It’s hard to stand out in a genre that’s been around at least since Edith Wharton and churns out stories like they’re Hallmark Movies, but “The Dud Avocado” certainly achieves and it all starts with its heroine Sally Jay Gorce. After running away from home at 13 to become a bullfighter, Sally Jay’s wealthy uncle promises to fund her for two years of adventuring anywhere she pleases upon her graduation from university; she chooses to start in Paris. Sally Jay is charming, witty, and a klutz; but what separates her is a delicate balance between brains and naiveté. It often feels as if she experiences her epiphanies as she is narrating them to us, “Looking back, I didn’t know anyone he’d actually been wrong about-except of course me, but then as we know I am totally incomprehensible to everyone including myself.” The books is loaded with such clever musings. Being published in 1958, Sally Jay’s blunt delivery of her sexual forays and Parisian nightlife must have been quite shocking at the time, but now feels genuine and honest, earning our trust as opposed to impressing or scandalizing. This is great literature and I am very happy to know that Dundy wrote a follow up to give the world a little more Sally Jay.