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Top Doll
When reclusive billionaire Huguette Clark dies age 104, she leaves behind a suite of New York apartments, a meticulously upkept California mansion, at least one Monet and her vast collection of antique dolls. Having barely been outside for 50 years, the elusive Clark spoke to few--in this highly unreliable, semi-fictional miniature epic, the dolls tell all.
Theirs is a tale that takes us from their lavish Park Avenue home back in time to the slave plantations of Virginia and the palaces of Imperial Japan via the addictive hedonism of 1930s queer LA.
Joyfully irreverent, Top Doll is a story of love, betrayal, Barbies and ultimately, what it means to be human.
Theirs is a tale that takes us from their lavish Park Avenue home back in time to the slave plantations of Virginia and the palaces of Imperial Japan via the addictive hedonism of 1930s queer LA.
Joyfully irreverent, Top Doll is a story of love, betrayal, Barbies and ultimately, what it means to be human.
- GenresPoetryContemporary
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 18, 2024
3 people are currently reading
182 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 29, 2024
DNF, utter fucking guff of the highest degree.
February 17, 2024
half of me loved how insanely ambitious and batshit this is and half of me hated it and thought it made no sense at all
April 7, 2024
A bit too weird for my head right now. Maybe at some point in the future.
April 11, 2024
1.5⭐️ yeahhhhh, no. Loved the concept but execution was absolutely not my cup of tea
February 13, 2024
Got 30 pages in and just didn’t like it or have a clue as to what’s happening. DNFed. Wasn’t into it at all
February 18, 2024
Really struggled reading so far this year. Both relieved and annoyed this is the first book I finished this year. The General’s sections were the most compelling but the rest was ambitious and playful in a way that was beyond me. I loved the concept but execution?
Ficking bananas and I’m not sure it was good.
Finished through sheer force of will.
Ficking bananas and I’m not sure it was good.
Finished through sheer force of will.
August 27, 2024
I loved this first novel by Karen McCarthy Woolf who is an established poet. I was fascinated by the story of Huguette Clark, a fabulously wealthy recluse who died aged 104 in New York, leaving a collection of antique dolls worth millions. These dolls tell the story. The narrative voices range from top doll Dolly, a French porcelain antique, to the General, a ragdoll through whose eyes the American Civil War, the Haitian rebellion and the experience of Black slavery is told, to the Barbie dolls, each with their own vivid personality. Like all good reads, it takes a while to get into the rhythm of the different voices of the dolls but once you do, it is a fantastically rewarding and often touching experience. I was impressed by the wit, vibrancy and sheer energy of the language. No spoilers, but there is an altercation between Dolly and the Barbies towards the end of the book when things are spiralling out of control which had me laughing out loud. Highly recommended.
January 13, 2025
I struggled with this at first, as it doesn’t fit into normal categories of novel or series of poems. Introducing Karen at the T.S.Eliot book prize, for which it was shortlisted in 2024, Ian McMillan called it a ‘verse novel� which will do as a description, given that much of it is actual verse, haikus, couplets, etc and the rest is ‘free verse�.
The matching of the type of speech and poetry to the different nationalities of dolls is both helpful and hilarious as it gives each doll their own voice and identity.
This work is worth the effort it takes, and the Jamaican doll does take effort, but it’s worth it.
The matching of the type of speech and poetry to the different nationalities of dolls is both helpful and hilarious as it gives each doll their own voice and identity.
This work is worth the effort it takes, and the Jamaican doll does take effort, but it’s worth it.
January 22, 2024
The stories of Huguette Clark’s large doll collection as they reside in her giant New York apartment. It’s a book like no other - see the world through a variety of eyes, a microcosm of the human experience. Tragic, comic, poetic and immensely moving - when I wasn’t laughing or crying I was reflecting on life. Absolutely amazing.
April 9, 2024
When I found a paperback copy of this novel at a local library what attracted my attention was that it had the name Huguette Clark in the description of the plot. I have read a non-fiction work about her so I figured this would be an interesting read. I found it a bit too odd so I didn't really enjoy it all that much.
August 18, 2024
I didn’t finish it. Really tried - I don’t usually give up on books but just didn’t enjoy it.
December 18, 2024
docked to 2, feeling mean
March 1, 2024
I loved this book. It's eclectic, funny, moving and entertaining. The journey you get taken on isn't only through history (both the American civil war and the 1991 Oscars Ceremony are described in some detail), but also through the multiple world perspectives described by the different dolls, all owned by mysterious billionaire recluse, Huguette Clark.
Porcelain 'Dolly', rag doll 'Miss Ting' and CEO Barbie don't see things the same way, as you might imagine. The dolls alternate between bickering, fighting and cooperating as the story weaves in and out, flipping between flashbacks and memoir-writing (these dolls are collectors' items and many have been around a LONG time) to blow-by-blow details of Dolly's plan to save the life of their beloved owner - Huguette - in the present (ish) day.
Most of the action takes place in the simultaneously vast yet claustrophobic world of the ridiculously huge and luxurious Fifth Avenue apartment in which the dolls (and Clark) live. The style is playful and experimental with some adult themes - just what you'd expect if you opened up a roomful of dolls who've literally seen it all.
As the title hints, probably not one for your 12 year old. But a hugely enjoyable, rollicking rollercoaster of a ride!
Porcelain 'Dolly', rag doll 'Miss Ting' and CEO Barbie don't see things the same way, as you might imagine. The dolls alternate between bickering, fighting and cooperating as the story weaves in and out, flipping between flashbacks and memoir-writing (these dolls are collectors' items and many have been around a LONG time) to blow-by-blow details of Dolly's plan to save the life of their beloved owner - Huguette - in the present (ish) day.
Most of the action takes place in the simultaneously vast yet claustrophobic world of the ridiculously huge and luxurious Fifth Avenue apartment in which the dolls (and Clark) live. The style is playful and experimental with some adult themes - just what you'd expect if you opened up a roomful of dolls who've literally seen it all.
As the title hints, probably not one for your 12 year old. But a hugely enjoyable, rollicking rollercoaster of a ride!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
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