The Dud Avocado

[JeffKamin]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/elaine-dundy-author-of-the-dud-avocado-who-first-took-up-writing-as-a-response-to-life-as-poor-little-mrs-tynan-825472.html

Interesting life story for Ms. Dundy.

[JeffKamin]

http://books.google.com/books?id=pESalnZ7KegC&source=gbs_navlinks_s

"Text" replaced? You can search the book on Google Books.

[MHerman39]

http://www.slate.com/id/2227430/

[Andrew]

I read that Slate article a few hours before the meeting and nearly mentioned it during our discussion of whether or not The Dud Avocado was chick lit. I like Lithwick's summary of the conventions:

For one, she indicates that chick lit concerns "women who are overscheduled [doesn't really apply to Sally Jay], underappreciated [might apply], and at some point become invariably compromised by an undergarment [I don't recall anything like this happening in DA]"

Also, Lithwick criticizes what she thinks of the standard chick lit plot arc, one "that holds that women always want too much and always have to settle for less." Does The Dud Avocado have such a plot arc? I think it might, but given the disagreements about the ending I'm not so sure.

[sparkman]

once i realized the dud avocado was written in the 50s, i couldn't help comparing it to the 20something mary stewart novels i read in high school that were from about the same era.

mary stewart always has a strong female character who goes abroad on holiday and is all "la, la, la, i'm on holiday, isn't the coast lovely" and then invariably does something completely bad ass like unravel a smuggling operation or solve a murder mystery. mary stewart has been banished unjustly to the romance department and is underappreciated with the exception of her crystal cave trilogy, which used to be mandatory reading in high school english.

[Emily]

The chic lit cure? Possibly bitch lit:

http://jezebel.com/5357434/is-bitch-lit-the-cure-for-the-common-chick-lit-novel

[Jess]

From one of my favorite blogs that combines pop culture images and literary quotes:

http://slaughterhouse90210.tumblr.com/post/274723959/i-always-expect-people-to-behave-much-better-than