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For those not in the know, the dolls of the title are not women, nor are they Raggedy
Anns. Instead, the dolls are pills, prescription painkillers, uppers, downers, the whole
deal. In her divine, scandalous, multi best-selling VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, Jacqueline Susann
introduced the world to the dolls and the women who took them --- actresses, models,
ambitious young single girls who were out to make a name for themselves in New York City.
Now, nearly 40 years later, Rae Lawrence (author of SATISFACTION) has updated the trashy
classic, using an unfinished manuscript of Susann's as the starting point. The women are
back, the drugs are back, and the cat fights are better than ever!
JACQUELINE SUSANN'S SHADOW OF THE DOLLS opens by hearkening back to the earlier book.
Readers are asked to wonder whatever happened to Anne Welles and Neely O'Hara, the two
stars of the earlier book. Of course, everyone knows what happened to Neely. Her
face and exploits are constant fixtures in the supermarket tabloids, much to Neely's
chagrin. Tarty and misguided Neely O'Hara believes she has beaten her chemical
dependencies and she is desperately trying to become a Barbra-style diva. She wants
respectability, a good life, maybe even a politician to woo and sing for.
Of course, Neely can never really leave the dolls and the booze and the boyfriends behind.
She also has a little jealousy problem --- okay a big jealousy problem. Neely hates
anyone who is doing better than she is. And the one person she (still) hates more than
anyone else is Anne Welles. Former cover girl Anne seems to have it all --- gorgeous rich
husband, cute daughter, Park Avenue well turned out apartment. However, her good life is,
rather predictably, a facade. Lyon Burke, Anne's husband, secretly has been playing the
stock market with Anne's money; and he has been not so secretly playing the field
--- with every actress in every movie he makes. JACQUELINE SUSANN'S SHADOW OF THE DOLLS
twists and turns, following the lives of Neely and Anne as they cope with divorce and
single-motherhood, addiction, affairs, and last-chances at stardom.
Although the glamorous settings and problems may have changed since the '60s, Neely
remains a nasty, addled, megalomaniac, while Anne is still a sweet, if a bit dim,
everywoman. An everywoman who wears minks, but the "good girl" of the story,
nonetheless. The most notable difference between the heady old days and the present --- to
Neely and her ilk at least --- is inside her medicine chest: Valium and Xanax are the new
treats, replacing the "dolls," the bygone uppers and downers. And now, plastic
surgery can help any woman become a dream girl, a star, give anyone Anne Welles's nose.
Lawrence can be hilarious, her dialogue is over-the-top in a terribly Susann way, and her
acid observations about tricoastal (Manhattan, Los Angeles, the Hamptons) life are right
on target. As in the first book, Lawrence also manages to convey the emptiness and
loneliness at the center of many a "successful" woman's heart. Curiously, the
characters are only 10 years older in this book than they were in the original, but if you
can suspend your disbelief, JACQUELINE SUSANN'S SHADOW OF THE DOLLS is a hoot and a half.
And with its naughty pink cover, this book will be the must-have on beaches everywhere
this summer.
--- Reviewed by Addelaide Hayes
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