I'm sorry I ever laid eyes on that filthy book and read it. It does not have any redeeming value whatsoever. It left me feeling down.
After that, I was never interested in the TV series. I don't care if it is realism or not. It can be portrayed in a different manner imo.
I looked it up, and the author died at age 39 from liver disease.
There is other best-seller stuff I read which I look back on as the sole purpose was to be sensational or sensuous. Maybe I'm being too hard on some of it but I went back a century or so and found literature which had a moral lesson (whether intended by the author or not). Some was borderline.
Incidententally Colleen McCullough wrote an obscure novel called Tim. A movie was made of that, a sleeper to me at least, starring Piper Laurie and Mel Gibson. It was done well but it touched on a subject that ended "awkwardly". Sigh.
Now I'll have to think about my past reading and movie tastes. GTWT had some really tragic parts and romantic scenes, but I can't put my finger on why I feel better about reading that. Probably an easy answer while I give it more thought is it never made me feel dragged through the gutter and inspired compassion and sorrow for the characters.
Very incidentally.
Regards,
I take it you were a big fan of Jackie Susann’s “Valley of the Dolls” ?
=ducking=