Dolores: Jacqueline Susann: William Morrow & Company: $6.95: 176 pages.
First came Valley of the Dolls, then The Love Machine and Once is Not Enough. And once was not enough for the late Jacqueline Susann. Now there is Dolores, her fourth bestseller.
Does the world of riches and wealth fascinate you? Have you ever wondered if money really can buy love? Fascination and wonder both await you in Dolores, the intense saga of the widow of an assassinated American president. You read of monetary problems that to us would signify no problems. You read of talk of millions of dollars and how to possibly survive on thousands, when it sounds to us as the ultimate in wealth.
Dolores outlines a quest for wealth at the expense of freedom,the search for men at the expense of love, and a tragic story of the upper strata of society.
Dolores Ryan sounds familiar to us all. A lovely, mysterious lady, hiding from the publicity of the times, makes herself into a goddess in her own right. She is a woman of natural feelings who has been molded and changed by marriage, the press and money.
Jacqueline Susann wrote this novel while in the midst of a bout with cancer. Death claimed her on Sept. 23, 1974. It is a shame that she couldn't see the victory of her last book and enjoy the questions and ponderings of the public about the who and why of it all. Example: James Ryan, Dolores' assassinated President-husband, was an Irish-American with a large family, a brother in the senate, a sister-in-law married to a Lord. Dolores reads as a biography would. It takes the reader a short time to fit into the seemingly stilted writing, but as he or she does become accustomed to it, he finds himself swallowed with lures of temptation, mystery and pride. The temptation is in the life of ease, the pride is of having integrity where in such high positions there is such a lack of it at times, and the mystery is in the facts within the book, but especially in the ending, which is quite shocking and adds to the questions the reader may have.
The overall impact of the book has made it an undoubtable best seller and one of the two main selections of the Doubleday Book Club last year.
Jacqueline Susann was an actress before becoming a writer and was the wife of Irving Mansfield, a television and movie producer. She dedicated Dolores to her mother, Rose Susann.
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