When you think about great mothers in literature, who comes to mind? Marmee in "Little Women"? Ma in "Little House on the Prairie"? That mom bunny who always wants her baby bunny to come back to her in "The Runaway Bunny"?
I wish! But the moms I seem to relish are those who are not so nice. Every year or so I re-read the classics..."Peyton Place", "Moll Flanders", and, of course, "Valley of the Dolls". What a story! Suicide, mental illness, bust-enhancing exercises, virgins, a wig flushed down the toilet, Broadway, Hollywood, this book has it all.
It is the story of three young women who come to New York to find their fortunes. Anne is a classic beauty from New England. After graduating from Radcliffe, she naturally becomes a secretary. Luckily Anne finds work for a show biz attorney...and the moment she meets his partner, Lyon Burke (LYON BURKE!!!) she falls madly, wildly, completely, in love. She must have Lyon, she must lose her virginity to Lyon, she must marry Lyon...but he is not the marrying kind!
In her rooming house, Anne meets seventeen year old Neely. Neely is brash and bold, a minx with an amazing voice...her talent knows no bounds. She is in love with press agent Mel, but once Neely gets her Hollywood contract, Mel is nowhere-ville and she falls for Ted Casablanca, a costume designer.
And finally, Jennifer, the goddess. Her body, face, hair are all perfection. She knows she has no talent, but all she wants is to be safely in love...with a man who can provide her with all the fur coats she wants. She falls hard for singer Tony Polar, but what's with his overly protective sister, Miriam?
Who are these girls' mothers? Why don't they ever have to go home for the holidays? Why don't their mothers ever come to visit to tell them their apartments are a mess?
Well, Jackie Susann does give us some information on the barely seen moms of our heroines. Anne's mother is a stern, cold woman who tells twelve year old Anne not to cry in front of people and later that "...unfortunately kissing isn't all a man expects after marriage..."
"There is no such thing as love, the way you talk about it," Anne's mother warns her before she leaves for New York City. After Anne's mother dies, Jennifer says, "I take it you didn't love your mother." Anne agrees.
Neely doesn't even seem to even have a mother. She is in a singing/dancing act with her brothers as a teenager.
Jennifer's mother is financially dependent on her beautiful daughter. "Damn all mothers," Jennifer says, realizing that she has forgotten to send her mother the weekly check. Jennifer's mother is never appreciative of her daughter's efforts, however. She simply demands more and more.
Miriam, who is much older than Tony and has raised him, is at least protective of her brother. She alone knows that Tony has the intellect of a ten year old child, but pushes him and protects him so that he will be happy and financially secure. Miriam and Tony's real mother is described as a drifter who slept with any man, and placed little Miriam in a foster home.
When Jennifer outwits Miriam, marries Tony and becomes pregnant, Miriam finally tells her the whole story...that Tony has a genetic disease that will be passed on to their child...that Tony will probably be insane by age fifty. So, Jennifer, who is loving and kind, loses her chance to become a mother.
Neely has twins, but her life as a Hollywood star is all-consuming. When the studio orders her to take off weight, her battle with pills ("dolls" in Susann-lingo) begins. The twins are never mothered by Neely; she is just an overgrown child herself. After a pill and booze binge, Neely realizes she has missed Bud's and Jud's first birthdays. Neely explains motherhood to Anne by saying, "...a good nurse can handle a new baby better than you..."
Anne finally gives birth to Lyon's baby, but by this time, Lyon is having affairs and Anne, like her friends, has turned to the "dolls" for company.
So, in addition to the pills and booze, these three women get no love from their mothers and don't seem to love their own children. What kind of a woman would write such a book?
Jacqueline Susann.
Susann was born in 1918 and died of breast cancer at the age of 56. In her short life, she was an actress, singer, model, and finally an author. She married press agent Irving Mansfield, though she wasn't any more faithful, according to reports, than characters in "Valley of the Dolls". When Susann was 28, she gave birth to her only child, Guy. He was diagnosed as autistic at the age of 3. Susann placed him in an institution, and never told anyone his true condition or diagnosis. If alive today, he would be 64.
Susann was not a gifted writer, but she was a boffo storyteller who keeps the reader glued to the page. I carry around an old battered paperback copy of "Valley" and have often loaned it to younger women who have never heard of the book (which has sold over 30 million copies).
Today, we are all used to family and friends who have autistic children. We see these kids going to school, in restaurants, playing in parks, and in the malls. We watch parents re-direct the difficult behavior of their autistic children. They are simply part of our communities.
But in 1946, what did anyone really know about autism? Was Susann given any options to institutionalizing her only child? Did she feel guilt over leaving him? Did she miss him?
I think Susann makes her pain about motherhood very clear in "Valley". Her guilt at abandoning her own child is poured into the bad mother characters she creates. There is no motherly love for Anne, Neely or Jennifer. Jennifer aborts the baby who she is told will suffer from a genetic disorder. Anne, despite her desire for a baby, turns to pills. Neely can't be bothered with her twins at all. Tony's mother was a tramp.
But Miriam...plain, fat-fingered Miriam who only owns three dresses and goes to Hollywood parties in white orthopedic shoes...she is the only "mother" who shows her
"child" any warmth or real love. She fights for him, she protects him fiercely, she makes him believe he is smart and important.
To me, Miriam is the mother to Tony that Jacqueline Susann wishes she could have been to Guy.
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