What ‘Valley of the Dolls’ taught me about writing women

The 1966 book “Valley of the Dolls” is perhaps less famous than its 1967 movie adaptation, but in both incarnations, the story is renowned for being pulpy and sensationalist. Jacqueline Susann’s story follows three vastly different young women navigating New York City: show business in the ’40s and ’50s, their dalliances with “dolls” — a loving nickname for the barbiturates they throw back every other page — and their relationships with men. The girls are melodramatic, swapping men, jobs and feuds almost as much as their medications. They throw away the careers and lives they carved for themselves for the men around them. There are countless reviews criticizing the three main characters as naive and ridiculous, but I read the book in high school and loved it. To me, the characters th