Once Is Not Enough

by Jacqueline Susann

Book Overview

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,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802135455
• ISBN13: 9780802135452
• Release Date: December 1997
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

This book is wonderful, I have more chapter to go.....Everyone should read this. 4-30-18

Oh how I loved this book!

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!

Jackie at her very best!

Let me just start by saying that I don't agree with people who use the word "trash" when describing the work of Jacqueline Susann. Her books indeed did involve drugs and sex, but they show the DARK sides of drugs and sex; nothing glamorous about it. The language she uses is very straightfoward and "in-your-face", and above all, very real. A lot of people use the fact that the "f" word is used often as an excuse to call it trash, when, in reality, the "f" word is a word that is used often among the types of people in the book. As in all Susann novels, you'll find a bit of Jackie in the novel, and you might also find a bit of yourself.

Soap Opera Heaven!

I read valley of the Dolls for a Popular Culture class I was taking. So I picked up Once is not Enough cause I like V of D. IT was a RIOT! I am not a soap opera fan but this book is a kick. YOU HAVE to read this book. You want it it is in there. However if you are wanting some serious literature this is not it. But if you just need something to lighten your spirits this is your book. I don't believe Ms. Susann meant her book to be funny, but I laughed MANY times. MUST read!

Once was definitely not enough for Jacqueline Susann

Her third consecutive #1 bestseller, ONCE was also her last completed novel before her tragic early death. Susann knew she was dying when this book was written, and this may account for the book's hysterical and desperate emotional tone. Like all her novels, ONCE is a tale of alienated relationships, sexual obsession, and unrequited love, with a little hint of incest for added spice in this case. The characters are more sympathetic than in any of her previous novels, but the plot is so far out and the dialogue so extreme that ONCE comes dangerously close to high camp. Then again, the early 1970's (the culture which produced this book) was an era of extremes at every level, so perhaps this is not surprising. ONCE still packs a punch (particularly in the final orgy scenes), and like all Susann, is written in such a vivid manner that you can't put it down. Definitely recommended!

Her best & perhaps the greatest America novel ever written.

In reply to Jhood - Capote described Jackie as a "truck driver in drag" - then apolized to all the truck drivers. He simply was livid with envy. This novel transends anything every written in the English language before. Written from the heart, it is a combination of soap and science fiction, (Her original ending was to include a sex scene with a space alien. I suggest you read her novel - 'Yargo'.) This was her last completed novel. She first found out she had breast cancer soon after 'Valley' was published. She had hope thru 'Love Machine' (hense the ankh symbol - symbol of life) but by this novel I believe she knew wouldn't survive. What does it mean to be loved? To be a human in an inhuman world? To try to make sense of senselessness? I believe more than all the male writers before her - she came closest to answering these questions (and having a ball at the same time!). 'Once is not Enought' is about trying to live one's life in only one lifetime.