brilliance. She becomes a Broadway sensation, then a Hollywood star - rising up the ranks of fame and fortune. Neely then starts using “dolls” (amphetamines and barbiturates) to keep going under relentless pressure regardless of what that might mean for her health. If you drew a line from Neely to Judy Garland, well so did I. The whole Hollywood machine is pretty much the same today, constantly spitting out half-talents whilst abusing the actual talent into oblivion in order to make the most money out of them before they kick the bucket.

Jennifer North’s storyline explores the concept of beauty as both power and curse - something that though is a great point, probably isn't as powerful as her counterparts seeing as the character still has extreme amounts of privilege. Jennifer marries Tony Polar, a sweet but mentally impaired singer in order to feel some of the emotional stability that we see as a running thing everyone wants in this book. But, she discovers Tony suffers from a degenerative hereditary disease, which runs in his family and so, she turns part-caretaker, supporting him financially through strange means and sporadic modelling. Beauty is treated as a currency in the world of Hollywood which is even more true now that Ozempic-face has taken over the female acting world. It's actually quite alarming how little has changed. Though I will say that the modern Hollywood actress is probably ten times as narcissistic as the girls in this story.

Anne’s relationship with Lyon becomes a cycle of desire, abandonment, and emotional self-harm as she seeks to try to connect with him, but of course it doesn't work. Lyon ends up leaving Anne repeatedly, unable to commit and always chasing new opportunities. Anne then turns to tranquilizers (“dolls”) to numb heartbreak and loneliness - which is probably also something deeper, she does feel partly responsible for wanting a life that is emotionally stable with a man who seems to be entirely unavailable. It is true that the woman who wants it all must either die or numb herself using medications - at least, that is the comment the author is making.

After this, Neely’s descent into addiction, egotism, and self-destruction intensifies - which is definitely one of the most interesting parts of the story. She fires everyone who loves her, including her husband. Then, she becomes uncontrollable on film sets and is eventually institutionalised. It is her addiction to pills and alcohol that ends up ruining her voice and her career - a tragic downfall of one woman's American Dream. I would argue that the reaction that Jennifer has towards the down-turning of her career is possibly worse but I'm not going to give away that part of the story because it hits pretty hard.

I understand that this entire book is about what happens to women when they centre men in their lives - they become shells of themselves and eventually tragedy strikes. But I am also horrified to see how realistic it feels for the men (like Lyon for example) don't really care about the women as long as the women are serving them. Whether it is their service of class and manners, their talent which is making the men behind the scenes lots of money, or whether it is their beauty and sexual exploits - these three women are the personification of a society that doesn't value women. Men who only care about themselves and usually, at the expense of women's lives are rampant in society.