THE DUD AVOCADO

by Elaine Dundy ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 28, 1958

A junior sophisticate, in her tingling pursuit of people, places and upper case Experience provides a diverting first novel, which for all its purposeful naivete and scattered trivia is also deceptively clever. Wide-eyed and willing, Sally Jay begins her ambulatory amatory career (""soul searching or rather tail chasing"") in Paris where first there is Teddy, a diplomat and encumbered- he has a wife and a mistress. Bypassing Teddy, for Larry, who is presumably putting on one-act avant garde plays and offers her a chance in the Theatre, she is ultimately to learn that he is engaged in some below-the-belt sidelines: he pimps, he steals her passport- and sells it to a girl he has corrupted. A fortnight with Larry, and his girl Missy, and Bax- an Outdoor Boy with few indoor ideas, is dismal- and loses her Jim Breit who had wanted to marry her. She returns to Paris- disillusioned- and then New York where Maximilian Ramage, a Hungarian photographer, retrieves her from a lonely life as a librarian, whirls her off to Japan his wife.... ""So green, so eternally green"", this innocent abroad has her appeal and a gamine enfant-terriblism which the publishers (of Bonjour Tristesse) will do their best to extend to a wide audience. They may very well succeed; it is a disconcerting and disarming entertainment.

Pub Date: July 28, 1958

ISBN: 1590172329

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1958

Categories: FICTION