Once Is Not Enough (Susann, Jacqueline) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "WHEN MIKE WAYNE WALKED into the V.I.P. Lounge at Kennedy Airport, the hostess was positive he was a movie star..." (more)
Key Phrases: Tom Colt, New York, Palm Beach (more...)

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.

Product Description

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")

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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 (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #111,771 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 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 (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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!

7 of 8 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

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.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars has once ever been enough?, January 3, 1999

By A Customer

Incest, orgies, rape, UFOs, betrayal, drugs, dark secrets and hidden children. Yes, this book has it all. And it did keep me reading, as did Valley of the Dolls. It is not good literature, but who reads Jackie for good literature? It is a terribly fun read, though. I just picked up The Love Machine and will give it a read probably later this month, if I can hold off that long. I'm only giving it three stars because I feel it could have used some editing, and she could have rearranged some of the story a bit. I don't think the nun rape scene should be so far from the Karla scenes that happen later in the book. For a while I had an odd feeling that that was the end of Karla. Then she came back and all was well again. She could have varied her sentence structure a little, too? But don't let these little quibbles keep you away.