The LA Times and every other book review section imaginable has raved about Elaine Dundy's 1958 novel chronicalling the trials and travails of expat Sally Jay Gorce, a single American girl making her way through France. Sally is described as a vigorously shaken cocktail of Carrie Bradshaw and Holden Caulfield; to put it mildly, Sally would have eaten Carrie for breakfast and been too bored by Caulfield to sit through his incessant navel-gazing. Sally is the embodiment of the grit, neuroses and wild recklessness that still defines the young American woman fifty-two years after the book's original publication. It is, simply put, required reading for anyone intent on living her life to the fullest wherever it may take her.
Although not an illustrated book, The Dud Avocado makes it onto this blog for one reason only. It must be read as it would have been by Sally and her compatriots back in '58. Dog-eared, stained, and constantly present in whatever purse or tote bag the reader chooses to carry. A book rife with this much insanity and passion cannot be confined to the digital display of the e-reader of the moment.
Published by NYRB, available at local bookstores and
amazon.com
Ah, The Dud Avocado! I thought I was the only person who knew about this book, which I began up a tree in Kenya and finished in Istanbul. Ms. Jones is correct. This is truly one of the best.
ReplyDeleteBrava for forming this site. Will pass immediately to all who love the real thing. E readers are for long plane rides only. I believe one should arrive at one's destination and by books there.
Ms. Jones--are you starting the Slow Book Movement?!?!
The Slow Book Movement. Sounds possibly gastroenterological.
ReplyDeleteSlow or otherwise, I will sally forth to my place of book-borrowing forthwith, and check that mother out.
I'll echo the congratulations on your blog launch, whilst smacking a bottle of virtual Champagne acros't its bow.
I'm intrigued by this one. Wasn't on the reading list at good 'ol Cardinal O'Hara, and, clearly, my mother never read it!
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