attempts to make it big in the Broadway-Hollywood entertainment
world. The story begins in the 1940s and follows their marriages,
careers, and decline into alcohol and pharmaceuticals (“dolls”) over
two decades. There is a large cast of truly reprehensible people in
this book, and it is hard for a reader to find one to like. Still, their
stories race and the reader is constantly trying to match the charac-
ters to their real-life counterparts on stage and screen. It’s just plain
gossipy.
In reading the book, one can empathize with our mothers and
grandmothers in that era, and thank one’s lucky stars that Gloria
Steinem and the feminists came along when they did. While the
position of women has improved and still has a long way to go,
today’s women are a far cry from the world of Susann’s characters
trapped in extreme beliefs about women’s places, roles and bodies.
It gives a reader whiplash to read about drinking while preg-
nant, men as sole breadwinners, marrying for money and position
as the only option, and the nonchalant use of words like frigid and
faggot.
As for attitudes and treatments of cancer and mental health, the
book is a chilling reminder of how far medicine has come.
Page Turners were surprised to discover that Susann was a cap-
tivating writer and that she knew what makes readers, well, turn
pages. They recommend the book as a good summer read, and for
its introspection of American society, and our country’s naiveté
when it started down the path of drugs.
Valley of the Dolls makes it clear that there was so much that
we didn’t know then, and so much we have yet to repair.
Favorites Reads from Page Turners
All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doer
Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the
Landscape and Memory of Vietnam, Andrew X. Pham
Good Cop, Bad Daughter:
Memoirs of an Unlikely Police Officer, Karen Lynch
Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline
Patron Saint of Lost Dogs, Nick Trout
The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
Good Lord Bird, James McBride
The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd
The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion
The Whip, Karen Kondazian
Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand
SHERRY HEMINGWAY spent her childhood
after lights out with a book and flashlight under
the covers. With degrees from Kent State
University and Harvard University, her lifelong
career was in journalism and public rela-
tions. Her hobbies are travel in (very) remote
countries, volunteering, and two book clubs.
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015
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