SVH #22: Too Much in Love (Revisited)

“I’m always objective,” Jessica said. “Can I help it if DeeDee’s a total weirdo?”

DeeDee looks like a 40 year old divorcee

Details: Originally published by Bantam Books in August 1985. Paperback, 153 pages.

Summary/Overview: DeeDee Gordon and Bill Chase have been going steady for a while, and it seems as though DeeDee has thrown herself into the relationship a bit too much. She’s stopped attending design classes that she loved and obsesses over the next time she’ll get to see Bill. When Liz asks DeeDee to help with the sets for the upcoming school talent show, she first says no, afraid it will take her away from Bill, who has become busy with a history project and the swim team. When her best friend Patty Gilbert really pushes her to do it, DeeDee agrees, but her heart’s not in it.

When DeeDee finds out that Bill went to a matinee with Dana Larson, his friend, she flies off the handle. Bill tells DeeDee that they need to take a break, that he’s worried she’s lost herself in the relationship. DeeDee is despondent, and clings to Liz for help with every decision related to the talent show sets. Liz and Patty plot to get DeeDee feeling confident again: Liz feigns laryngitis and asks DeeDee to fill in as the director/organizer. DeeDee is horrified at first but finds a groove and herself in the process.

The talent show is a success, and Bill comes back to DeeDee. They make up.

The B-Plot: Ned and Alice decide to take a trip to Mexico and leave the twins home alone. Jessica immediately breaks the washing machine by overloading it and starts a small grease fire in the kitchen. But when she and Lila decide to throw a party and invite Lila’s frat boy boyfriend and his friends, things go really off the rails. The party spins out control and Alice’s favorite crystal vase is smashed, and the design plans she’s been working on are destroyed by spilled beer. Steven shows up in time to keep the police from arresting anyone, but they’re unsure what to do about the designs. Jessica begs DeeDee to help redo the plans, and she saves the day in the nick of time.

The German Cover – “This Girl is Killing Me” (this is the literal translation I swear!)

DeeDee shook her head. “In this case, I think the end really does justify the means,” she said slowly. “You had to take an extreme measure because I was really a mess. I needed to be jolted back to reality. And all I can do is thank you.”

Sweet Valley Social Calendar:
Estimated Elapsed Time: 2 weeks
– SVH Talent Show
– Party at Jessica and Elizabeth’s
– Swim meet (Bill wins)

Trivia:
– Talent show acts: Patty Gilbert does a modern dance (using music from West Side Story), Winston and Ken do a magic act, Todd wants to do stand-up but reads a poem (he doesn’t even memorize it)
– Bill is helping Mr. Fellows, the history teacher, with a special project about the Civil War
– Lila is still dating Drake Howard, a college guy

Pop Culture:
– The Bronte Sisters
– Romeo & Juliet
– My Little Chickadee/W.C. Fields
– Hitchcock/The Birds/Psycho
– Philadelphia Story/James Cagney/Katharine Hepburn
– Truffault
– Duck Soup/The Marx Brothers
– West Side Story

Does it hold up? (A totally unqualified critical analysis)
Oh, woof. This is a case of weak characterization meeting a plot that feels incredibly low-stakes. The result is a pretty boring slog (I flew through this in one sitting because I was afraid if I didn’t get it done I’d never want to pick it back up). The books about DeeDee and Bill are boring! I will not be taking questions at this time!

The problem is really in the book’s characterization, I think. We’re told that DeeDee has always been independent, but we don’t have much evidence of that (she did almost drown that one time because she was trying to learn to surf by herself). We’re given a lot more information about DeeDee’s increasing reliance on Bill for everything, and the book does its best to rationalize this by letting us know that DeeDee’s mother has said her marriage ended because she stopped making time for her husband and that DeeDee’s design teacher also shared something similar about her own marriage (a wildly inappropriate overshare in my opinion), and that these things have made DeeDee panic about her own relationship. But like, DeeDee is sixteen, and would she really be this worried about losing her boyfriend, especially when he’s made it clear he’s super into her (he’s just busy with extra-curriculars)?

I don’t know! What I do know is that DeeDee doesn’t need a project; she needs THERAPY! I cannot tell you how many times I yelled, “Liz, DeeDee doesn’t need to paint sets, she needs to see a therapist!” while reading this. There’s definitely some weird daddy issues here, and there’s also some wild self-esteem issues at play, and while I’m glad that DeeDee rediscovered her love for design, I don’t think distracting herself with a project is going to ultimately fix what might need mending here.

