Strangely charming, though erratic (rather like its heroine) with a neat but ambiguous ending. Youth on the rive gauche, an American in Paris, the sort of girl that gets taken to villas in the south of France, white slavery - all a rather unexpected mix of 1950s frivolity with what feels like a serious message trying to get out somewhere...

Light fare about the exploits of a young woman in France. On the one hand it seems ahead of its time and a precursor to books like "Bridget Jones's Diary", on the other hand it's "too light" at times and a bit dated. I suspect if you're young, female, and traveling this book may be of interest and resonate better with you.

What I liked:

- The voice; it's true to itself.

- The woman's perspective evident throughout the book, in the small things like how men look at her body, or in larger things, like relationships, and the conflict between desire and guilt. Or in somewhat random things, like how long it takes to prepare, cook, feed, and clean while entertaining, or the awkwardness of reacting at a 'nude show' as a woman in order to not appear prudish, jealous, or lesbian.

- The feeling of "oh to be young and in Paris"; on coming of age and the joy of travel. And, while abroad, the observations on 'ugly Americans' as well as European haughtiness and pretentiousness.

- Humor; the book is not laugh-out-loud funny but it has its moments, and is entertaining in a light kind of way.

- The expression of female sexual desire, which I imagine must have been a little shocking in the 50's. I get a kick out of reading it a half a century later. "You know how it is. Some people can hack and hack away at you and nothing happens at all and then someone else just touches you lightly on the arm and you come ... yes, I mean that's what happened, I mean I came." Or: "I thought of sex and sin; of my body and all the men in the world who would never sleep with me. I felt a vague melancholy sensation running through me, not at all unpleasant."

- The title. :-)

What I disliked:

- At times the book is muddled in the sea of characters being lampooned.

- In the worst of cases the voice is true and real, but banal (especially evident in the diary of part two, e.g. "I sit for hours afterwards staring idly at the snails clinging to knife-blade leaves growing in our garden. Sometimes I pick them off. They make a sucking noise and there's a small round wet spot where they sat.") Hey it ain't Doestoevsky folks.

- As the book goes on, the writing style becomes a bit tedous at times, e.g. "And Angela - well, Angela was just Angela, and I ain't never seen the likes. Whoever called the English reticent must have had his ears full of golf balls."

- A couple of the book's less-than-PC references. While one could say they reflect true voices and perspectives from the era, and while it's common to run across these things in fiction from the past, the casualness of how club members were "white enough" to do someone a good turn made me cringe a bit.

Favorite quotes:
"Read! I didn't want to read, it was just a substitute for living." (I got a laugh out of typing this one in for folks on LibraryThing :-))

"It's amazing how right you can sometimes be about a person you don't know; it's only the people you do know who confuse you."

"I mean, the question actors most often get asked is how they can bear saying the same things over and over again night after night, but God knows the answer to that is, don't we all anyway; might as well get paid for it."

"The vehemence of my moral indignation surprised me. Was I beginning to have standards and principles, and, oh dear, scruples? What were they, and what would I do with them, and how much were they going to get in my way?"

"Frequently, walking down the streets in Paris alone, I've suddenly come upon myself in a store window grinning foolishly away at the thought that no one in the world knew where I was at just that moment." ( )

Sally Jay Gorce is an American in Paris, sometime post-Hemingway. A rich uncle funds her adventure abroad, and she's trying to get his money's worth. She has a strong, distinct voice, and a great sense of humor, especially at her own expense.

She tries to disentangle herself from her Euro lover and entangle herself with an old friend. The book details the dubious results, and becomes utterly engrossing toward the end. Surprising revelations occur, not least of which are the ones Sally Jay has about herself.

This is an odd, funny book with engaging twists at the end and a weird, lovable main character. It's a little Movable Feast-y, Great Gatsby-ish, and Breakfast at Tiffany's-esque. I'm glad it's back in print, and glad to have read it, finally. ( )

The life of an expat American has always held a kind of allure for readers. Between the World Wars, jazz age writers and artists populated the cafes and salons of Paris, writing, arguing, drinking coffee and making art, talking poltics and guzzling champagne. And ever since then, France has been something of the holy grail for the American romantic. Its expatriate history, both real and imagined, is rich and exciting.

The years after WWII were like a collective sigh of relief for young people. War was over, time to throw themselves into life again. And among those who do so with ferocity is Sally Jay Gorce, the Dud Avocado. She's a young woman who is so full of life she doesn't begin to know how to spend it. Her ambitions finally bring her to Paris, and into the orbit of an American theater and its director with whom she decides to fall in love.

In spite of her feelings for Larry, she does tend to take up with other men at an almost alarming rate, and much of the book details her romantic entanglements and how they never quite mesh. Even her feelings for Larry prove problematic in the end, and after a vivid, frenetic and troubling year in France, all she wants is to go home and become a librarian.

It's difficult to dislike Sally unless you're scandalized by her. She's a smart girl, but she has no sense, which is as much a function of her age as of the way she's trying to live her life. Perhaps she does have an unfair advantage in rich uncle Roger who bankrolls her time in Paris, and helps her out of the enormous hole she's dug herself into. But through it all, she is just so filled with life, so open to whatever it brings that it's hard not to be rooting for her to find her destiny, no matter who or what that might be. When Sally's illusions shatter, it doesn't destroy her. She is sadder and wiser, but no less determined to find her own way.

"The Dud Avocado" is apparently one of those books which gets rediscovered by each new generation, and perhaps that's because it speaks to the youth and hope in all of us. We all start out determined to live life on our own terms, we all learn hard lessons, and if we're tough and lucky, we bounce back the way Sally Jay does, stronger for what we've experienced. I think this is a book for everyone who lives with hope and an open heart. ( )

Sally Jay Gorce has enough money to live anywhere she pleases for two years. So this high-spirited college graduate takes Paris by storm. She falls in love, carouses at night with an international group of friends and flitters inside the theatrical world. Her high spirits start to flag when she encounters debauched aristocrats and spends a night in jail. Eventually, the seamier side of life challenges Sally Jay to think about her future. This light, comic novel, first published in 1958, has been republished by New York Review Books to introduce the 21st century to a funny, independent heroine. She narrates her adventures in the first person and describes the colorful people she meets with wit and perception. Elaine Dundy's smart, humorous writing makes Dud Avocado an appealing read for those needing a break from the real world. ( )