Reviews

Dolores by Jacqueline Susann

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j0natan's review against another edition

4.0

bless this womans heart, the simplistic yet pungent description of this book on its back cover is what got me to pick it up and read it, also the fact that it was written by one of my favorite authors. the back says as follows, ‘the worlds most beautiful woman. she would do anything for love or money. anything..’ and she definitely did. seeing the progression of this character throughout this novel and how she tackles certain situations that truly only a woman in her shoes would come across was an intimate experience from a reader perspective. i also read an article about susann a few months prior to finding this nove that depicted dolores to not only be her final novel but one of the hardest books shes ever writen, as she did so on her death bed. the care shes places within these characters does not go unnoticed and in a way i feel as though the peculiar situations dolores dealt with almost coincide with the ultimate situation of death that susann herself was dealing with at that moment.

sheryls's review against another edition

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2.0

Boring. Started OK then went downhill as the story became more and more about cheating men and women who marry only for money.

bookynooknook's review

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emotional funny informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

brashley's review against another edition

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2.0

The end of the novel was the only time i felt sorry for Dolores. And even then just barely. I didn't like a single character in the book. I'm sure this book was written purely for fluff reading, but it just made me so angry. I couldn't handle how little anyone cared for anything but money. Is this the kind of stuff women in the 70's really enjoyed reading? And i only picked this up because the bookstore i bought it from didn't have Valley of the Dolls. Is that even worth reading?

caitcmpbll's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5 ★

nashwa017's review against another edition

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2.0

“Oh how marvellous!”

Yes, that’s the kind of language this book was written in, perfectly appropriate for children even though it’s about a grown woman called Dolores, former First Lady whose husband was assassinated. Based on the life of Jackie Kennedy, this book was less than impressive.

Firstly, if this family is modelled after the Kennedy’s, why are the Kennedy’s actually mentioned twice or thrice in the book? Dolores wants her husband’s funeral to be exactly like JFK’s. That makes it way too weird.

I know that this book was written in 1973 and has all the cliches of that era but some of them were especially bad. Dolores is looking for love in her next husband but she is also drawn to money, much like a greedy child in a candy-shop. The tropes also included petty jealousies between Dolores and her sister, and weirdly enough, between Dolores and her daughter. When Dolores’s “lover” showed affection to her nine year old, Dolores actually got jealous. Like WTF?

Also, aside from the petty jealousies, talking about physical appearance on every page can be exhausting. “He likes his women thin” glamourises a dangerous precedent but I guess you could say things like that in the 70s.

I finished it because it was a very quick read and entertaining enough for me to carry through. I know that this is not Susann’s best work since she wrote this when she was sick so I’m going to check out more of her books.

Another thing, I don’t think this book was edited. Some editor actually saw the word “fanny” in it and thought it was a good idea to publish?!