SVH #8: Heart Breaker (Revisited)

‘I’m hiding out,’ he confessed, chuckling. ‘I’m not sure, but judging from the sound of it, a band of Apaches has taken over the backyard.’

YIKES YIKES YIKES YIKES

Original cover, circa 1984

Details: Originally published May 1984 by Bantam Books. Paperback, 134 pages.

Summary: Jessica is starring opposite Bill Chase in the drama club’s production of Splendor in the Grass, and she’s enjoying leading him on, now that she’s convinced him that he’s in love with her (and not Elizabeth, which is what he blurted out in the previous book). She has no real interest in him but loves the fact that he’s obsessed with her – but the second that it seems as though he might also be interested in quiet DeeDee Gordon, she decides she might be in love with him after all and turns the charm up even further, despite the fact that she’s also dating Tom McKay at the same time.

Meanwhile, DeeDee and Bill spend time together while surfing. DeeDee falls off her board and hits her head, and Bill rescues her from the water. When he performs mouth-to-mouth, he realizes that he has real feelings for DeeDee and not Jessica.

Then, DeeDee’s movie-producer father watches a play rehearsal and tells her that he saw someone in the cast with real talent, and promises to bring a talent scout to the performance. Jessica assumes it’s her and starts making plans for her big Hollywood break. On the night of the performance, it turns out that it’s Bill who has promise, and Jessica decides to really dial up the the charm at the cast party at Lila’s after. But Bill brushes her off and announces his feelings for DeeDee to everyone. Jessica fumes.

The B-Plot: Todd’s ex-girlfriend Patsy Webber shows up in Sweet Valley after living abroad in France. She’s super hot, and Liz is immediately jealous. She freaks out when she sees Todd rubbing sun lotion on Patsy’s back and then again when she sees them hugging at school. Convinced that he’s going to leave her for Patsy, she avoids him for the better part of two weeks until he finally confronts her. He tells her that he and Patsy are just friends and that Liz is the one he loves. They makeup.

‘Can’t you stop thinking about serious stuff for once? What’s college compared to a fantastic opportunity like this?’

Non-US cover?

Sweet Valley Social Calendar:
Estimated elapsed time: 2-3 weeks
– SVH theater production of Splendor in the Grass
– Surf Contest (happens off the page, DeeDee wins)
– Cast party at Lila’s house

Trivia:
– Bill lived in Santa Monica before moving to Sweet Valley (possibly between sophomore and junior year)
– Jessica and the number 37: “Oh Bill, it will take me a hundred and thirty-seven years to learn all this…”

Pop Culture References:
– Splendor in the Grass, Macbeth
– Cleopatra
– Jaws
– Bo Derek (again!!!)
– From Here to Eternity
– Raiders of the Lost Ark/Harrison Ford
– King Kong
– Matt Dillon
– Rocky
– Richard Gere
– Sylvester Stallone
– The Bride of Frankenstein
– Barbara Walters
– Warren Beatty

Does it hold up? (A Totally Unqualified Critical Analysis):

Woof. I know that a lot of the books that we’re going to get to in this series focus on other characters in the Sweet Valley universe, but I have to say: books that focus on Bill are almost as bad as books that focus on Enid. This was boring, y’all. I love a theater production and the drama that happens backstage, but even that stuff couldn’t save this one.

The thing that struck me on this read-through? The fact that these sixteen-year-olds have such lengthy, complicated romantic histories. Todd and Patsy dated when she lived in Palisades (before she moved to France), and it was serious – but they’re still only 16. Bill fell in love with a girl named Julianne when he lived in Santa Monica, but she died in a fiery car crash, leaving him haunted by the ghost of her, and he’s still only sixteen. Like, were these relationships really that serious, or are we to believe that all of this is simply puppy love and none of it was that deep?

I’m also keeping an eye on Jessica, whose behavior is increasingly unhinged. I’m going to need a diagnosis on this one, I think.

SVH #22: Too Much in Love

Estimated Elapsed Time: 2 weeks

Summary/Overview:

DeeDee Gordon is in love with Bill Chase.  She’s also terrified that she’s going to lose him, and so she clings to him as if her life depended on it.  Bill is feeling pretty crowded, and rightfully so, and longs for the days when DeeDee was independent and awesome.

When Elizabeth asks DeeDee to help with the planning of the talent show, DeeDee hesitates, not wanting to be apart from Bill.  But her best friend Patty Gilbert tells her to do it, and so she reluctantly starts to help.  When she finds out that Bill went to a movie with Dana Larson, she freaks out.  Bill is bewildered, because it was an innocent meeting between friends.  He tells her that he can’t keep meeting her needs and suggests they take a break.

