Anita Loos (1888–1981)

This is a reread; I got a sudden craving on a sleepless night and tore through the whole thing. And it is as I remembered: on the surface, the tale of a "dumb blonde" who lives on her beauty and entrances men, but underneath, a skewering of any number of things, but mostly, as Loos intended, men. (Loos, a screenwriter, started this book on a train to make fun of her friend, H. L. Mencken and his relationships with women. Mencken even gets a brief mention in the book.) Lorelei Lee of Little show more Rock, Arkansas, manages to outwit any number of men while displaying minimal knowledge of the world, ethics, and spelling.

This book didn't originate the dumb blonde stereotype -- that came from, I think, Les Curiosités de la Foire and Rosalie Duthe -- but it sure updated it for the modern age. But this is a dumb blonde with an edge, and with a brunette friend, Dorothy, making observations in the wings. Dorothy sums up the whole thing nicely with:

"Dorothy looked at me and looked at me and she really said she thought my brains were a miracle. I mean she said my brains reminded her of a radio because you listen to it for days and days and you get discouradged and just when you are getting ready to smash it, something comes out that is a masterpiece."

That's it. That's the whole thing, right there.

Anyway. This book is funny and multi-layered, and it's hiding a sharp edge in a mountain of pink velvet and diamonds. Loos knew what she was about. (And so did Mencken; he read this, knew it was inspired by him, and recommended she get it published anyway. Though not at his magazine.) show less

Anita Loos sank her literary fingernails into women who are vapid gold diggers by writing this novella from the point of view of a ditzy blonde, Lorelei Lee. She seems ditzy, that is, but her actions show she’s pretty smart about extracting money and jewels out of the men who come across her path. The book thus satirizes men as well, as even through the lens of Lorelei, we see that they have just one thing on their minds, even the 90 year old father of one of the men she’s seeing. It show more also gets a few jabs in at the movie world, which is interesting given her work at such an early age in the nascent industry. Edith Wharton called this “the greatest novel since Manon Lescaut,” and in 1925 the sharpness of its satire was probably particularly pointed and original. For me, reading the words of such an airhead grew tiring even with the book’s short length, though it finishes strong and has some funny moments. The comments she relays of her friend Dorothy in particular stand out, and reading the book evokes Jane Russell’s version of her in the 1953 film adaptation. show less

The satire here is so blunt and heavy it's absolutely numbing. Lorelei's misspellings, malapropisms and imbecilic intonation are completely OTT, making the book a tiring experience despite its brevity. Starting every single sentence with "so," or "I mean," for 200+ pages is actually an interesting experiment in punishment prose: I could only manage 20 or so pages at a time before tapping out. Our heroine's stay in England, where everyone is desperate to raise cash by flogging her their show more ancestral tat, is kinda funny. But the mockery of the French (lecherous and unhygienic) and Germans (sausage- and beer-guzzlers) falls lamentably flat. Satire demands restraint: Lorelei visiting "a gallery full of Kunst" is funny. Retreading the joke twenty times in 10 pages, not so much. As Froyd might say of this overrated flapper parody — cloche, but no cigar. Actually who am I kidding, he probably loved it like everybody else. show less

A brilliant, brilliant novel! (And in my opinion far better than "Catcher in the Rye", because Lorelei is an unreliable but likable narrator who does a fine job of navigating expectations to get what she wants in a pretty hostile world, and who is at least as self-centered as Holden but more fun.)

Lorelei Lee has a very distinctive voice. Her blend of "refined" and ignorant is funny at first, but rather touching as one gets into her head. As is her approach to life: while she cites high show more ideals, she is utterly pragmatic when it comes to actions, to a point where one can only admire the choices made by "a girl like I".

Her BFF, Dorothy- the brunette- is both more seemingly sensible and cynical, but also makes very poor life choices, especially by Lorelei's standards. Dorothy is a welcome snarky voice, though most of the snark sails right over Lorelei's head.

This edition contains "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and "But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes", plus a LOT of interesting back-story about the history of the books and their genesis.

It also has illustrations from an early edition, but unfortunately many of them are very muddy in print; I wish they had been cleaned up more.

These were the inspiration for the Marilyn Monroe movie, which was itself the inspiration for the Madonna "Material Girl" video- in which Madonna channels Lorelei for the dance number, and Dorothy for the context. Nicely done!

VERY highly recommended. This ought to be a taught classic. show less