“It was a hot, peaceful, optimistic sort of day in September. It was around eleven in the morning, I remember, and I was drifting down the boulevard St. Michel, thoughts rising in my head like little puffs of smoke…”

The Dud Avocado, by Elaine Dundy, follows the adventures of Sally Jay Gorce, an American in Paris. She has no plans and no real expectations – only for adventure. She falls in and out of several acting jobs and falls in and out of love with several men. Along the way she breaks off an affair with her older Italian lover, takes up with a movie-star-to-be and loses her passport.

I had never heard of The Dud Advacado before reading it. I had never heard of the book’s author Elaine Dundy. But there is really something wonderful about this book. There is a hint of the chick-lit we’re all so used to nowadays. But there’s a depth, an intellect, a realness to the story and especially to the characters that is so often absent in the chick-lit books we’re inundated with now. There’s an evolution to Sally Jay and her story. She’s not saintly – she has good moments and some not-so-good moments, but she’s always open to life, open to adventure.

It’s amazing to think that this book, so filled with adventure, wit, and energy about one independent free-thinking young woman was written in 1958. Some of the fashions and slang may have changed, but the themes present in this book have weathered the years and still resonate with young women of today. Figuring out what you want in life and what kind of person you want to be is tricky business. And can be a bumpy road. I couldn’t put this book down and recommended it to ALL my friends. Very glad I bumped into it that day in the bookstore.