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Once Is Not Enough (Susann, Jacqueline) By Jacqueline Susann ( Grove Press )
Release Date: 1997-12-14
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $14.00
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Product Description
Following its new edition of Jackie Susann's "Valley of the Dolls", Grove Press is proud to reissue a classic novel in the author's pantheon of pop-culture mythologies. "Once Is Not Enough" recounts the colorful life of luscious January Wayne who "can't make it with a guy because she has a thing for her glamorous celebrity dad, Mike" ("Library Journal")
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 great book ( lmurphy108 )
Fantastic book. If you ever loved reading valley of the dolls you really need to read this book about the author. Such an interesting life cut too short. I am sure she would have continued to write fabulous books. Great read.
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 Susann takes on a new era ( eamallory )
Jackie Susann's final novel published in her lifetime is the story of young January Wayne, a girl with an Electra complex so big, you'll blush. "Enough" is a terrific read. It goes quickly, is maddeningly involving and, if I may be so bold, is better written than Susann's classic "Valley of the Dolls." Sure, this is tried and true Susann territory with the milquetoast heroine and the usual stew of sex, drugs (in this case "vitamin shots")and deceit is in place but even so, this time something's different.
In "Enough," New York is no longer a glamorous city but a place becoming overrun with junkies and whores, Broadway shows feature (simulated) sex and nudity (but that's nothing compared to the downtown theater scene!) and movies are less escapist than a reflection of the growing desperation of the late 60s/ early 70s. Susann, to her credit, bravely takes on this new era but you can't help feel that she really doesn't know what to make of it. Some of the attempts at youth culture and lingo seem less than authentic (Did people really say, "How about throwing on some slacks and coming over!" back then?) and other incidents appear to have germinated in stories that Susann may have heard being whispered in passing at a party and wrote down ("Did you hear about the types of parties those kids have nowadays?") And despite featuring a heroine in her early twenties, Susann has January get involved in a bad accident and spend three years (not so coincidentally the "revolutionary" years 1967-70) in a Swiss hospital that does not allow television, radio or newspapers. Perfect - a young heroine who's a tabula rasa with no knowledge of the youth movement. Golly, what a neat trick!
The characters in the book are a fun lot, though I felt Karla was exceptionally frustrating as "the lesbian who wasn't" and David Milford was as stiff as they come (and the casting of George Harrison as David in the film version makes perfect sense.) Look out for the characters of Linda Riggs and Tom Colt allegedly based upon Gloria Steinem and Norman Mailer, respectively. Try not to laugh when you come upon Tom Colt's "ailment", perhaps one of the funniest cases of literary revenge ever.
If you only have read and enjoyed "Valley of the Dolls", you should definitely check this one out. It's a lot of fun but you won't feel especially guilty for enjoying it.
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Great beach reading. ( lizgavin22 )
After reading mixed reviews on this book, I decided to read it anyway. I thought the characters were better developed than those in Valley of the Dolls, and I found this book to be just as entertaining.
I will admit that I was almost stopped reading the book because of the almost incestual father-daughter love plot line, but fortunately for everyone, it cools off.
All in all, this was a fun book to read.
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Oh how I loved this book! ( mipplet )
I didn't know if Jacqueline Susann could live up to "Valley of the Dolls" with this book, but she sure did! "Once is Not Enough" is thoroughly entertaining. The story revolves around January Wayne, a tragic heroine who has an unnatural adoration for her father and is unable to have a successful relationship with another man because of it. When her father marries a wealthy woman to secure his family's financial future, January finally falls in love. Unfortunately for her, the man she falls for is Tom Colt, a married man who is older than her father. Tom replaces "Daddy" for January, but it's only a matter of time before the relationship drags her down into the drug-induced haze that every Susann heroine eventually falls victim to.
Like "Valley of the Dolls," "Once is Not Enough" boasts many colorful characters whose lives intersect in a variety of unexpected ways. There are some funny moments in the book, but for the most part it consists of tragedy and unhappiness. The final few chapters threw me for a loop because the ending is more depressing than either of Susann's other novels. Still, I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an entertaining read. You won't be able to put it down!
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The Art of Excess ( gnesmith@hiwaay.net )
Mrs. Susann was a cinematic writer. She was not content to write books in which poor people walk around in circles and talk about their problems. Instead, she wrote about rich, beautiful people-probably the only interesting kind-and exposed them for what they are: spoiled, lonely creatures who need to be constantly reassured of their uniqueness. Most serious writers hate Mrs.Susann because 1)she was a woman who defied convention, 2)she had more balls than most writers ever dreamed of having, and 3) she wrote about people most academics would love to be. With that said, Once is not Enough is not as good as Valley of the Dolls. You can tell that it wasn't well edited, but who cares? The protagonist January Wayne is really interesting: a rich, fragile girl with an Electra complex. She's involved in a motorcycle accident that leaves her in a coma and unable to walk. Mike, her daddy, stays by her side, but he loses his touch in Hollywood and becomes poor. He has to marry a rich society witch named Dee Milford Granger, who is secretly in love with a Polish actress named Karla, who in turn is in love with Dee's nephew David, who Dee wants January to marry when she is fully recuperated. There is also a horny magazine editor named Linda Riggs and an impotent Mailer type writer named Tom Holt. Needless to say, these characters commit all kinds of wonderful indecent acts. Once is not Enough is not the kind of novel you read for depth of character. You read it for its spectacle, and thank god, Mrs. Susann lived long enough to fill our boring lives with that. Jackie was a wonderful, brilliant woman who deserved more respect than she got.
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Addiction