DeeDee is crushed, but when Liz feigns laryngitis, she has to step up and finish planning the talent show.  DeeDee does a wonderful job and rediscovers her love of design and sense of independence.  Bill is taken with how beautiful DeeDee looks when she’s being independent or something, and the two reconcile.

The talent show goes off without a hitch and is a roaring success.  Everyone is stunned when Todd Wilkins gets up onstage and instead of doing stand-up comedy, he reads a sappy poem about remembering and goodbyes or something.  I think it’s supposed to be deep.  Elizabeth is confused and worried, and when she asks him what’s going on, he tells her that his dad is being transferred and he’s moving away!

The B-Plot involves Ma and Pa Wakefield taking a vacation to Mexico and leaving the twins unsupervised at the house.  Things start to go wrong immediately, with Jessica over-loading the washing machine (thus breaking it) and starting a small grease fire in the kitchen.  Things go really badly when Lila and Jessica throw a party at the Wakefield house that gets way out of hand when some college frat boys crash it with their BEER.  The police are called, Steven saves the day, but Ma Wakefield’s design plans for a huge project are ruined by the BEER.

In a panic, Jessica begs DeeDee to come and fix the plans (since she’s so good at design).  DeeDee does a beautiful job, just in the nick of time, because Ma and Pa Wakefield come home early.  All is well, though, because Ma Wakefield can’t tell the difference between her drawing and DeeDee’s.

Memorable Quotes:

• “Lila yawned. ‘Don’t get so excited. Daddy’s thinking of sending me to a spa for my birthday this year,’ she confided. ‘They have this marvelous machine at the Fountain of Youth that takes all the fat off the backs of your thighs.  And they soak you in minerals until you’re entirely purified.'” (96)
• “‘It’s DeeDee,’ Elizabeth whispered, slipping her arm through Todd’s. ‘She’s driving me crazy!  Todd, the girl can’t do one single thing by herself.  I had to find people to help paint sets.  Do you realize she’s called me four times since she and Bill broke up?  And that was only yesterday!'” (82)

Trivia/Fun Facts:

• Todd has apparently started working part-time at his father’s office.  What his father does, however, is not mentioned.
• At the talent show, Patty Gilbert dances, Winston and Ken do a magic act with Jessica as their assistant, Olivia sings, and Todd is supposed to do comedy (but instead reads a poem).
• Pop culture references include Psycho, The Birds, The Philadelphia Story, Duck Soup, and West Side Story (I’m sensing a theme here).

(Totally Unqualified) Critical Analysis:

It seems almost too easy to focus on the character of DeeDee and examine what the ghostwriters have done to her.  While she is described as being a girl who has always been fiercely independent, we as readers don’t have many examples of that.  Sure, when she and Bill first got together, she was trying to get into surfing and she went out alone and almost drowned, but was she really independent or just kind of foolish?

But we’re supposed to believe that all of this is okay because once DeeDee is given a project, she’s able to find her purpose again and no longer relies solely on Bill’s attention to fulfill herself.  It’s probably best not to look too closely at the female role models in her life (the little tidbits thrown into the story about her mom and her art teacher both losing the men in their lives because they were too busy pursuing other passions were both bizarre and jarring and were clearly added to rationalize DeeDee’s sudden behavior change) and just accept this story for what it is: a happy ending.

Looking at the cover makes me wonder how happy of an ending it can be when DeeDee’s been stuck with the worst name and the worst haircut, though.

SVH #8: Heartbreaker

Estimated Elapsed Time: Three weeks

The Overview

Jessica and Bill Chase are starring in SVH’s production of Splendor in the Grass.  Jessica is having fun with the fact that Bill is pretty smitten with her, despite the fact it’s clear that DeeDee Gordon has a huge crush on Bill.  Essentially, Jessica has turned Bill into her lapdog; sending him on embarrassing errands, monopolizing his time just to break plans with him later, and openly flirting with other boys to make him jealous.  Everyone around her sort of watches in amusement (except for Liz, who appears to feel bad for DeeDee and Bill) and allows it to happen.

As opening night approaches, Jess keeps playing her game while Bill helps DeeDee with some surf lessons.  Apparently there’s ANOTHER surf contest on the same day as opening night, and DeeDee wants to compete in it.  The two of them have a good time when they’re together, and Bill feels super relaxed around her, which is the opposite of how he feels when Jessica is around.  But it takes the near-death almost-drowning of DeeDee before he wakes up to what’s right in front of him.  Bill saves DeeDee and kisses her as a form of mouth-to-mouth (?), and then they’re like, in love.

