Elaine Dundy (1921—2008) was born in New York City,
and lived in Paris and London. She was married for a time to
theater critic Kenneth Tynan. She wrote plays, novels, and
biographies, including Elvis and Gladys and Life
Itself! Her work has appeared in The New York Times,
Esquire, and Vogue among other publications. Her
novel, The Dud Avocado, was re-published by NYRB Classics in
2007.
Terry Teachout is the drama critic for The Wall
Street Journal and the critic-at-large for Commentary. He
has written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, Duke
Ellington, and H. L. Mencken; the libretti for three operas by Paul
Moravec; and a play, Satchmo at the Waldorf, that has been
produced off-Broadway and throughout America.
“Basically, if you were to set Henry James’ Portrait of a
Lady near the Sorbonne, untangle the sentences and add more
slapstick, sex and champagne cocktails, you’re getting close.” -
Rosecrans Baldwin, NPR's "All Things Considered""Already singled
out in O the Oprah Magazine and named an Amazon.com 'mover and
shaker,' this edition will...introduce a new readership to the
unforgettable Sally Jay Gorce, described by one reviewer as a cross
between Carrie Bradshaw and Holden Caulfield." --Los Angeles
Times "Before Bridget Jones, deeply sweet and recklessly
intimate Sally Jay Gorce trolled for love (Parisian style) in
novelist (and sometime wife of theater critic Kenneth Tynan) Elaine
Dundy's The Dud Avocado, a madcap read from 1958 that's finally
back in print in the United States." --O Magazine "The Dud
Avocado follows a charming, if blundering, 21-year-old Missouri
native, Sally Jay Gorce, who spends two postcollege years sipping
Pernod on "la plus belle avenue du monde," the Champs-Élysées;
staging William Saroyan and Tennessee Williams with an American
theater troupe, and fumbling terribly at love." --The New York
Sun "Think Daisy Miller with a dash of Fear of Flying; My
Sister Eileen with a soupçon of Sex and the City; Anita Loos
crossed with Allen Ginsberg." --The Philadelphia
Inquirer "Now, this favorite has been re-issued yet again,
with a gorgeous black and white nude on the cover. Fair enough, for
here is a book primarily about sex and style...few writers ever
soared so high and so delightfully." --Los Angeles Times "The
Dud Avocado opens with our beautiful and hapless heroine--imagine
the panache of Holly Golightly crossed with the naive knowingness
of Holden Caulfield--wandering one September morning through Paris
in an evening dress." --Boston Globe "Elaine Dundy's
semi-autobiographical novel The Dud Avocado, which follows the
romantic escapades of Sally Jay Gorce--an irrepressible young woman
seeking adventure in '50s Paris--contains a lot of what makes
fiction fun: charm, wit, and devastatingly sharp insights." --Very
Short List "The gayest and most cheerful novel about Americans
in Paris I have read...a dazzling performance--as light as a
champagne bubble, as continuously attention-getting as a juggler
keeping seven swords in the air at the same time." --The New York
Times "Take one zippy, curious, 21-year-old American named
Sally Jay, just out of college. Drop her in the middle of Paris'
Left Bank. Add an Italian diplomat, an American theatrical director
, a couple of painters and a white slave trader. Mix until all
bubbles. The result: a delightful few hours of sparkling reading
entertainment. Summing up: Froth and frolic."
--Newsweek "Delightful...her portrait of the Left Bank
expatriates is caustically funny." --Time "A champagne
cockail...rich, invigorating, and deceptively simple to the
taste...One falls for Sally Jay from a great height from the first
sentence." --The Observer "A first-rate reporter, [Dundy] has
made The Dud Avocado into a Baedeker of neo-Bohemiahe...the
atmosphere of a French student café; the folkways of hobohemia; the
accents of the International Set-all these Miss Dundy has captured
with sill and a degree of wit." --The New York Times Book
Review "A cheerfully uninhibited...variation on the theme of
the Innocents Abroad...Miss Dundy comes up with fresh and spirited
comedy...Her novel is enormous fun-sparklingly written, genuinely
youthful in spirit, and exquisitely gay." --The
Atlantic "Elaine Dundy writes a sprightly novel to bring us up
to date on the American girl from across the street who goes to
Paris looking for Life and Love. Her book is sad and tender,
bubbling with fun, spiced with insight...The Dud Avocado is
satiric, mostly true, and decidedly sexy...The writing is sharp."
--New York Herald Tribune "[W]itticisms that crackle from
every page." --Indianapolis Star "One of the funniest books
I've ever read; it should be subtitled Daisy Miller's Revenge."
--Gore Vidal
"American goes to some big city with dreams of conquest, hilarity
ensues. Dundy’s 1958 novel (which had a huge fan in Groucho Marx)
is pretty much the best and funniest example of that whole genre."
—Jason Diamond, Flavorwire
Ask a Question About this Product More... |