Customer Reviews

Scruples

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Judith Krantz is not a writer you read for intellectual stimulation or spiritual enlightenment. But she is still one of the most entertaining mass-market novelists around, especially for women. All of her books feature strong, attractive (on the inside as well as the outside) yet believable women; and the plots are the stuff of modern age fairy tales. Scruples is her first novel, the one that put her on the map and was a smash hit in the late '70s. The heroine, Billy Winthrop Ikehorn (two other surnames follow eventually), may be the least likeable of all her heroines, yet is the most believable perhaps because she is flawed. The plot and settings feel slightly dated, but don't really distract from the pure mindless enjoyment of a "smashing read". One of the big attractions of the Krantz novels are the well-researched and absorbing "inside details" of the settings - of the Beverly Hills retail world, the movie industry and people of a certain class in Paris in the case of Scruples. If you read this book and like it, you'll want to grab all her books; if you hate it, don't bother with any others. I have been buying every single one of her books since Scruples up to her latest, Spring Collection, and hope she continues. They are great for reading in bed or in a hot tub.

(Update added in October 2011)

I just happened to run across this review that I wrote way back in 1997. I recently downloaded the Kindle version in a fit of nostalgia, and re-read it for the first time in at least 10 years. I still enjoyed it, but it does seem a lot more dated now. It is very much a product of its time, the mid to late 1970s (the original publication date is 1978). If you can read it as a work detailing a particular time and place in the past (most of the action is set in and around Beverly Hills, though there are significant portions set in Paris and New York) it almost can be regarded as a work of period fiction. As with any work that was written in the past, you cannot really judget it by current day standards - 1978 looks and sounds a lot more contemporary than say, Jane Austen's time or F. Scott Fitzgerald's time, but it certain is not 2011. (One obvious example is the free and easy attitude towards multiple partner, condomless sex, in an era before AIDS. It's rather quaint and sad in retrospect, and very '70s.) As a look back to the late 1970s and times that preceeded it, it's quite interesting. I am not comparing Judith Krantz to those two celebrated authors as a literary talent by any means, but she was always a highly entertaining chronicler of a very narrow segment of her times in an admittedly shallow, superficial way.

(I am taking off one star mainly because the Kindle edition is just full of odd spellings and even whole missing parts. Did no one proofread the digitized version and compare it with the original? Shame on you, Random House.)

I don't usually read romance novels - they're all patently predictable and unbelievable and, in most cases, horribly written. My girlfriend read Scruples during the summer that we were both 15, and she made me read it, which I did in one long, hot day, stretched out in a hammock in my backyard. The writing is quite intelligent, humorous, touching, and diverse - Judith Krantz, I quickly learned, likes to educate the reader at odd, unsuspected moments. Odd little tidbits - such as South Carolina produces more fashion models than any other state, and that panties from Juel Park go for $200.00 a paid (or did in 1976). The sex was rather yummy, and kind of ahead of its time (read the glory hole sequence). Yeah, I read it, and yeah, I enjoyed it, and yeah, I read her other books as well. I must admit, this one was my favorite. I still have a copy, and i still re-read it from time to time. Hey, sometimes you just have to appreciate the classics.

I was very excited to finally find Judith Krantz novels on Kindle & I gladly paid the publisher's price for a book that is over 30 years old. However, The amount of transcription errors was HUGE!,,, words misspelled, words and paragraphs missing. Come on, if you are going to charge that much for it, the LEAST the publisher could do is proofread it!

Judith Krantz novels are pure, unadulterated slutty fun. The poor transcription takes away frm that fun.

Back in the dark, dead days of the late 70s, when I was 16, I was introduced to this book by a nice little old lady with whom I volunteered at my town's senior citizens center. "Hey, you wanna read a good dirty book?"she rasped through her cigarette and lent me her copy of "Scruples". "Don't tell your mother!" I was bored beyond belief and always happy to have something new and different to read, but being a "nice girl" I had almost no experience with the "good dirty book" genre, and what I'd seen of it previously was largely plotless and gross. I had no use for fantasies of suburban housewives, or tales of adult film stars. What a surprise to find that "Scruples" had interesting and exotic (but not too exotic) characters, a semblance of a plot, and descriptions of exactly what people did together and how it felt good to a woman. This was not an era where teenage girls were encouraged to have (or know about) sex and when it did happen, it went badly more often than not, so much of the stuff in the book was news to me. Let's just say reading "Scruples" taught me a lot more than my required "Health" class with its focus on sperms, eggs and babies, and I became an avid Krantz fan for her next couple books.

Reading this book again as an adult living in a different era, I can see some definite virtues and some flaws that would have gone by me at age 16. The first part of the book focuses on Wilhelmina "Billie" Winthrop and her transformation from obese teenage ugly duckling to sexy French-speaking fashion plate, eventually culminating in a marriage to her rich boss and then, after his death (and many affairs), to a movie producer. This tale, especially the story of Billie's early years in Paris and New York, is probably the most fun part of the book. Sadly, once Billie is in her mid-30s (seems like she should be older) and married to the movie man, the story shifts off her and onto other, younger characters and their sex lives. Krantz does tend to abandon her female characters (or kill them off) before or when they hit about 35 and this can be frustrating to those of us who don't think a woman's life settles down at that point or would like to follow the character further.

