Once Is Not Enough (Jacqueline Susann) [Paperback]

Jacqueline Susann (Author)

Book Description

Series: Jacqueline Susann | Publication Date: December 14, 1997

Following its new edition of Jackie Susann's "Valley of the Dolls", Grove Press is proud to reissue a classic novel in the author's pantheon of pop-culture mythologies. "Once Is Not Enough" recounts the colorful life of luscious January Wayne who "can't make it with a guy because she has a thing for her glamorous celebrity dad, Mike" ("Library Journal")

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Every chapter explodes with surprising detail, adding more thrills to an exciting plot... A powerful novel about the confusing drama of life and the potency of love!' LOS ANGELES HERALD-EXAMINER 'How do you do it, you witchy writer? How do you manage time after time to come up with a hypnotic novel that always propels you to the top of the bestseller lists? (This is ) your most glittering yarn to date. Yours, in awe...' COSMOPOLITAN --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

Back in print, the spectacular best-seller from the author of Valley of the Dolls.

Once upon a time, the entertainment industry was a world that never slept. Magazine editors, models, pop stars, and all the rest visited "vitamin doctors" to get the shots that would allow them to stay up all night and then work all day--in offices decorated with beanbag chairs and Calderesque mobiles. In this world, January Wayne goes from poor-little-rich-girl to grown-up swinger, as she searches New York and Los Angeles for a guy just like Mike Wayne, the glamorous movie producer, who also just happens to be her father.

Though often panned by critics, Susann's slightly sordid yet thoroughly fabulous novel was embraced by her fans. Once Is Not Enough became Susann's third consecutive novel to reach the number one spot on the New York Times best-seller list--the first time any author had accomplished this feat. The novel would be Susann's last great success: The year after its publication, in 1974, the author died of breast cancer.

'Spectacularly successful. There are plane crashes, drug orgies, motorcycle accidents, mass rapes, attempted abortions, suicide, evil doctors and assorted other activities; and I just couldn't put the damned thing down."--Library Journal

"[Susann's] pulp poetry resonates to this day. With her formula of sex, drugs and show business, Susann didn't so much capture the tenor of her times as she did predict the Zeitgeist of ours."--Detour

Jacqueline Susann left her hometown of Philadelphia and moved to New York, where she won the Best Dressed Woman in Television Award four times. But it was the success of her blockbusters Valley of the Dolls, The Love Machine, and Once is Not Enough that transformed her into the Pucci-clad media superstar we remember today. Jacqueline Susann was married to producer Irving Mansfield. She died in 1974.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st Grove Press pbk. ed edition (December 14, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802135455
• ISBN-13: 978-0802135452
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,014 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh how I loved this book!, December 30, 2004

By 

Melissa Niksic (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Once Is Not Enough (Jacqueline Susann) (Paperback)

I didn't know if Jacqueline Susann could live up to "Valley of the Dolls" with this book, but she sure did! "Once is Not Enough" is thoroughly entertaining. The story revolves around January Wayne, a tragic heroine who has an unnatural adoration for her father and is unable to have a successful relationship with another man because of it. When her father marries a wealthy woman to secure his family's financial future, January finally falls in love. Unfortunately for her, the man she falls for is Tom Colt, a married man who is older than her father. Tom replaces "Daddy" for January, but it's only a matter of time before the relationship drags her down into the drug-induced haze that every Susann heroine eventually falls victim to.

Like "Valley of the Dolls," "Once is Not Enough" boasts many colorful characters whose lives intersect in a variety of unexpected ways. There are some funny moments in the book, but for the most part it consists of tragedy and unhappiness. The final few chapters threw me for a loop because the ending is more depressing than either of Susann's other novels. Still, I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an entertaining read. You won't be able to put it down!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Art of Excess, July 2, 2001

By 

"[e-mail]" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Once Is Not Enough (Jacqueline Susann) (Paperback)

Mrs. Susann was a cinematic writer. She was not content to write books in which poor people walk around in circles and talk about their problems. Instead, she wrote about rich, beautiful people-probably the only interesting kind-and exposed them for what they are: spoiled, lonely creatures who need to be constantly reassured of their uniqueness. Most serious writers hate Mrs.Susann because 1)she was a woman who defied convention, 2)she had more balls than most writers ever dreamed of having, and 3) she wrote about people most academics would love to be. With that said, Once is not Enough is not as good as Valley of the Dolls. You can tell that it wasn't well edited, but who cares? The protagonist January Wayne is really interesting: a rich, fragile girl with an Electra complex. She's involved in a motorcycle accident that leaves her in a coma and unable to walk. Mike, her daddy, stays by her side, but he loses his touch in Hollywood and becomes poor. He has to marry a rich society witch named Dee Milford Granger, who is secretly in love with a Polish actress named Karla, who in turn is in love with Dee's nephew David, who Dee wants January to marry when she is fully recuperated. There is also a horny magazine editor named Linda Riggs and an impotent Mailer type writer named Tom Holt. Needless to say, these characters commit all kinds of wonderful indecent acts. Once is not Enough is not the kind of novel you read for depth of character. You read it for its spectacle, and thank god, Mrs. Susann lived long enough to fill our boring lives with that. Jackie was a wonderful, brilliant woman who deserved more respect than she got.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You can't go home again..., May 14, 2001

By 

Charles Slovenski (Geneva Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Once Is Not Enough (Jacqueline Susann) (Paperback)

...but I tried by picking up this book. When I was 13 my mother refused to allow VALLEY OF THE DOLLS in the house so I read it bit by bit at the local library and was thrilled by the fast-lane problems, hard characters and handy pills. Even as an early adolescent it was easy to recognize good trashy fun.

ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH is not great literature but it still delivers and now, in retrospect, points up the 70s as a kind of innocent time when everyone went to New York City to find their fortune and fill their heart's desire, as well as drempt of being rich enough to travel around in style. Susann knows that it's entertaining to read about folks who travel at a moment's notice to Los Angeles, London, Rome, Cannes and Switzerland to play out their caprices. It seems daring of Susann to write about January's ambiguous love for her father and to describe nearly sexual scenes between them. The book remains steadfastly moral however, and January, who has everything anyone could wish for, remains alone and unloved, realizing too late that one moment of happiness is not enough.