A Very Pleasurable Reading Series
The Dud Avocado: Pleasurable Book Recommendations
It was a wonderful warm summer’s night. Presque parfaite. Everything in the sky that could be was out: Northern lights, Southern lights, milky ways, moons, planets, stars, shooting stars, whole galaxies of solar systems winking and twinkling eons away in their own heavens. —The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
Pleasure Lists can be thought about conceptually — thus, I am starting a new column on Pleasurable reading — a foray through my reading list of sorts. In keeping with the literary tradition of The Pleasure Lists, the newsletter will expand to book recommendations. This may or may not become a paid section, so subscribe and upgrade now so you don’t miss out.
Pleasurable Books: The Dud Avocado
Before Sex and the City, there was The Dud Avocado. A sparkling, stunning novel of a young, debutante party girl who goes abroad (to Paris), while chasing career dreams (of becoming an actress), bourgeois society parties, debauchery, and men. It’s the most fun, scintillating read I’ve read in a long time, and the fantasy of a bygone era is enough to take you far and away. Dud Avocado “follows the romantic and comedic adventures of a young American who heads overseas to conquer Paris in the late 1950s.”
Written by Elaine Dundy (1921-2008) in 1958, the writing feels as contemporary and current as ever, with razor-sharp wit, prose that feels like it could have been written today, and relationship dramas that remind us that the trials and tribulations of modern life have happening for decades.
A loosely-veiled autofiction of Dundy’s own life, the book follows the life of protagonist Sally Jay Gorce. Dundy moved to Paris in 1950 and wrote the book when she moved to London thereafter. Not far off from Sex and the City’s Carrie, Dundy’s heroine is a brazen, confident woman, hell-bent on juicing every last drop out of life.
“It's amazing how right you can be about a person you don't know; it's only the people you do know who confuse you.” ― Elaine Dundy, The Dud Avocado
When asked about how true to life the book was, Dundy responded:
"All the outrageous things my heroine does like wearing an evening dress in the middle of the day are autobiographical. All the sensible things she does are not."
In Case You Missed It:
Pleasure is So Back
And it never really left. Hello, Pleasure-seekers, new and old. If you’ve been following for a while, you know that I started The Pleasure Lists last year as a way to connect with other hedonists in…
Why submit a list?
Pleasure Lists are a summary of what you need, want, or have, or see at a particular moment in time. They are a survey, an overview, a summary of the crucial facts of the state of one aspect of your life. It’s a kind of blueprint that can be a guide to the future.
Mull it over and if you’re moved to, send me a list.
Questions? Comments? Please send any recommendations or suggestions for what you’d like to see in these newsletters my way. I’d love to hear more about what you’re currently finding pleasure in.
Future posts may include Q&A's with pleasure-seekers, things that have brought me pleasure, and other deep-dives into pleasurable research.
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