On opening night, everyone’s all a-twitter because DeeDee’s dad is a Hollywood talent scout and has his eye on someone in the cast.  Jessica assumes it’s her, and she becomes convinced that she’s about to be whisked away to Hollywood.  Turns out it’s Bill, though, and they want him for some screen tests.  Jessica is furious and tries one last time to get between Bill and DeeDee, but it backfires and Bill and DeeDee make out a bunch.

The B-Plot involves Elizabeth and Todd and their many woes.  It seems that Todd’s ex-flame Patsy Webber has moved back to town and is now attending SVH.  She used to go to Palisades High, which is how the ghostwriter side-steps the issue of Elizabeth having never met this girl.  Anyway, Patsy Webber is like, model-gorgeous and completely intimidates Liz.  She worries that Todd still has feelings for her because he was in love with her way back in the day, and when she sees him rubbing suntan lotion all over Patsy’s back at the Wakefield’s pool party (ANOTHER ONE), she freaks out and stays home sick from school for a week.

In the end, though, it turns out Todd’s only got eyes for Liz and Patsy has her eyes on Tom McKay.  All is resolved.

Memorable Quotes:

• “‘Liz is afraid of sharks,’ Jessica teased, looking quickly at Patsy.  The double meaning was obvious.” (36)
• “Even so, she longed to believe Todd, to let herself be convinced it was all a hideous mistake.  She might have inherited her looks from her mother, but her rock-hard sense of logic had come straight from her father.” (67) [Note: If this is the case, I wouldn’t want a dolt like Ned Wakefield representing me for anything.]
• “He drew her closer, kissing her with a passionate tenderness that made her feel as if the sky had shaken loose and the ground had been snatched out from under her.  She started to feel dizzy again.” (100) [Note: Last time, I promise.  Why is every kiss in Sweet Valley like this?  Doesn’t it set thousands of little girls reading these books up for some serious disappointment when their first kiss doesn’t measure up and in fact is kind of wet, sloppy, and tastes vaguely of Spaghetti-O’s?  Not that I speak from experience or anything.]

Trivia and Fun Facts:

• Patsy Webber had some of the best outfit descriptions in the book: a straw skirt with a slim-belted leather slash and delicate high heels, and low-cut halter jumpsuit made of a shimmery peach-colored fabric.
• Jessica gets Bill to go to the Dairi Burger for her and she orders a cheeseburger, a double order of fries, and a chocolate shake.  For a SNACK.
• Pop culture references were crazy in this book.  They included: Bo Derek, King Kong, Matt Dillon, Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, Raiders of the Lost Ark, James Bond, Barbara Walters, MacBeth, Jaws, Jessica Lange, From Here to Eternity, and Sylvester Stallone.
• The best part of the book was where the ghost writer threw in a detail about DeeDee coming in 3rd place in the surf competition, a sign that even they were so bored with that subplot that they couldn’t bring themselves to write about it.

(Totally Unqualified) Critical Analysis

You know, I don’t have a lot to say about this one, really.  There’s something alarming about how head-over-heels Bill is for Jessica even though she treats him like shit and they have nothing in common.  He turns into a bumbling oaf every time she’s around and yet he loves her?  I’m not buying it.  But his sudden love for DeeDee is also alarming in its own way.  How does he switch so quickly between women, and how is it that these people fall in love so fast?  Bill and DeeDee kiss once before they’re professing their love to each other.  It took me EIGHT MONTHS to get my boyfriend to admit that we were dating, let alone getting him to tell me he loved me.  Is it something in the water?

I could comment on Jessica’s increasingly sociopathic behavior, but what would be the point?  We haven’t even reached the tip of the iceberg with her.  She strings boys along because it’s fun, and who can blame her when everyone just allows her to act like that?  No one ever steps in and says what she’s doing is wrong.  People make jokes about it, but their complacency makes them guilty.

Finally, can we just talk about Liz and Todd for a moment?  It seems like in every book, there’s some sort of HUGE misunderstanding that causes them to break up or almost break up.  For a couple who is supposed to be super-solid and steady, they seem like they’re always on the precipice of ruin.  Is it merely a writing ploy to keep the story interesting, or are we really supposed to believe that Todd is that oblivious and Liz is that crazy-jealous-insane?

At any rate, stay tuned for #9, Racing Hearts.  It’s the one where we all learn a VERY VALUABLE LESSON about working-class people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.  Or something.