She's back. In the recent court battle between Collins and Random House, the jury found that Collins had turned in a "complete" manuscript and so could keep her $1.2 million advance. The jury didn't have to decide if the novel was "acceptable," the more stringent criterion most authors contractually face. Dutton, however, has decided that Collins's newest novel, for which it contracted in the spring of 1995, is not only complete but acceptable-but for what? Perhaps for hitting bestsellers lists, by surfing the publicity wave lifted by the trial; certainly not for claiming literary merit. The book, based at least in part on Collins's own life, is a howler. The heroine is Katherine Bennet, star of the prime-time soap The Skeffingtons; the time frame is the late 1980s. Katherine has a host of problems. She must cope with a rummy ex-husband and a rebellious son who's a bit of a jailbird. Though beloved by a nice-guy scriptwriter, she falls hard for a cad of a Frenchman who chases other women, including her on-screen rival, once an abused child. Lurid back-stories pass for plot, and the prose is equally beyond the fringe: "She had curly carrot hair that reminded Barney of the strawberry milkshakes he sorely missed"; "A man with a face like a hungry dog, and a thick ginger toupee, like a dead cat, perched on his head." Collins was dynamite playing villainess Alexis Carrington on Dynasty, but in her latest stab at playing a writer, she flubs nearly every line. Major ad/ promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; author tour. (May)
In Joan Collins's third novel, Katherine Bennet is the star who has made The Skeffingtons the most watched TV soap opera in America. She has money, fame, power, but her private life is in tatters. Newly divorced, with a son threatening to go off the rails, Katherine promises herself and her public that she will never marry again. But she underestimates the sheer isolation of being as famous as she is-a woman sought out by the wrong people for the wrong reasons and avoided by all the right people. Such isolation makes a woman vulnerable-especially to the wrong man.
Joan Collins evokes the glamorous decade in which she emerged as a world superstar in Dynasty. This novel is an engrossing and utterly realistic portrait of what it is like to be a woman with everything the world can offer-except the one thing she wants above all: someone who truly loves the real Katherine Bennet.
In Joan Collins's third novel, Katherine Bennet is the star who has made The Skeffingtons the most watched TV soap opera in America. She has money, fame, power, but her private life is in tatters. Newly divorced, with a son threatening to go off the rails, Katherine promises herself and her public that she will never marry again. But she underestimates the sheer isolation of being as famous as she is-a woman sought out by the wrong people for the wrong reasons and avoided by all the right people. Such isolation makes a woman vulnerable-especially to the wrong man.
Joan Collins evokes the glamorous decade in which she emerged as a world superstar in Dynasty. This novel is an engrossing and utterly realistic portrait of what it is like to be a woman with everything the world can offer-except the one thing she wants above all: someone who truly loves the real Katherine Bennet.
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
BN ID: | 2940169874204 |
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Publisher: | Brilliance Audio |
Publication date: | 04/10/2009 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |