The Dud Avocado
Ratings5
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings5
Average rating3.8
GENERAL & LITERARY FICTION. THE DUD AVOCADO gained instant cult status on first publication and remains a timeless portrait of a woman hellbent on living. It is, as the GUARDIAN observes, 'one of the best novels about growing up fast'. Sally Jay Gorce is a woman with a mission. It's the 1950s, she's young, and she's in Paris. Having dyed her hair pink, she wears evening dresses in the daytime and vows to go native in a way not even the natives can manage. Embarking on an educational programme that includes an affair with a married man (which fizzles out when she realises he's single and wants to marry her); nights in cabarets and jazz clubs in the company of assorted "citizens of the world"; an entanglement with a charming psychopath; and a bit part in a film financed by a famous matador. But an education like this doesn't come cheap. Will our heroine be forced back to the States to fulfill her destiny as a librarian, or can she keep up her whirlwind Parisian existence?
Reviews with the most likes.
~4, maybe closer to 5, stars for being a pleasure to read. This book was written in 1958, but feels like it could be a Parker Posey movie today. Includes parties, martinis, avocados, some dark turns, and best of all, unexpected yet positive librarian portrayal.
A fun first person narrative novel about the exploits of a young American woman in France in the 1950's. She is a bit of a party girl, but she is clear eyed about herself, if not about others.
