Its three protagonists--Anne Welles, the uptight-but-full-of-a-strange-yearning New England beauty; Neely O'Hara, the Judy Garland á clef; and Jennifer North, who is sort of the Marilyn Monroe á clef and also sort of the Brigitte Bardot á clef but mainly sort of the least realized character in the book--all spend most of the novel with what they want excruciatingly just out of reach, and all are ultimately not only defeated but self-defeating ... I should say, first of all, that I have absolutely no criticisms to make of this book. It is perfect, and I'm not just saying that because I practically memorized it at the age of 13 and it was one of my primary illicit sources of sexual information in the gap between information and experience, and I therefore view it with fond nostalgia.... However melodramatic its plot may be, Valley of the Dolls is simply old-fashioned riveting.