Lorelei Lee is 18 years old, hot, blonde and dumb. So of course men are falling over themselves to marry her. So LL stumbles from one wealthy guy throwing money at her to another, all while traipsing around Europe, with her faithful sarcastic buddy Dorothy along for the ride. Then the book ends.
Anita Loos’ 1925 bestseller Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was sold to me as a genuinely funny romp that reads as if it were written today - it’s not. The novel is written in diary form told from Lorelei’s perspective and she’s astoopid geddit so - get ready to stop your sides from splitting - she misspells lots of words and misunderstands lecherous men’s advances as something more noble. Rinse and repeat for the entire novel. Maybe that was funny 100 years ago, maybe someone today could find it funny once, but over and over for an entire novel? No. It’s bad.
Oddly, it reminded me of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, another godawful novel that’s bizarrely praised. That’s another story told from the perspective of the main character, Patrick Bateman, but, because both Lorelei and Patrick are really boring people, it’s really boring to read a story from their boring perspectives.
The character of Dorothy is apparently Anita Loos’ Mary Sue self-insert, which explains why she’s written as this wry, cool cucumber. There’s no real story - some nonsense about a diamond tiara, which is probably why the famous musical number associated with the stage and film adaptations is called Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend. As there’s no story, nothing builds towards anything or ever feels the least bit exciting to read as the book progresses - it really does just end and leaves no lasting favourable impression behind.
Not having seen it, I suspect this is likely an example of the movie being better than the book - at any rate, I don’t see how it can be worse. One unfunny repetitive joke rehashed throughout, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a dismally tedious and uninteresting novel from the roaring 20s. Anita get better book recs.
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