The last couple of years I’ve declared December “Classic Trashy Novels Month” and will scratch an itch for some great cheesecake reading. Typical selections include Peyton Place, The Earth’s Children series, Flowers in the Attic, Valley of the Dolls, and The Thorn Birds.
Anyone have any good suggestions for this year’s list? Really the only rules are that they be enjoyable, reasonably well-written and from the 70’s or earlier. Extra points if seeing me reading it makes senior citizens giggle.
Forever Amber - Kathleen Winsor
The Best of Everything - Rona Jaffe
God’s Little Acre & Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell
The Girl from Storyville - Frank Yerby
anything by Kathleen Woodiwiss - The Flame & The Flower, The Wolf & The Dove
There’s the lifes work of one Harold Robbins. Of particular note are The Lonely Lady, The Betsy, and The Carpetbaggers, which had the following classic, trashy exchange:
Man to bride: “What do you want to see on your honeymoon?”
Bride: “Lot’s of lovely ceilings!”
He was once billed as “The Worlds most successful novelist” or somesuch, and with 3/4 of a billion sold, definitely ranks up there among the Class of the Trash.
If you liked VotD then explore further the works of Jackie Susann. None of them match VotD but they are entertaining. There’s “The Love Machine,” “Once is Not Enough” and her roman a clef of Jackie O, “Delores.” I’d also recommend the biography that came out a few years ago, “Lovely Me,” which isn’t trashy per se but is a quick and fun read.
There is also a sequel to “Peyton Place,” entitled unoriginally enough “Return to Peyton Place.” Grace Metalious also wrote what amounted to an abridged PP, “The Tight White Collar” which isn’t very good but has the virtue of being quite short.
If you have any interest in lesbian softcore with unhappy endings, there was an entire sub-genre of lesbian pulp fiction. I haven’t read any of it so can’t offer any recommendations of specific titles.
This might be a bit off topic, but I’d recommend The Godfather by Mario Puzo. It’s actually pretty well written, with a sly sense of irony throughout. There’s plenty of sex and violence, and a lot of the story didn’t make it into the movie. If you like it, also check out Fools Die by the same author.
I may be misunderstanding what you mean by trashy novel.
Another vote for Aztec by Gary Jennings. Sex, gore, warfare, backstabbing, political intrigue, human sacrifice, more sex, religious satire, still more sex, and the collapse of a vast and (in many ways) noble civilization. A big book but a fast read; well-researched, well-written, a real page-turner. I re-read it every five or six years, it seems. It’s that good!