The Love Machine (novel) only one which has at its center a male character. It was, Susann stated, an "attempt to get inside of men's ids." It's also the only Susann novel with an ostensibly happy ending. Susann dedicated the book to her friend Carol Bjorkman, a columnist for "Women's Wear Daily", who died of leukemia in 1967. Critical reception of "The Love Machine" was not positive, but it was slightly better than that of "Valley of the Dolls." Although Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of "The New York Times" wrote that the novel "is popcorn... the kernel of an idea, the seed of an inspiration, exploded
Jacqueline Susann by Bernard Geis on February 10, 1966, and "took off like a Cape Canaveral space shot." The story was said to be a "roman à clef", with characters in the novel reportedly based on real-life celebrities such as Judy Garland, Dean Martin, and Ethel Merman. Although "Publishers Weekly", in an advance review, called the novel "powerful and sometimes fascinating," the book received largely negative reviews. Gloria Steinem panned the book in "The New York Herald Tribune" as did the reviewer in "The New York Times". "Time" magazine called it the "Dirty Book of the Month," and said, "it might more