Customer Reviews

The Lonely Lady

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you're used to Robbins over the top romps you'll realize that this novel is the first time the author uses a woman as the main protagonist. Jerilee Randall is her name, and, boy, does she pay for being who she is. Yep, Robbins doesn't spare one minute in putting her into every sexual situation there is. From dancing in seedy stripper clubs to experiencing many Hollywood casting couches, Jerilee is used, abused, and, alas, affected big time by it all. Suffice to say, the novel is more of a guy book. It reeks of female skin. And like every Harold Robbins effort, the outcome is quite addictive. This one even more so. Probably because the heroine is a likable lost soul despite her aggressive manner, and probably also because the book reads like a B-grade vintage paperback so popular in the 60s. The plot goes back and forth in time, but the present time is the strongest part. There you'll find the sleazy side of Hollywood where Jerilee throws herself in without any parachute. Of course she'll suffer greatly. It's what the reader expects from her. But she'll do it the Robbins way, using every trick in the book to get ahead. THE LONELY LADY delivers what is sets out to do, and the result is a page-turning experience only readers of good camp can enjoy. It is a classic in the genre and should definitely be remembered for what it is.-----Martin Boucher

Harold Robbins amazingly captured the sexual double standard that young women have faced for centuries and still do today. The dilemma of desire has to do with the social, relational, and cultural consequences for young woman of allowing yourself to experience and express sexual desire. If you show sexual desire, you are promiscuous and a slut, rather than simply a healthy adolescent who is curious about her sexual development. This book obviously is not a classic but it tells an important coming-of age story of a young woman in a very honest, compelling way.

Forget about the Pia Zadora flick. This novel is Robbins' classic of the 70s. You'll stay up all night reading the misadventures of JeriLee Randall as she desperately yearns to be taken seriously in a world where men rule. Jacqueline Susann would have loved this one (maybe that's why Robbins dedicated it to her). A genuine page-turner!!!

This was my first Harold Robbins, and if this is typical of his storytelling, it may very well be my last. Perhaps it was scandalous and ground-breaking at the time it was published, but the book didn't age well. I never did feel anything for the lead character, JeriLee. I didn't sympahtize for her when bad things happened (and there were plenty), and I didn't cheer for her when something good happened. Perhaps because nothing good ever does happen to her. Robbins needed to lighten up a bit. JeriLee needed some shining moments in this morass of melancholy. Or I should say, I as a reader needed some shining moments. This was a heavy, depressing story.

This book is the story of a young, naive woman who wants to be a writer, so heads the Hollywood way. Falling in with the wrong crowd she has the Hollywood sort of adventures, lots of weird affairs, and that sort of thing.

She eventually writers something that wins an award, but refuses to accept it due to some personal notion or other.

I'm sad to say that curiosity made me read The Lonely Lady by Harold Robbins and Sorry but I absolutely hated this horrible book and thought it was dumb. This book is a real stinker and it's very trashy and just pornography in book form!

And those are the points I liked about it!

Seriously, though, don't waste your time. The book is extremely dated, offensive, and poorly written, with underdeveloped characterizations and hardly any insight into the motivations of JeriLee or of the sleazebuckets who people her world.

I didn't care about any of the characters (except maybe the stepfather, who disappears after the first quarter), and about a third of the way through, I began to be irritated by the protagonist. By the end, I was disgusted by her hypocrisy and bored by her self-centered and superficial "search" for herself. The ending was completely moronic.

The sex was completely un-erotic in any of its incarnations, the drug use was tedious, and every situation was jam-packed with the same old scenarios throughout.

And to think I used to feel guilty about reading Sidney Sheldon novels.

THIS BOOK IS SO WONDERFUL. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN. I READ IT IN ONE DAY. THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE BOOKS LIKE THE LONELY LADY

I have read plenty of books about love and hardships and this really kept my attention. I found the book to be full of character and spunk.

I read this book long ago, but I always remember it as the worst book I ever read. Somehow it kept me wanting to read what happened next, so I finished it, but after I finished it I felt it had been an infernal waste of time. I swore after that I would never read another book by Harold Robbins and I never have. This book is the quintessential piece of literary trash.