There are other reasonably interesting characters in the book, such as Spider the photographer and Valentine the fashion designer, best friends who take the entire book figuring out they should really be more than pals. They're appealing but their storyline is so dragged out. There is also a conniving movie journalist and ex-lover of the movie producer, who is a fun character and more should have been done with her. However, despite these imperfections (and a certain datedness), "Scruples" is still a fun beach-blanket read and a cut above the norm for such books.

Judith Krantz was not the first great writer of women's fiction: Mary McCarthy, Taylor Caldwell, Grace Metallus and Jacqueline Susann came before her. Yet, certainly, Krantz gave birth to the women's fiction industry as it exists today. Susan Issacs, Olivia Goldsmith, Danielle Steel, Jackie Collins, Barbara Taylor Bradford and Mary Higgins Clark are just some of those who follow the path blazed by Judith Krantz. A few of these Great Dames may have equalled Ms. Krantz, but none of them has yet exceeded her success.

SCRUPLES is the first modern novel written in that lively style which so many others have tried to emulate. As always with Ms. Krantz, SCRUPLES has several complicated, entwined plotlines involving the half-dozen or so leading characters. As always with Ms. Krantz, these characters each are complex, convincing and endearing. Her writing here, as it would prove to be ever after, is easy to read and quick-paced.

Where Judith Krantz stands alone among the ladies is in the details. After a reader has finished one of her books, that reader will have had an education in whatever topics the book covers. In SCRUPLES, the reader will learn all about high-end retailing and fashion design, about growing up in Paris, about the lifestyle of the rich and famous in Beverly Hills. In fact, Judith Krantz probably solidified the entire fascination with that kind of lifestyle, spawning television series, magazines and, yes, other novels. In reading Ms. Krantz's work, one admires the gowns, tastes the treats, smells the perfume, touches the sculptures. No other author consistently claims this same effect.

Many years after its first issue, SCRUPLES remains as fresh as the day it was published. Not many works can boast of this achievement, and those that do are known as "classics." This freshness, too, must be unique among the women's books. The similar efforts of other authors quickly become dated if they are not read within the first couple of years after they hit the shops.

Judith Krantz deserves greater appreciation than she has received from her legion of fans. An entire branch of the publishing industry has evolved out of second-rate authors who attempt to imitate her style with little success, yet acknowledgement of Krantz's impact has been inexcusably slow in coming.

Judith Krantz clearly set out to write a big, glitzy novel, a fun read. And she did. Did she ever! Very simply, Judith Krantz is the best of the best.

Spoiler alert!!

Scruples is the story of Wilhelmina Hunnewell Winthrop Ikehorn Orsini. It starts out with Billy, as she prefers to be called, asking her friend and employee Valentine O'Neill to create a dress for her for the Oscars. Her second husband, Vito Orsini, has a movie in the running for Best Picture. We then learn about Billy, her life as a fat outsider in Boston. Her transformation to slenderness and beauty in Paris. Her marriage to the powerful and rich Ellis Ikehorn and then producer Vito Orsini. On the way we also learn about Valentine O'neill, the french designer of women's clothing. Spider Elliot, the quintessential ladies man from California. Dolly Moon, the abundant actress Billy meets while on the set of Vito's film Mirrors and many more memorable, living characters.

Judith Krantz has a way of taking the problems of the very rich and making the reader feel as if he or she can empathize. Krantz has some pretty powerful love scenes in all her books and this one is no exception.

I enjoy this book. I love the various locations and the feel that you are getting inside gossip on famous people even though you aren't really. The characters feel so real that it's almost like I know Billy Orsini and Dolly Moon and I could run over to their house for a cup of coffee.

"Scruples" was my final beach read for the summer of 2007. Does that mean I won't be reading anymore light fiction for the rest of the year? No, it just means that summer is over. I've never been deeply fascinated by the lives of the wealthy, but "Scruples" makes it look like a lot of fun.

Judith Krantz's novel is almost thirty years old now, (this was one of the books that kids in the 70s and 80s would sneak peeks at while adults weren't looking) so how does it hold up? Very, very well. I admit I was a little reluctant when I started the book because I initially found Krantz's style overly wordy, but once I got into it I was won over and Krantz held my attention the entire time.

And I wasn't just a passive reader; to my surprise, I learned things too. The sections describing Paris couture are interesting and I liked how Krantz laid out the entire process without once making it boring. Krantz (whose husband was a producer) also goes in-depth into Hollywood and deglamorizes the film industry so that we, along with Billy, are treated to the tediousness of the on-location process. Let's not forget the process of building up "Scruples" which is written with such flair that the excitement is infectious.

The characters in the novel are well developed, though I tended to enjoy the supporting characters more than the main ones. I had a hard time accepting that Billy was only in her mid-thirties. She seemed much older but maybe that was the point. I enjoyed Spider and Valentine at first but neither came alive so that by the end of the book, my interest in them had waned. I think this is because Krantz spends so much time on the movie business toward the end that Spider and Valentine fall into the background. When they re-emerge, I had discovered characters like Dolly Moon and Vito whom I enjoyed a lot more.

Great fun, great read.

I thought this was very good & I am looking forward to reading Scruples Two. I hope it is as good. I read just for entertainment & that it was.

Judith Krantz captures your attention from the first sentence and you are hooked. It is a well written novel with a first class intriguing story. Your mind crawls into the lives of her characters and you stay there to see the end. It is a great read. If only I had written it...

It's easy to fall in love with Spider, Valentine and Billy. Very opulent and posh. Who care's if it doesn't win any awards. It's pure unadultered fun!